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NATURAL SELECTION
Unit 2

Sailed around the world

1831-1836

Natural Selection
Prepared by:
Eve V. Fernandez-Gamalinda
Faculty
Ecology (Biology 103)
CARAGA STATE UNIVERSITY
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

The Puzzle of Life’s

• Darwin went ashore and
Diversity collected plant and animal
• Darwin’ Theory of Evolution specimens for his collection.
• In 1831, at age 22, Charles Darwin joined • He studied the specimens,
read the latest scientific
the crew of the H.M.S. Beagle as a naturalist
books, and filled many
for a 5 year voyage around the world. notebooks with his
observations and thoughts.
• This led him to propose a
revolutionary hypothesis
about the way life changes.
– EVOLUTION!

What did Darwin’s Travels

Definitions of Evolution
reveal?
The diversity The processes 1. The process by which different
of living These that have
transformed life
kinds of living organisms are
species was observations
far greater led him to on earth from it’s thought to have developed and
develop the earliest forms
than anyone
to the vast diversified from earlier forms
theory of
had
evolution!!
diversity that during the history of the earth.
previously characterizes it
known!! today. 2. The gradual development of some
thing, especially from a simple to a
Nothing in biology makes sense except in the more complex form.
light of evolution. – Theodosius Dobzhansky

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Definitions of Evolution Darwin’s Observations

1. Life is Diverse:
• Any change in the
–Darwin observed many different
heritable traits
kinds of plants and animals
within a population
–All were well suited to the
across generations
environments they inhabited
• Results in new –He was impressed by the ways in
species which organisms survived and
produced offspring

2. Fossils: 3. The Galapagos Islands:

– The preserved remains – The islands are very close together but
of once living have very different climates.
organisms • Some are hot and dry with little
vegetation while others are rich in rainfall
– Some of those fossils and vegetation
resembled organisms – Each island had its own unique
that were still alive assortment of plant and animal
– Others looked species.
completely unlike any
creature he had ever
seen

Genus: Archeaopteryx

Giant Tortoises of the Galápagos Islands • After his voyage, Darwin spent a great
deal of time thinking about his findings.
and on Pinta Island, tortoise necks
were somewhere in between – Had animals living on different islands once
been members of the same ancestral species
Pinta that developed different characteristics after
Pinta Island Marchena
Tower
becoming isolated from one another in
Intermediate shell

Fernandina
James
different habitats?
Santa Cruz

Isabela
Santa Fe

Hood Island
Floreana Hood Saddle-backed shell

On the desert-like Hood Island,

Isabela Island tortoises had long necks…
Dome-shaped shell

…while on the lush rainforest of Isabela Island,

tortoises had short necks…

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(1797-1875) Charles Lyell –

Ideas that Shaped Darwin’s Thinking uniformitarianism -the theory that
changes in the earth's crust during
• James Hutton geological history have resulted from
the action of continuous and uniform
– 1785 processes.
– Proposes that the earth
was shaped by geological • Charles Lyell
forces which occurred – 1833
over very long periods of
– Proposes that the geological process that
time and is millions of shaped the earth are still occurring now.
years old.

• How did Hutton and Lyell’s work

influence Darwin’s theory of evolution?

• This understanding of geology led Darwin • Thomas Malthus

to conclude… – 1798
– If the earth could change over time, so could – Observed that birth rate far
life. surpassed death rate.
– The earth must be older that was previously – Proposed that famine,
thought disease, and war were
necessary and unavoidable
population controls.
– Darwin is influenced
because he sees that there
will be a struggle for
existence within species.

• Jean-Bapiste Lamarck
(1744-1829)
– 1809
– First to propose a scientific
theory for the way life
changed over time
(1766-1834)THOMAS MALTHUS – First to suggest that all life
– Reasoned that if the human descended from a common
population continued to grow ancestor
unchecked, sooner or later there – First to realize that species
would be insufficient living space and were specially adapted to
food for everyone their environments

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Lamarck’s Theory The male fiddler crab uses

its front claw to attract mates
and fight off predators.
• Lamarck proposed that
through selective use and
disuse of organs, organisms
could gain or loose traits. Through repeated use, the
front claw becomes larger.
• Further, he believed that
those acquired characteristics
could be inherited by
offspring.
The fiddler passes on this
• He says that this is how acquired characteristic to
species changed over time its offspring

• What’s WRONG • What’s RIGHT about Darwin Presents his Case

about Lamarck’s Lamarck’s theory?
theory? – First to develop a • After Darwin returned to England in 1836
– Didn’t know about genes he filled notebooks with his ideas and the
and how traits are scientific
inherited hypothesis about process that he would later call evolution.
– Acquired traits CAN NOT evolution and • He did not rush to publish his ideas
be passed on! recognize that because they disagreed with the
• Ex) if you lifted
organisms are fundamental religious and scientific ideas
weights your whole
adult life, and then had adapted to their of the day.
children, your children environments. • He asked his wife to publish his ideas
would not be born
more muscular! after he died.

• 1858—Alfred Russel Wallace, another • 1859—Darwin

naturalist, publishes an essay describing publishes On the
his work in Malaysia and outlining the Origin of Species
same ideas that Darwin had for 25 years! – Presented his
– This provided the incentive that Darwin evidence for
needed to publish his own ideas. evolution
– Darwin proposes a
mechanism for
evolution called
NATURAL
SELECTION

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Breeds of Dogs
Inherited Variation & Artificial Selection
• Darwin noticed that
plant and animal
breeders would breed Chihuahua – bred from Techichi of Mexico
only the largest hogs, by Mayans, had religious significance

fastest horses, or the

cows that produced Saint Bernard – bred by monks around 1050 A.D.
to rescue travelers of mountain passes in the
the most milk Swiss Alps between Italy and Switzerland
– He called this,
Artificial Selection
 Selection by humans
for breeding of useful
traits from the natural
variation among Irish Wolfhound – bred in Ireland to
different organisms. hunt wolves and elk
Dachshund – bred in Germany as early
as the 15th century to hunt badgers

Evolution by Natural Selection Natural Selection

1. Genetic variation is found naturally in all
• Darwin compared processes in nature to populations
artificial selection. He thought that nature 2. The environment presents certain
could “select” organisms based on their challenges
fitness. – Struggle for existence: members of each
species must compete for food, space, and
other resources.
3. Some variation is more favorable; some is
not favorable

Natural Selection (cont.) Descent with Modification

• Suggests that each
4. Individuals with the favorable traits species has
(adaptations) will survive and reproduce descended with
changes from
more than those individuals without the other species over
favorable trait. time.
= Survival of the fittest • Further suggests
that all living
– Ability to survive and reproduce = fitness things are related
to each other and
– Any inherited characteristic that increases an that all species,
organisms chance of survival = adaptation living and extinct,
5. The favorable variation will become more share a common
common in the population. ancestor.

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Evidence for Evolution Transitional

1. The Fossil Record Fossils
– Fossils = the remains of ancient organisms
found in layers of rock
– Fossils are thought to be the same age as the
rock they are found in
– Rock tells the history of earth while fossils
tell the history of life.
• TIKTAALIK!
• FishTetrapod
• Shows the transition
between 2 species

Evidence (cont.) Evidence (cont.)

2. Geographic Distribution 3. Homologous Body
– Darwin thought that the Galápagos finches Structures
could have descended with modification from – these are structures
a common mainland ancestor that have different
mature forms, but
develop from the same
embryonic tissue
– similarities and
differences help
biologists group
animals according to
how recently they
shared a common
ancestor

• Not all homologous

structures serve
Homologous Body Structures important functions.
• The organs of many
animals are so
reduced in size that
Turtle Alligator Bird Mammal
they are just vestiges,
or traces, of
homologous organs
in other species.
Ancient lobe-finned fish
• These organs are
called vestigial
organs.

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Evidence (cont.) Patterns of Evolution

4. Embryology
– The early stages, or embryos, of many animals • Macroevolution—refers to large scale
with backbones are very similar. evolutionary patterns and processes that
– Similarities of embryos provides evidence of a occur over long periods of time
common ancestor. • Five important topics in macroevolution are:
– extinction
– adaptive radiation
– convergent evolution
– coevolution
– gradualism & punctuated equilibrium

Extinction Adaptive Radiation

• More than 99% of all species that have • Process by which a single
species or a small group of
ever lived are now extinct! species evolves into several
• Mass Extinction = when large numbers different forms that live in
of species disappear different ways
– Ex) Darwin’s Finches—more
• Result is the remaining species now have than a dozen species
new niches (jobs) to fill, and may then evolved (due to different
thrive causing bursts of evolution that habitats) from a single
species
produces many new species.
• Can also happen on a much
larger scale
– Extinction of dinosaurs =
adaptive radiation of
mammals

Convergent Evolution
• Process by which unrelated organisms come to
resemble one another, due to living in similar
environments.
– They develop structures that look and function
similarly, but are made up of different parts =
analogous structures
– EX: A bat’s wing (mammal) and a bird’s wing are
analogous structures

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Coevolution
• When organisms that are closely
connected to one another by
ecological interactions evolve
together.
• The two species evolve in
response to changes in each other
over time.

Gradualism vs. Punctuated Equilibrium

• Evolution has often

proceeded at different
rates for different
organisms at different
times during the history
of life on Earth.
• Gradualism:
– Darwin felt that biological
change was slow and
steady, an idea known as
gradualism.

UNDERSTANDING EVOLUTION
Gradualism vs. Punctuated Equilibrium
 Adaptation – the process of
changing to fit some purpose or situation
• Punctuated
equilibrium: a  Variation – divergence in the
structural or functional characteristics from the
pattern of species or population norm or average
evolution in
which long
stable periods
are interrupted
by brief periods
of rapid change.

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UNDERSTANDING EVOLUTION
NATURAL SELECTION

 Interbreeding individuals
within each group make Most of these
genetic
up a genetic population Genetic variations arise
or deme (not identical). variation is from
the RAW the shuffling of
 Some of the characteristics genes
MATERIAL
influence the probability
for Natural and
that an individual will FITNESS Selection. chromosomes
in
survive and reproduce.
reproduction.
FITTEST

Darwin’s Observations and Inferences

Fact 1 – All species have the potential for

exponential growth of population
size.
Fact 2 – Except for transient fluctuations
of varying magnitude, population size
generally remain stable.
Fact 3 – The resources available to a
population are limited.

Fact 4 – No two individuals are exactly the same

Inference 1 – Since more individuals are
Fact 5 – Most of these individual variations are
produced that can be sustained, there heritable
must be an intense struggle for Inference 2 – Survival in the struggle for existence is not
existence among individuals of a random, but depends on the genetic
constitution of the individual. This differential
population, resulting in the survival is the process of natural selection.
survival of only small portion of each Inference 3 – Over many generations, natural
generation (competition). selection will cause a gradual changes in
populations.

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Definitions
Natural Selection Selection – may be due to differences in
“ the differential reproduction and survival, fertility, rate of development,
survival, of alternative heredity mating success or any other aspect of
variants, determined by the fact that the life cycle.
some variants increase the likelihood Sexual selection is natural selection
to survive and reproduce more operating on factors that contribute to
successfully than others carrying an organism's mating success.
alternative variants.”

MODES OF SELECTION
1. Disruptive Selection/Diversifying
 Increases the frequencies of both
extremes
 when the extremes are fittest and inter
mediate are less fit, this can split a
population into two phenotypes with
few intermediate forms

MODES OF SELECTION /
1. Disruptive Selection/Diversifying TYPES OF SELECTION
 refers to the situation in which natural 2. Stabilizing Selection
selection favors different genotypes in
 favours organisms with values close to
different sub-environment the population mean
 in one period
 little or no change takes place
there are several
 when the fittest individuals are the
micro-environments
average then those with more
 differentiate
extreme (larger and smaller)
adaptation and survival
but belong to the same population

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2. Stabilizing Selection
 phenotypes are less fit and natural selection will
act to reduce the number of individuals with
extreme phenotypes
 the organism experience only one type of
environment , only one morph is favored and
uniform environment experience

MODES OF SELECTION /
TYPES OF SELECTION
3. Directional Selection
 moves the mean of the population
toward one extreme
 when a new, filter type originates,
the population will move from the
older type to the newer type over
time

3. Directional Selection

 progressive change  population is driven

in the environment to exhibit a different
type of morph
individual tend to
adjust to a progressive
change environment

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Natural selection is simply

the logical result of four
features of living systems:
variation - individuals in a
population vary from one
another
inheritance - parents pass on
their traits to their
offspring genetically
selection - some variants
reproduce more than others
time - successful variations ac
cumulate over many
generations

References
1. Reece, J.B., Taylor, M.R., Simon, E.J., and J.L. Dickey. 2012.
Campbell BIOLOGY: Concepts and Connections. 7 th Edition. (free
eBook- http://zeabooks.com/book/campbell-biology-concepts-
connections-7th-edition/)
"The doctrine that all 2. Stiling, P.D. 1996./ Ecology: Theories and Applications. 2 nd Edition.
Prentice Hall, Upper saddle River, New Jersey 07458
forms of life
3. Campbell, N.A., L.G. Mitchell, and J.B. Reece. 2000. Biology:
have been derived by Concepts & Connections, 3rd edition. Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
gradual changes from Pearson Education Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore 159965.
simpler forms or from a 4. Padilla, M.J., I. Miaoulis, and M. Cyr. 2011. Science Explorer. Focus
single cell." on Earth Science. Prentice Hall.
5. Reece, J.B., L.A. Urry, M.L. Cain, S.A. Wasserman, P.V. Minorsky,
and R.B. Jackson. 2011. Campbell BIOLOGY. 9TH Edition.

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