What is Evolution?

Descent with Modification (Pattern & Process) Species from their ancestors as they adapt to their enivorment.

What is Natural Selection?

Mechanism for evolutionary change. Ex: Nature selects or edits certain traits for higher or low surviving success/reproduction

What is decemt with modification mean?

As the environment changes, organisms can adapt to those modifications.

What western cultural beliefs influenced thinking about evolution?

• Plato believed in a “real perfect world” and an “illusory perceived world.

• Aristotle viewed species as a permanent and perfect, arrange on a fixed “scale of nature”

• The Old Testament species were made individually boy god and that the Earth was 6,000 years old.

• Nature Theology meant one should study nature to understand the “mind of God” and that every species had a specific purpose.

What western scientific discoveries influenced Darwin’s ideas?

• George Cuvier

• James Hutton

• Charles Lyell

• Lean Baptiste Lamarck

• Thomas Malthus

George Cuvier

Developed paleontology (Study of Fossils) and believed in catastrophism.

• His work showed that species change or disappear over time.

James Hutton

Proposed gradualism (Slow continuous mechanisms)

Charles Lyell

proposed uniformitarianism (process occur at the same rate today as in the past)

• Influence Darwin into realization that The Eart must be much older than 6,00 years

Jean Baptiste Lamarck

Proposed an early theory of evolution base on “use and disuse” and the “inheritance of acquired characteristics”

Why was Lamarck’s theory now rejected?

• there is no evidence that traits acquired during individuals’ life can be inherited.

Thomas Malthus

Economist who noted human populations grow faster than food supplies, leading to a “struggle for existence”

• Darwin applied this to all species to explain why only some offspring survive to reproduce

Alfred R. Wallace

Send Darwin a manuscript in 1858 that continued a theory of natural selection nearly identical to Darwin’s, which prompted Darwin to finally publish his work a year after 1859.

What were Darwin’s personal experiences that influenced his ideas?

• Education

• Voyage Beagle

• The Galapagos Islands

What was the education like for Darwin?

Darwin Initially studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and later attended Cambridge to become a clergyman

The Beagle

In 1831, Darwin joined Captain Robert FitzRoy as a naturalist. The voyage allowed him to conduct extensive field research noting regional similarities between living species and fossils

The Galapagos Islands

Darwin observed 13 species of finches that had adapted to different food sources. These observations led him to deduce that new species arise by adapting to new environments.

Observation #1

Members of a population vary greatly in their inherited traits

Observation #2

All species produce more offspring than the environment can support, and many fail to survive/reproduce

Inference #1

Individuals with traits that provide a higher probability of survival leave more offspring.

Inference #2

This unequal survival leads to the accumulation of favorable traits in the population over generations

What is the evidence for evolution?

• Artificial Selection

• Fossil Record

• Biogeography

Artificial Selection

Humans modify species by selecting and breeding individuals with desired traits. For example, the wild mustard plant has been modified through human selection to create kale, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower or the Wolf example.

Fossil Record

Fossils are organisms mineralized in sedimentary rocks. They provide evidence of descent with modification by showing similarities between ancient and modern species.

Biogeography

Darwin's study of island species, like the Galapagos finches, showed how organisms are influenced by their environments and geographic isolation.