CHP 4 - EVOLUTION

Primitive atmosphere is also called reducing atmosphere by oparin and Haldane. It had a temperature of
5000 to 6000°C. In such a high temperature elements appeared as compounds which existed in gaseous
state and water as superheated steam. these gases were contributed to the atmosphere by volcanic
eruption, and there was no free oxygen. The energy sources were the following, solar radiations in the
form of UV rays or infrared rays along with visible sunlight, Electric discharge due to lightning and
thunder across the sky, volcanic eruptions in the form of heat energy, high temperature, cosmic rays

Special creation says that all living plans are animals existing today were created by the God or creator.
These were designed a coin to the surroundings all of a sudden. They have existed unchanged from the
time they were formed.

According to the theory of catastrophe, the oath is under several catastrophe and each catastrophe destroy
destroyed life completely. After every catastrophe, the gold created a new living world, which was quite
different from the previous one.

Cosmoxoic or interplanetary theory or theory of panspermia - early greeks believe that life in the form of
resistance pores came to Earth from other planets along with meteorites and spaceships. The objections
were that existence of life on any other planet is not known so far. Moreover, living matter cannot with
extreme cold and dry and intense radiation of cosmos while travelling to earth.

Theory of Abeogenesis or spontaneous generation or autogenesis - before the end of the 17th century,
scientists and philosophers believe that living things originated a biogenetic from nonliving material, for
example, insects develop from dew, frogs and toads from muddy bottom of ponds, butterflies from
cheese, fly maggot from flesh and tapeworms from excreta of animals. Van Helmont stated that young
mice could arise from weed greens in 21 days when they were put in a dark room along with the moist
dirty shirt. This theory was rejected by Francisco Redi, spallazani, Pasteur.

Redis experiment- maggots couldn’t be created from meat but its smell attracted insects which laid eggs
on it. he put meat in several jars and kept some of them covered while some uncovered. meat rot in all but
only uncovered ones had eggs.

Spallazani Experiment- hay infusion poured in eight bottles and boiled- four airtight and four corked.
After a few days the corked ones had grown microorganisms - air contains microorganisms.

Pasteurs Experiment-
Hay infusion poured and boiled in swan neck flask which killed microbes and made it sterile. 18 months
there was no life. When swan neck flask was broken, life appeared as it came in contact w air.

Chemogeny - formation of various simple and organic molecules from gases like oxygen, nitrogen,
hydrogen, carbon in reducing atmosphere is called chemogeny.
Stanley Miller and Ureys experiment -
The experimentally recreated the probable conditions on the primitive earth and demonstrated that simple
organic compounds like amino acids, et cetera, can be synthesised in the laboratory from a mixture of
methane hydrogen, water vapour and ammonia. they applied energy by heating the chamber containing
liquid up to 800°C and charged by electric sparks. After about one week, the liquid was found to contain a
number of amino acids, such as glycine.
Sea as the Hot Dilute Soup -
Synthesis of carbohydrates, fats and amino acids occurred in the sea, probably by the process of
condensation and polymerisation. The seawater containing such organic molecules was called hot dilute
soup.
Coacervates-
Complex organic molecules, synthesise a biotic on the primitive earth formed large spherical aggregates,
which means suspended as droplets in seawater. These macromolecules were called coacervates or
microspheres.
Oparin obtained this by heating protein and polysaccharide and shaking the solution
Sydney fox obtained this by heating mixture of dry amino acids up to 130° degree to 180°C and then
cooling in water. Budding was also shown.

Biogeny- biotic origin of life or biological evolution from molecules to cells or formation of the first cell
1. Origin of eobionts or protobionts- synthesis of nucleic acids and nuclear proteins, mark the beginning
of genetic material with the formation of nuclear acid at the surface membrane, the coacervates change
into first living system called the protocells. RNA was formed first.
2. formation of early cells - monerans: evolved into prokaryotes which lacked nuclear membrane ;
protistans: cells had a distinct nucleus

Cognogeny- diversification and evolution of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells

1. Chemoheterotrophs - anaerobic which utilised food from sea broth or sludge.
2. chemoautotrophs - synthesised food from inorganic compounds in the presence of chemical energy (eg
sulphur reducing bacteria, iron bacteria, nitrifying bacteria)
3. photoautotrophs- photosynthesis occurred by chance.
Importance of photosynthesis:
i) regular inflow of energy
ii) reducing to oxidising atmosphere
iii) utilised CO2 and converted to glucose (sugar)
Impact of oxygen-
1. Oxidising atmosphere formed - organisms which could utilise oxygen were called aerobes.
2. Ozone layer formed - reaction of even under uv rays. Acted as a protective radiation belt.
3. Free oxygen- mode of respiration.

EVIDENCES OF BIOLOGICAL’S EVOLUTION

1. Palaeontology - it is the study of fossils of animals and plants that lived in the past.
Formation of fossils - di formed based on the environmental conditions. The fossils may include original
remains of hard parts, like bones, teeth, et cetera, sedimentary rocks., petrifaction of hard and soft parts,
moulds, casts, and actual remains.
Land animals may also get fossilised in Amber, volcanic ash, sand, or ice
Types of fossils:
a) unaltered remains
b) petrified fossils - organic molecules replaced by minerals. this process is called petrifaction found in
sedimentary rocks.
c) moulds and casts
d) coprolites- fossils of faecal matter or droppings. helps in studying food habits.
2. Radioactive carbon dating method - 14C carbon helped in determining age of fossils. It’s half life is
5370 years. By determining the amount of radioactivity in bones, one can tell the age of the fossil. It can
give age as huge as 50000 years to 100000 years.

Missing links- Possesses character characters of two different groups of present day, living forms. They
show evolutionary relationship between these groups
Eg- Archeopteryx lithographic - connecting link btw reptiles and birds. Reptilian characters- teeth in jaws,
fingers with claws, long tail. Avian characters- feathers on body, wings, jaws drawn into beak
Euglena- plant and animal link
Lung fishes- fishes and amphibians link
(Check geological time scale of earth)

2. Evidence from comparative analogy or morphology

A) homologous organs or homology- different function and external appearance but are formed on the
same base pattern based on ancestry of origin. DIVERGENT EVOLUTION, COMMON ANCESTRY.
Eg - forelimbs, heart, plant parts.
Homology in plant parts - thorns of bougainvillea helps in protection, tendrils in passiflora provide
support for climbing, in opuntia and ruscus the phylloclade checks transpiration, in asparagus the cladode
carries out photosynthesis.

B) analogy- same function and almost similar appearance but develop in different groups
CONVERGENT EVOLUTION.
Eg) wings, potato and sweet potato, tendrils

3. Evidences from embryology:

A) resemblance among vertebrate embryos- similar head, limbs which develops as limb buds, notochord
replaced by vertebral column.
Recapitulation theory and biogenetic law- every organism during its development repeats in an
abbreviated form its evolutionary history. Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.
Eg- development of frog from tadpole which has fish like characters like gill, gill slit, tail fin. Frog has
evolved from fish like ancestor; gymnosperms- not dependent on water for fertilisation. Primitive
gymnosperms like cycas and gingko require water like pteridophytes.

4. Evidences from Biogeographical distribution

A) similar climatic conditions are observed to have similar fauna. Similar habitat in some cases have
dissimilar fauna.
B) climate of Australia, SA, western South America are similar but fauna is strikingly different.
C) widely spread lands have similar flora and fauna. Eg- Great Britain and Japan show similar animal
forms.

Lamarckism -
1. New needs
2. Acquisition of new characters - use and disuse,vestigial organs, effect of environment
3. Inheritance of acquired characters.
Eg- long neck in giraffe : they have evolved from deer like ancestors who had short neck and grazed on
grass. with shortage of land only trees had food. They had to stretch their necks to reach the leaves. With
every generation the neck size improved.

DARWINISM - theory of natural selection

Observations-
1. On Galapagos island, he identified 13 species finches each occupying different island. They had
evolved from mainland of SAmerica.
Features/ postulates :
1. Overproduction or rapid multiplication- prodigality is that all living things have the ability to produce
large no of offspring’s. Eg - bacteria multiply every 20 mins.
2. Natural selection- survival of the fittest
Eg- long neck of giraffe- those with longer neck survived as they could acquire food from tall trees easily.
Criticism:
1. Theory of Pangenesis- he failed to explain the mode of variation to next generation.
2. Inheritance of small variations- small variations can only be useful when fully develop and functional.
3. Existence of vestigial organs - according to t natural selection, only useful organs are selected and
passed on but this fails to prove the existence of vestigial organs.
4. Overspecialisation- some organs like tusks of elephants have been transmitted for generations without
being of any use.

NEODARWINISM
It is the modern or modified version of Darwins natural selection theory. Origin of species is based on the
interaction of genetic variation and natural selection resulting in
1. Genetic variability
2. Isolation of different population of species
3. Natural selection
4. Genetic basis of adaptation
5. Speciation

Variations- introduced by mutations, recombinant, change in structure or number of chromosomes etc.

MUTATION THEORY OF EVOLUTION

It was proposed by Hugo DeVries according to which new species arise from pre existing ones in a single
generation by the sudden appearance of distinct and discontinuous heritable changes.
Main postulates -
1. They are sudden, large and distinct, heritable changes
2. All organisms have the tendency to mutate
3. Different mutations may occur in different members of the same population or species
4. They occur full fledged.
Evidences to support:
1. Appearance of short legged ancon sheep to normal legged parents
2. Seedless variety of banana
Modern theory
1. They are universal and occur in all organisms
2. They occur in all types of cells.
3. Somatic mutations are non heritable while germinal mutations are heritable.
4. Only heritable mutations help in evolution
Significance:
Provide variations which can be selected by natural selection.

HARDY WEINBERG PRINCIPLE OF EQUILIBRIUM:

it describes the relation of gene frequencies and genotype frequencies of alleles in the gene pool of a
population.
Gene frequency- proportion of allele in relation to total allele
Genotype frequency- proportion of one kind of genotype from a population wrt locus under consideration.
AA = p2, aa= q2, Aa= 2pq (genotype frequency)

Frame shift mutations- addition or deletion of one or more nucleotide pairs in dna segment
Substitution mutations- caused by replacement of one or more nucleotide bases.

1. Sampling or bottleneck effect - showed population crash

2. Founders effect- genetic drifts produce dramatic changes in frequencies of alleles in population that
enter a new or isolated geographical region.

Graphical
1. Directional selection - change in gene pool if population in one direction. It is progressive selection.
Eg- horse, human,camel
2. Stabilising selection- it favours average or normal phenomenon and removes the extremities.
3. Disruptive - favours the extremities, peaks in distribution of traits are produced.

Examples-
1. Industrial melanism
2. Resistance to pesticide in insects
3. Antibiotic resistance in bacteria
SPECIATION
Speciation is the origin and evolution of new species.

ORIGINAL AND EVOLUTION OF MAN

1. Dryopithecus - arms and legs of equal length, semi erect posture, large canines
2. Ramapithecus- man like feeding habits, walking erect, small canines
3. Australopithecus (first apeman) - small in size, cranial cavity 450-600cc, walk nearly straight
4. Homo habilis- 4.5 to 5 feet, more erect, cranial cavity 735cc
5. Homo erectus - 5.5ft tall, cranial cavity 759-1100cc
6. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis - cranial cavity 1300-1600cc, lower jaw with strong muscles, semi
erect stopping posture
7. Homo sapiens fossilis - perfect erect posture, 1.8m tall, less hairy body, 1650cc cranial cavity
8. Homo sapiens sapiens - cranial cavity 1300-1600cc, modern man, walk erect