ST.

ANTHONY COLLEGE
GENERAL BIOLOGY 2
CALAPAN CITY, INC.

MODULE DESCRIPTOR: This module covers the entire context of General Biology 2. This
chapter focuses to enhance the understanding of the principles and concepts in the study
of biology, particularly heredity and variation, and the diversity of living organisms, their
structure, function, and evolution.

NOMINAL DURATION: Week 7-8

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of this module, you MUST be able to:
1. Show patterns of descent with modification from common ancestors to produce
the organismal diversity observed today.

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 Show patterns of descent with modification from common
ancestors to produce the organismal diversity observed
LEARNING OUTCOME today.

CONTENTS:
Patterns Of Descent With Modification From Common Ancestors To Produce The
Organismal Diversity
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
1. Explain the mechanisms: artificial selection, natural selection, genetic drift,
mutation, and recombination that leads to the different patterns of descent with
modifications from the commonly known ancestors to produce the organismal
diversity known as of today
2. Explain the different pieces of evidence of evolution and infer evolutionary
relationships among organisms using the said pieces of evidence.
CONDITION:
Learners must be provided with the following:
1. Workplace Location
2. Equipment
• Computer, Cellphone (With Internet Connection)
3.Tools, Accessories and Supplies
• Notebook
• Paper
• Pen
4. Learning Resources
• Internet Connection or Book Suggested by The Teacher
• Module in Biology 2
• Curriculum Guide of Biology 2
•
ASSESSMENT METHOD:
• Written Test
• Activities (Individual Work)
• Performance Test

LEARNING EXPERIENCES
Learning Activities Special Instructions
Read Information Information Sheet No. Read and understand the Information
4.1 Sheet No. 4.1
Patterns Of Descent With Modification Patterns Of Descent With Modification
From Common Ancestors To Produce From Common Ancestors To Produce
The Organismal Diversity The Organismal Diversity

Accomplish Task Sheet 4.1 Accomplish the task sheet 4.1-

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 INFORMATION SHEET 4.1
PATTERNS OF DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION FROM COMMON ANCESTORS TO
PRODUCE THE ORGANISMAL DIVERSITY

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
1. Show patterns of descent with modification from common ancestors to produce the
organismal diversity observed today.

The Descent with Modification

DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION suggests that each species has descended with
changes from other species over time. This idea suggests that all living species are related
to each other and that all species, living and extinct, share a common ancestor.

Descent with modification is the evolutionary mechanism that produces change in the
genetic code of living organisms. There are three mechanisms for such changes and the
fourth mechanism, natural selection, determines which descendants survive to pass on their
genes, based on environmental conditions. When people are aware of the four evolutionary
mechanisms of evolutionary change, they can understand how evolution works and how
humans and other animals have evolved from primitive living organisms.
How Descent With Modification Works
The descent with modification definition is the passing on of the genetic code from parent
to offspring with changes that are in turn hereditary. The three mechanisms that can change
the genetic code of a population are mutation, migration and genetic drift. In each case, the
offspring in the population will have slightly different genes than the parents and, as a result,
will have different characteristics.
Mutation is the classic gene-changing process in which the offspring inherit changed genes
due to mistakes in the gene copying process, broken chromosomes carrying the genes or
external influences that damage genes. The offspring will have a slightly different genetic
code than the parents, and they will therefore have new or changed features. For example,
green beetle parents may experience a mutation and produce a brown beetle offspring.
Migration means that populations of species with different characteristics and slightly
different genetic codes may migrate to mix and change the general population that existed
before. For example, brown beetles of a certain type may migrate to join a population of
green beetles. The resultant population will have a mix of brown and green beetles.
Genetic drift is a random change in the number of occurrences of a particular characteristic.
For example, in a group of mixed green and brown beetles most of the brown beetles may
have been on the side of the group close to a bird and might have been eaten. The
population then has more green beetles.

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These three mechanisms of evolutionary descent with modification result in genetic
changes in populations over time. Natural selection completes the evolutionary process but
operates slightly differently.
Modification by Natural Selection
Darwin's theory of natural selection detailed how survival of the fittest gives direction to the
random descent with modification process. Once the random changes of mutation,
migration and genetic drift produce their results, natural selection makes sure that the
changes that are passed on to subsequent generations are those most suited to living in
the current environment of the species.
For example, if green and brown beetles live on the ground and green beetles are easier to
see, birds might eat more green beetles than brown beetles. Eventually there will be mostly
brown beetles in the population. If the ground turns green at this point, perhaps through
climate change to a wet period, the birds will see the brown beetles and the few green
beetles that are left will eventually become the majority as they are the best suited to survive
in their new environment.
In this way, the random effects of descent with modification become the evolution of living
things to adapt to their environment through natural selection. The changes resulting in
better adaptation to the environment are passed on while the living things with changes that
are not well-adapted don't survive.
Descent With Modification
Descent with modification sounds fancy and complicated - but it isn't! Understanding
descent with modification is quite simple, so let's break it down. Descent with modification
is simply passing traits from parent to offspring, and this concept is one of the fundamental
ideas behind Charles Darwin's theory of evolution
If you have a child, you're probably already aware of this. You pass traits on to your children
in a process known as heredity. The unit of heredity is the gene. Genes are little bundles of
information that are responsible for almost every aspect of a human (or any other organism,
for that matter). Genes are like a blueprint for how a person will be.
However, your child does not get your exact blueprint (they aren't little clones of you).
Rather, your genes combine with your partner's genes and small changes or mutations may
occur along the way. And, if you have multiple children, you know there is a different mix of
genes that are combined for each child. This means that the gene pool is continuously
adjusting based on who is reproducing and how their genes are combined during the
production of each offspring. Over extended periods of time, evolution takes place!

The Process
Let's take a look at the most important parts of this process. First, not everyone reproduces.
Generally speaking, the individuals who are the best-suited for their environment are more
likely to reproduce and pass their genes on to a new generation. In biology, we say they
have higher fitness. Certain traits make an individual more fit than others, and the more
genes you pass on to a new generation, the higher your 'fitness' score is.

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However, genes also mutate occasionally. This isn't anyone's fault, it's just how the process
works. Imagine putting all of the pieces together in the human development puzzle; there
are likely to be a few kinks in the process along the way because it involves so many pieces
- so much information! The types of mutation will vary among offspring and won't
necessarily occur in each one. These mutations can either increase or decrease an
individual's level of fitness and could dictate whether or not they are able to reproduce and
pass their traits on to the next generation.
So, over long periods of time - multiple generations - the genetic combinations that provide
the highest fitness scores tend to be passed on - we can say these traits are selected for -
and the entire population slowly changes as a result. Genetic combinations that decrease
a person's fitness will eventually disappear from the gene pool when that person doesn't
reproduce - we can say they are selected against.
Evolution
• Life first originated some 3.8 billion years ago.
• Organisms come to exist by the Transfer of Genetic Material, within a surrounding
cell, from one or more parents.
• Descent may occur through: Simple clonal reproduction Complex sexual
reproduction
Lineage
• Results from “Descent through Time”
• A set of organisms interconnected through time and space by the transfer of genetic
material from parents to offspring.
Modification
• A component of Evolution
• Refers to a change in Genetic Material that is transferred from parent/s to offspring.
• Such Genetic Material of the offspring is different from the parent/s.
• Occurred through: Mutation Genetic Recombination
Population and Species
The General Units of Evolution
• Species - Groups of Populations that are related to one another by
various criteria and have evolutionarily diverged from such other
groups.
• Population - A group of individuals of the same species that is usually
geographically delimited.

Phylogeny The evolutionary History or pattern of descent of a group of organisms.

Commonly represented in a “Cladogram”

Cladogram
A hypothesis about the lineages and their evolutionary relationships.

Conditions of the Species

• Pleisomorphy - The ancestral condition

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 • Apomorphy - The evolutionary novelty
• Synapomorphy - An apomorphy that unites two or more lineages
• Autopomorphy - An apomorphy that occurs within a single lineage
. History of Evolution
• Plato
• “ The observable world is no more than a shadowy reflection of
underlying “ideals” that are true and eternal for all time.”

. The Great Chain of Being

“The Deity wishing to make this world like the fairest and most perfect
of intelligible beings, framed one visible living being containing within
itself all other living beings of like nature” -Plato-

Scale of Nature
• Formed by Aristotle from Plato’s ideal.
• Represents a link in the progressions from the least, to the
most perfect of creatures.

Charles Darwin
Described as a man who defied his own social and religious background, not only by
espousing a radical concept, but by becoming the instrument that made it acceptable to
many of his compatriots.

The Galapagos Islands

• Where Darwin had a great impact on his thinking about Evolution
• Particularly Struck by: The absence of insect eating warblers and woodpeckers, but
finchers taking their place. The observation that each island contained its own
constellation of species.

Jean-Baptiste de Lamrack
Proposed the Continuity of Species Variations among
organisms originate because of response to the needs of the
environment The ability to respond in a particular direction
accounts for the adaptation of new features.

Macroevolution
The evolutionary changes at the species level and above.

Microevolution
Evolution within the population of a species

Types of Evolution
• Divergent Evolution
• Convergent Evolution
• Parallel Evolution

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Divergent Evolution
• the evolutionary pattern in which two species gradually become
increasingly different.
• often occurs when closely related species diversify to new habitats
• Large Scale: Responsible for the creation of the current diversity of
life on earth from the first living cells.
• Small Scale: Responsible for the evolution of two species from a
common ancestor.

Convergent Evolution
Takes place when species of different ancestry
begin to share analogous traits because of a
shared environment or other selection pressure.

Parallel Evolution
• Occurs when two species evolve independently of each other, maintaining the same
level of similarity.
• Between unrelated species that do not occupy the same or similar niches in a given
habitat.

Plant Evolution

The Green Plants

• Cellulosic Cell Wall
• Primary Apomorphy of the Viridiplantae:
➢ Chlorophyll B ➢ Stacked Grana
➢ Thylakoids ➢ Starch

Streptophyte
• Gave rise to the Land Plants
• Apomorphy - Oogamy
• Charophyte
o A clade within the Streptophytes
o Apomorphy: Plasmodesmata
o Includes:
▪ Coleochaete
▪ Charales
▪ Land Plants
Embryophyta – Land Plants
• First colonization of Plants on Land during the Silurian Period (400 mya)
• Under Streptophytes/Charophytes
• Apomorphy
o Embryo/Sporophyte o Antheridium
o Cuticle o Archegonium
o Parenchyma
NonVascular Land Plants

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 • Hepaticae (Liverworts)
o One of the monophyletic groups
o Descendents of some of the first land plants
• Mosses
• Apomorphy:
o Stomates
o Aerial Sporophyte Axis
• Anthocerotae (Hormworts)
• Apomorphy:
o Long-lived Photosynthetic Sporophyte
Tracheophyta Vascular Land Plants
Apomorphies
• Independent, long-lived • Tracheary Elements (xylem)
sporophyte • Sieve Elements (phloem)
• Branched sporophyte • Endodermis
• Lignified secondary walls • Roots
• Sclerenchyma

Lignophytes
Woody Plants

Apomorphy
Possesses the - Vascular Cambium - Cork Cambium
Spermatophytes
• Seed Plants, a lineage within the lignophytes
• Apomorphy: Seed

Angiosperms Pretty Flower Plants

Origin of Angiosperms
Earliest definitive fossils of Angiosperms:
• Dispersed Pollen Grains
• Earliest Cretaceous Period (140mya)
• Flower Fossil Record (130mya)
Once Angiosperms arose, they rapidly radiated into several,
distinct lineages, replacing gymnosperms as the dominant plant life form on earth.

Amborella trichopoda
• The Best hypothesis for the most basal angiosperm
lineage
• Lacks vessels
• Possesses unisexual flowers with a spiral perianth
• Laminar stamens
• Separate carpels

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WHO INFLUENCED DARWIN’S THINKING

Arranged life forms on a scale of increasing complexity scala natura- “scale of

nature

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SUMMARY: DARWIN AND DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION
While Charles Darwin is generally called “the father of evolution,” the basic idea for this
concept was actually developed by both Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Both
scientists based their hypotheses on observations of diversity among natural
populations. Darwin’s work in particular focused on animals of the Galapagos islands,
especially finches. Over time, the idea that species changed from natural selection
pressures through “descent with modification” gave rise to the idea of evolution. Data
accumulated over time, for example the long study of the Galapagos finches by the Grant
research team, has supported this idea and moved it into the realm of a supported theory
of biology.

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 TASK SHEET 4.1
Title: Descent with Modification
Performance Objective: Create a short research paper on the important questions facing
evolution and environmental science at present.
Supplies/Materials: Laptop, printer, ball pen, pencil, bond paper
Steps/Procedures:

Directions:
1. Give your idea on How Descent With Modification Works.
2. Explain Modification by Natural Selection
3. Draw a sample of descent with modification
Description 5 4 3 2 Score
obtained
Content All the content 1 of the contents 3 of the 4 and above of
provided are provided are provided is contents the contents
correct and correct and incorrect and provided are provided are
appropriate. appropriate. inappropriate. incorrect and incorrect and
inappropriate inappropriate

Correct All examples 1 of the examples 3 of the 4 or more of the

examples are provided are provided is examples examples
provided. correct incorrect. provided are provided are
incorrect. incorrect.

The reflective All reflective 1 of the reflective 3 of the 4 or more of the

answers are answers are answers is reflective reflective
clear and clear and unclear and answers are answers are
organized. organized. disorganized. unclear and unclear and
disorganized. disorganized.

Proper All words are 1-5 words are 11-15 words 16+ words are
mechanics are correctly misspelled and are misspelled misspelled and
established. spelled and the grammar lapses and grammar grammar lapses
grammar is are evident from lapses are are very evident.
correct. little to nothing. evident.

TOTAL

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REFERENCES

Avise, J. C., and R. M. Ball Principles of genealogical concordance in species concepts

and biological taxonomy. Oxford surveys in evolutionary biology vol. 7. no. 45,
1990, p. 7

Baldauf, Sandra L"Phylogeny for the faint of heart: a tutorial: TRENDS in Genetics vol.
19, no. 6, 2003, 345-351.

Bank, Claudia. Reinhard Bürger, and Joachim Hermisson. The limits to parapatric
speciation: Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibilities in a continent-Island model
Genetics vol. 191, no. 3, 2012, 845-863

Bickford, David, David J. Lohman, Navjot S. Sodhl, Peter KL Ng. Rudolf Meier, Kevin
Winker, Krista K. Ingram, and Indraneil Das. "Cryptic species as a window on
diversity and conservation Trends in ecology & evolution vol. 22, no. 3, 2007, pp.
148-155.

Boundless. "Amplifying DNA: The Polymerase Chain Reaction. "Boundless Microbiology.

Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Accessed 23 July 2016 from https://goo.gl/g91IPS.

Source: Boundless. "Amplifying DNA: The Polymerase Chain Reaction Boundless

Microbiology, Boundless, 26 May, 2016. Accessed 23 July 2016 from https://www.
boundless.com/microbiology/textbooks/boundless-microbiology-textbook/
microbial-genetics-7/bioinformatics-83/amplifying-dna-the-polymerase-chain
reaction-458-5372/

Coyne, Jerry A., and H. Allen Orr. Speciation. Vol. 37. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates,
2004.

Cracraft, Joel. "Speciation and its ontology: the empirical consequences of alternative
species concepts for understanding patterns and processes of differentiation.
Speciation and its Consequences, 1989, pp. 28-59.

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