Origin of Life to
Evolutionary School of
Thought
Competencies
• Explain the mechanisms that produce
change in population from generation to
generation
• Trace the development of evolutionary
thought
•E x p l a i n e v i d e n c e s o f e v o l u t i o n
(biogeography, fossil record, homology
and embryology
Evolution is…
• is the unifying theme in the study
of life
• descent with modification
• cumulative genetic change in a
population of organisms over time
Jean Baptiste Lamarck
• French naturalist
• Concept of inheritance of acquired
characteristics
• He proposed that if an animal could develop
a particular characteristic in its lifetime, then
this trait could be passed on to their offspring
and its succeding generations.
Lamarckism
• A theory of evolution based on the
principle that physical changes in
organisms during their lifetime—such
as greater development of an organ
or a part through increased use—
could be transmitted to their offspring.
Charles Darwin
•An English n a t u r a list a n d g e o lo g ist
developed his theory of evolution
“It is not the strongest of the species that
survives, nor the most intelligent, but tone
most responsive to change”.
• Worked with Alfred Russel Wallace
•T h e y b o t h c a m e u p w i t h d e e p e r
explanation on how living things evolve.
Charles Darwin
•Darwin’s trip to Galapagos Island
(volcanic island near Ecuador)
that is filled with unique sets of plants and
animals, impressed him and allow him to
explore the variability in the appearance of
a single species.
Alfred Russel Wallace
•He traveled to South America to collect plant
and animal specimens.
•He noticed of the variations among members
of the population of organisms he observed.
Both included natural selection as a
mechanisms for the changes over time among
organisms from a common ancestors, as well
as the idea of survival of the fittest.
The Evidence for
Evolution
What supports evolution?
•Paleontology
•Biogeography and Continental
Drift Theory
•Comparative Anatomy
•Developmental Embryology
•Molecular Biology
Paleontology
• Paleontology is the study of the history of life on Earth
as based on fossils.
• Fossils are the remains of plants, animals, fungi,
bacteria, and single-celled living things that have been
replaced by rock material or impressions of organisms
preserved in rock.
• Paleontologists use fossil remains to understand
different aspects of extinct and living organisms.
Individual fossils may contain information about an
organism’s life and environment.
What is a fossil?
•F o s s i l s a r e t h e p r e s e r v e d
remains of plants and animals
whose bodies were buried in
sediments, such as sand and
mud, under ancient seas, lakes
and rivers.
Why do we study fossils?
• Fossils give us a useful insight into the history of life on Earth. They can teach us
where life and humans came from, show us how the Earth and our environment have
changed through geological time, and how continents, now widely separated, were once
connected.
• Fossils provide important evidence for evolution and the adaptation of plants and
animals to their environments. Fossil evidence provides a record of how creatures
evolved and how this process can be represented by a ‘tree of life’, showing that all
species are related to each other.
• Fossils are evidences of organisms that lived in the past. They can be actual remains
like bones, teeth, shells, leaves or traces of past activities such as animal burrows, nests,
dinosaur footprints.
• Fossils can also be used to date rocks. Through the process of evolution, different
kinds of fossils occur in rocks of different ages, enabling geologists to use fossils to
understand geological history. For geologists, fossils are one of the most important tools
for age correlation. Ammonites, for example, make excellent guide fossils for stratigraphy;
they can be used to determine the relative age of two or more layers of rock, or strata,
that are in different places within the same country or somewhere else in the world.
Body fossils and Trace fossils
•Preserved evidence of the body parts of
ancient animals, plants and other life
forms are called ‘body fossils’. ‘
•Trace fossils’ are the evidence left by
organisms in sediment, such as
footprints, burrows and plant roots.
Dating Fossils
Ways to measure the age of fossils
1. Relative dating - based upon the study
of rock layers (Law of superposition)
2. Absolute Dating
determine the actual age of the fossil
Biogeography
• The study of the distribution of organisms.
• The distriution of species in a particular
landscape provides proof about evolution.
• Charles Darwin observed the diversity of
organisms in different areas.
Continental Drift Theory
•Developed Alfred Wegener
•States that the movement of plate
tectonics shifted different continents,
isolating certain landmasses.
(Pangea)
•Continental drift has affected the
distribution of species.
Continental Drift Theory
Comparative Anatomy
•As alternative piece of evidence that
supports evolution is the concept that
biologists have coined as homology.
(Any anatomical feature originally
possessed by an ancestor ).
Human skeleton (similar) gorilla (different) birds
(close relative) (distantly related species)
Comparative Anatomy
Embryology
•During the vertebrate development, all
embryos exactly look the same during the
early stages of development.
• All vertebrate embryos are characterized by
having gill, pouches and tails. Thus even they
will develop into different adult stages, a
reptillian, avian and human embros look very
similar.
Embryology
Embryology
Molecular Biology
•Molecular biologist
compare genes and
proteins of different
animals ad help
d e t e r m i n e
evolutionary
relatioships
