Chapter 8: Evolution and Natural Selection

1. Chapter 8: Evolution and Natural Selection Darwin’s dangerous idea: evolution by natural selection Lectures by Mark Manteuffel, St. Louis Community College ; Clicker Questions by Kristen Curran, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

2. Learning Objectives • Understand how evolution can be observed in various populations • Describe Charles Darwin’s impact on evolution and the study of biology • Identify the individuals who influenced Darwin • Describe Darwin’s most important observations • Explain the four ways evolutionary change can take place • Identify the difference between evolution and natural selection • Understand and explain the five different lines of evidence for the occurrence of evolution • Describe ways evolution can be observed today 

4. Evolution in Action 8.1 We can see evolution occur right before us.

5. Could you breed fruit flies who could live longer than 20 hours on average?

7. When these eggs hatch, do you think the flies in this new generation will live longer than 20 hours without food?

8. Make a prediction: A population of fruit flies was starved until 80% of the flies were dead. The remaining flies were fed and offspring were produced. What do you expect to see in the next generation if you repeat the starvation experiment? More flies will be alive after 20 hours. Fewer flies will be alive after 20 hours. Fruit flies fed after 80% of the population is dead will lay more eggs. No change in the average number of fruit flies that were alive after 20 hours.

10. After 60 generations the average starvation resistance of fruit flies was 160 hours!What has happened to this population of fruit flies? They are genetically identical to the original population. The are genetically different from the original population.

11. What happened? • Evolution • a genetic change in the population (group of organisms of the same species living in the same geographic region). • Natural selection • the consequence of certain individual organisms in a population being born with characteristics that enable them to survive better and reproduce more than the offspring of other individuals in the population

12. Does evolution occur? • The answer is an unambiguous: YES. • We can watch it happen in the lab whenever we want.

13. Experiments in Evolution Dogs? Rabbits?

14. Evolution • How does evolution occur? • What types of changes can evolution cause in a population? • Five primary lines of evidence • Evolution by natural selection

15. Take-home message 8.1 • The characteristics of individuals in a population can change over time. • We can observe such change in nature and can even cause such change to occur.

17. Darwin’s Journey to an Idea 8.2 Before Darwin, most people believed that all species had been created separately and were unchanging.

20. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck • Biologist, early 1800s • Living species might change over time.

21. Charles Lyell • Geologist • 1830 book Principles of Geology • Geological forces had shaped the earth and were continuing to do so. • Gradual but constant change

22. Take-home message 8.2 • People used to think that the earth was 6,000 years old and that species were unchanging. • In the 18th and 19th centuries, scientists began to change their beliefs. • These changes helped shape Darwin’s thinking.

23. Darwin’s Journey to an Idea 8.3 A job on a ’round-the-world survey ship allowed Darwin to indulge and advance his love of nature.

24. 8.3 A job on a ‘round-the-world survey ship allowed Darwin to indulge and advance his love of nature. • Age 16, University of Edinburgh, medical studies • Studied theology at Cambridge University • His real love: study of nature

27. Take-home message 8.3 • After initially training in medicine and theology, Charles Darwin studied the natural world on a ‘round-the-world voyage.

28. Darwin’s Journey to an Idea 8.4 Observing geographic similarities and differences among fossils and living plants and animals, Darwin developed a theory of evolution.

30. Two important and unexpected patterns:1. Traits exhibited by species

31. 2. Similarity between the fossils of extinct species and the living species in that same area • Glyptodonts and armadillos

32. Darwin’s Fossils The slides were made by slicing and polishing the fossils into translucent sheets and then placing them between two glass plates so they could be studied under a microscope.

33. Darwin’s Fossils

34. Darwin’s Fossils These images were made available by the Royal Holloway, University of London on Jan. 17, 2012 . and were collected by Charles Darwin during the course of his famous "Voyage of the Beagle." (University of London, Kevin D'SouzaHo,AP Photo/Royal Holloway)

35. Thomas Malthus • Economist • Essay on the Principle of Population • Darwin realized that favorable variations are preserved

36. The Book that Would “Rock the World” • 1842 first draft • 14 years in a drawer

37. Take-home message 8.4 • Darwin noted unexpected patterns among fossils he found and living organisms he observed while on the voyage of the Beagle.

38. Take-home message 8.4 • Fossils resembled but were not identical to the living organisms in the same area. • Finch species on the Galapagos Islands differed in small but significant ways. • These observations helped him to develop his theory of how species might change over time.

39. Darwin’s Journey to an Idea 8.5 In 1858, Darwin published his thoughts on natural selection after decades of percolating and procrastinating

42. Take-home message 8.5 • After putting off publishing his thoughts on natural selection for more than 15 years, Darwin did so only after Alfred Russel Wallace independently came up with the same idea. • They published a joint presentation on their ideas in 1858 and Darwin published a much more detailed treatment in The Origin of Species in 1859, sparking wide debate and discussion of natural selection.

43. Which idea did not support the observations Darwin made during his trip on the HMS Beagle? The earth is shaped by gradual forces. (Lyell) Species are fixed and unchanging. (Aristotle) The earth is older than 6,000 years. (Buffon) Populations could grow beyond the ability of the environment to support them. (Malthus)

45. 8.6 Evolution occurs when the allele frequencies in a population change. Four mechanisms can give rise to evolution.

47. Witnessing Evolution Alter the population Increase the white phenotype through breeding. As the generations go by… Higher proportion of white tigers Evolution = change on allele frequencies of the population

48. Individuals do NOT evolve. Populations evolve Allele frequencies It is helpful to think of each allele as having some “market share” of all of the alleles.

49. Which example below is an example of allelic frequency? The skin of a population of Caucasian students gets darker during the summer and lighter during the winter. 1 in 2,500 Caucasians are affected by an inherited disorder called cystic fibrosis. African Americans made up 12.3% of the U.S. population in the year 2000. 2 and 3. All of the above.

50. Natural Selection An efficient mechanism of evolution… …and a powerful force in adapting populations to their environment. Evolution and natural selection, however, are not the same thing.