196.217!

Evolution: Common
Descent with Modification!
Lecture 4!
!

Futuyma, Chapter 3 (pg 45-59)

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/search/topics.php?
topic_id=13
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ridley/tutorials/
The_evidence_for_evolution1.asp

Gayle Ferguson
g.c.ferguson@massey.ac.nz
ext.43205/room 14.07 (OR)

Darwins theory of
evolution by natural
selection
5 central tenets

1. Species undergo (genetic) change

over time (i.e. evolution happens)
2. It takes many generations to
produce substantial evolutionary
change (gradualism)
3. New forms arise by the process of
lineage splitting (speciation)
4. Conversely, all species derive from
a common ancestor
5. The process of evolution is driven
by natural selection*
* we now know that natural selection is only one of
several processes by which evolution occurs

Evolution through common

descent with modification
By the theory of natural selection all living
species have been connected with the
parent-species of each genus, by
differences not greater than we see
between the varieties of the same species
at the present day; and these parentspecies, now generally extinct, have in
their turn been similarly connected with
more ancient species; and so on
backwards, always converging to the
common ancestor of each great class. So
that the number of intermediate and
transitional links, between all living and
extinct species, must have been
inconceivably great. But assuredly, if this
theory be true, such have lived upon this
earth.
Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (1859)
pp.281-282

The Logic of and

Evidence for Evolution
(Common descent and modification)

1. We will construct a case for

evolution based on logic
from what we know about
biology
2. We will look at the evidence
for the predictions that
evolution makes (from
fossils, development, and
molecular data)

EVOLUTION

=
HEREDITY
+

VARIATION

HEREDITY

Family Tree

HEREDITY

VARIATION

Changing Variation
There is variation within populations
(Some of) this variation is heritable
(genetic inheritance)
There is always change in this variation
- populations are variable, but what that
variation is fluctuates

"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running

you can do, to keep in the same place."
Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

Speciation
Species are continuously
changing, however:
Sometimes one species can
split into two species
This is called speciation
When this happens, both
species will continue to change,
and therefore will become
more-and-more different from
each other through time
Thus we can think of a species
tree like a family tree: a birth is
equivalent to a speciation event

Darwins Finches

Evolutionary Biology

Gradually, through time, more

species arise and species die off
(extinction)
Species change their form through
variation, selection, drift
Greater and greater diversity, but
all come from a single origin

Evidence for this picture

Prediction: more closelyrelated species will be more
similar to each other
We will be able to find
similar things between
related organisms (called
homology)
Finding homologous
features is a key part of
studying evolution

Evolutionary Biology

What is evolutionary biology trying

to understand?
What is the history of life on earth
What are the relationships between
organisms
What has changed between different
organisms
How did these changes occur
Why did these changes occur

Evolutionary Biology

What is evolutionary biology trying

to understand?
What is the history of life on earth
What are the relationships between
organisms
What has changed between different
organisms
How did these changes occur
Why did these changes occur

1.The Hierarchical
Organisation of Life

2. Homology
When two things are inherited from a
common ancestor
Therefore homology refers to things that
come from descent, rather than by
independent acquisition
If we identify homologous features, we can
use them to learn about the evolutionary
process
How do we tell if some feature is
homologous or not?

Do other related organisms have that

feature?
Are they anatomically or structurally
related?

Assessing homology

Convergent evolution
(no homology)
Sometimes
similarity is not a
consequence of
common descent
- convergent
evolution
(homoplasy)

Tree of Life

The more close together on the tree,

the more closely-related the species are
The tips of the tree represent living
species; ancestral species are inside
the tree
Nodes are the places where speciation
events occurred

3. Embryological Similarities
Can you match embryo
and organism?

cat

dolphin

human

4. Vestigial Characters

Lanugo fine hair covering the body of a

premature infant. The lanugo is shed
between 6 and 9 months in utero
vestigial pelvis
and femur of
the whale

Whale forelimb is homologous to the forelimb of

other mammals, demonstrating common ancestry

5. Convergence (homoplasy)
Recurrence of Form

The convergent eyes

of vertebrates and
cephalopods.

6. Bad Design

7. Transitional Forms
So many intermediate forms
have been discovered
between fish and amphibians,
between amphibians and
reptiles, between reptiles and
mammals, and along the
primate lines of descent that it
is often difficult to identify
categorically when the
transition occurs from one to
another particular species.
National Academy of Sciences, 1999

Archaeopteryx dinosaur with feathers and a beak

Warning: When a fossil is called "transitional"

between two types of animal, that means it shows
some of the traits of both, but it does not mean it
links those animals by direct descent.
In short, transitional fossils are best thought of as
being close relatives of the species which actually
link two groups. They may have lived at the same
time as those actual links, or they may not have.

7. Transitional Forms
Rodhocetus

Fossils were important in determining what whales

were related to, and they were used to rebuke the idea
that whales were closely related to an extinct group of
hoofed mammals called mesonychians. Whales
closest relatives are even-toed ungulates
(artiodactyls, such as pigs, hippos, camels, deer and
cows)

Some patterns of evolutionary change

inferred from systematics
Most features of organisms have been
modified from pre-existing features

--- homologous characters generally have similar genetic

and developmental underpinnings

Homoplasy is common
--- superficially similar features are formed by different

developmental pathways
--- often (but not always) adaptations by different lineages
to similar environmental conditions

Rates of character evolution differ

--- evolution of different characters at different rates

within a lineage is called mosaic evolution

--- every species is a mosaic of plesiomorphic (ancestral
or primitive) and apomorphic (derived or advanced
characteristics)

Some patterns of evolutionary change

inferred from systematics
Evolution is often gradual
--- (gradations in nature are not uncommon)

Change in form is often correlated with

change in function
--- e.g. stings of female wasps and bees

Similarity among species changes

throughout ontogeny (development)
--- are often more similar as embryos than as adults