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Diversity & Relationships Among Organisms

8|o|og|ca| D|vers|ty Lecture 3 Cb[ect|ves


O %here are competing explanations for diversity (Essentialism,
Organic Progression, Common Descent with Modification)
O Darwins Descent with Modification: deductions and evidence
O Evidence from Comparative Biology
O Anatomy
O Development
O 'estigial characters
O More recent homologies: DNA
O Evidence from Biogeography and Fossils
ompet|ng nypotheses
Lssent|a||sm
O Plato, Aristotle - 1800 western culture
O Each life form has fixed essence
O All forms have separate origin
O ife organized on "scale of nature = "chain of
being
O ife is immutable
Crgan|c rogress|on
O ean Baptiste amark (1809)
O Chain of being (plant & animal)
O $eparate origins via spontaneous generation
O Organisms are transformed; simple to
complex
O Adaptation based on use/disuse
ommon Descent w|th Mod|f|cat|on
O C. Darwin, 1859
O ife has a single origin
O New forms of life are derived from old ones,
with modification
O No chain of being; tree of ancestry
O %he young Charles Darwin was passionately
interested in geology and natural science.
O n 1831, he was recommended for a position on
the H.M.$. Beagle, for a 5-year survey voyage
around the world.
Ioyage of the 8eag|e

O Darwin often went ashore to study rocks and collect specimens, and
make observations about the natural world
O n the Galapagos slands he observed that species were similar to,
but not the same as, species on the mainland of $outh America. He
also realized that species varied island to island.

O Darwin postulated that species had reached the islands from the
mainland, but then had undergone different changes on different
islands
O Part of the puzzle was determining what could be a mechanism for
such changes.
O %hese observations, and many others, led Darwin to propose an
explanatory theory for evolutionary change based on two
proposition:
4 $pecies change over time
4 %he process that produces the change is natural selection
@he @heory of Lvo|ut|on
O Alfred Russel Wallace proposed a theory of natural selection almost
identical to Darwins (1858)
O A paper with the work of both men was presented in 1868 to the
innean $ociety of ondon
O Darwin published his book, % ORIGIN OF SPIS, in 1859
4 %he book provided exhaustive evidence from many different
fields to support evolution and natural selection.
-atura| Se|ect|on
O Darwin observed that although offspring tend to resemble their
parents, they are not identical.
4 He suggested that slight variations among individual affect
the changes of surviving and producing offspring.
O Natural Selection - Differential contribution of offspring to the
next generation by various genetic types belonging to the same
population.

Lvo|ut|on |n a 8roader ontext
O ndividuals do not evolved. Populations do.
O Population - A group of individual of the same species that live
and interbreed in a particular geographic area.
O Members of a population become adapted to the environment in
which they live.
O /aptations - %he processes by which useful characteristics
evolve.
O An organism is considered to be adapted to a particular
environment when it can be demonstrated that a slightly different
organism survives and reproduces less well in that environment.
@erm|no|ogy
O For a population to evolve, its members must possess heritable
genetic variation.
O %he phenotype is the physical expression of an organisms genes.
A phenotype is something we can observe and/or measure.
O Features of a phenotype are the characters (e.g., eye colour),
specific form of a character is a trait (e.g., blue).
O A heritable trait is at least partly determined by genes.
O Genetic makeup of an organism is the genotype.
opu|at|on Genet|cs
O Main goals
4 Explain the origin
and maintenance of
genetic variation
4 Explain patterns and
organization of
genetic variation
4 &nderstand
mechanisms that
cause changes in
allele frequencies
O Different forms of a gene
are called alleles.
O %he gene pool is the sum
of all copies of all alleles at
all loci in a population.
4 %he gene pool contains the genetic variation that produces
the phenotypic traits on which natural selection acts.

Lv|dence for ommon Descent
O Darwins evidence
4 Comparative biology
4 Biogeography
4 Fossils
nomo|ogous Structures
O Organisms that have a recent common ancestor
will share more homologous structures than
organisms with a distant ancestor.
nomo|ogous haracters |n Anatomy
S|m||ar|ty of structure desp|te d|fferences |n funct|on

@he 8ones are nomo|ogous the W|ngs are not

8ee st|ngers mod|f|ed egg|ay|ng apparatus

A |arva revea|s evo|ut|onary re|at|onsh|ps

nomo|ogous characters |n ear|y deve|opment
O Embryos of 8 vertebrate groups (humans - fish)

esemb|ance |n ear|y deve|opment

nomo|ogous Structures Iest|g|a| Crgans
O Features that serve no current function, but retained as a vestige of
ancestors
O E.g. Cave dwelling fishes and crickets display eyes (but in various
stages of degeneration)
nomo|ogous structures |n Mo|ecu|ar 8|o|ogy
O Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) common to all of life; same nucleotide
base code (CGA%)
O Certain genes (ribosomal RNA genes) found in all living things.
O 'estigial genes
4 E.g. photosynthesis genes in non-photosynthetic plants

8|ogeograph|ca| Lv|dence
O Differences in faunal composition around the globe; not explained
by environment alone.
O $imilarity between organisms of adjacent environments.
O slands: few species; similarity to closest mainland and among
islands in same archipelago (group of islands).


Spec|at|on


oss|| Lv|dence
O Fossils with no comparable living organism
4 i.e. extinction
O fossil assemblages associated with specific sequences in rock strata
(layers) - around the world
O fossils in one stratum resemble those in neighbouring strata; recent
fossils closely resemble species currently living.
O Extinct forms from a given continent resemble modern organisms
from that continent.
O ntermediates, linking present species to past ancestors.

@he @hree Doma|ns of L|fe on Larth
haracteristic Bacteria rchaea ukarya
Membrane-enclosed nucleus Absent Absent Present
Membrane-enclosed organelles Absent Absent Present
Peptidoglycan in cell wall Present Absent Absent
Membrane lipids Ester-linked
&nbranched
Ether-linked
Branched
Ester-linked
&nbranched
Ribosomes 70$ 70$ 80$
nitiator tRNA Formylmethionine Methionine Methionine
Operons Yes Yes No
Plasmids yes Yes Rare
RNA polymerases One One %hree
Ribosomes sensitive to chloramphenicol
and streptomycin
Yes No No
Ribosomes sensitive to diphtheria toxin No Yes Yes
$ome are methanogens No Yes No
$ome fix nitrogen Yes Yes No
$ome conduct chlorophyll-based
photosynthesis
Yes No Yes


ecap on the Sc|ent|f|c Method
O $cientific method is one of many ways of knowing.
O %heory is validated by testing its predictions in the real world.
O Biologists seek rules in biology by investigating function and history
at different (or multiple) levels of organization.
O Biology contributes knowledge through facts and theories about
living things.
O iving things are inherently variable and thus experiments require
replication and use of statistics.
O Biological explanations are assessed based on reliability of facts,
and generally viewed skeptically.

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