EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS OF ORGANISMS

How Do We Study Evolutionary Relationships?

▸ Systematics is the part of science that deals with grouping organisms and determining
how they are related. It can be divided into two main branches:
○ Taxonomy focuses on classifying, naming, and grouping organisms. A group,
or taxon, can be a population, a species, a genus, or a higher-level grouping, such
as family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, or domain. The plural of taxon is taxa.
○ Phylogenetics is the study of determining evolutionary relationships, or patterns
of descent of organisms.
▸ All of the species of organisms that are alive today have descended from ancestral
species. This is due to evolution, or simply change over time. The evolutionary
relationships of ancestral species and their descendants can be diagrammed using
branching evolutionary trees.
▸ Just like your family tree, an evolutionary tree indicates which ancestors gave rise to
which descendants.

Evidences of Evolution: Providing Relationships

Evidences of evolution
▸ During and since Darwin's time, people have been looking for and studying evidence in
nature that teaches them more about evolution.
▸ Some types of evidence, such as fossils and similarities between related living
organisms, were used by Darwin to develop his theory of natural selection, and are still
used today.
▸ Others, such as DNA testing, were not available in Darwin's time, but are used by
scientists today to learn more about evolution.

Three Main Evidence of Evolution

1. FOSSIL
2. BIOLOGICAL
3. GENETIC

Fossil evidence supports evolution.

▸ The geographic information about many fossils provides evidence that two species with
a common ancestor can develop differently in different locations.
▸ An Ancestor is an early form of an organism from which later forms descend.
▸ The idea of common ancestors is important to the theory of natural selection and to the
evidence that supports the theory

Biological evidence supports evolution.

▸ The biological evidence they study includes the structure and the development of living
things.
▸ Evidence for evolution can be observed within the physical structures of adult
organisms or their growth and development to adulthood.
Similarities in Structure
▸ Evidence for evolution can be observed within the physical structures of adult
organisms. Scientists who study evolution and development consider two types of
structural evidence.
▸ They are vestigial (veh-STIHJ-ee-uhl) organs and similar structures with different
functions.

Vestigial organs
▸ Vestigial organs are physical structures that were fully developed and functional in an
ancestral group of organisms but are reduced and unused in the later species.
▸ These vestigial organs help researchers see how some modern organisms are related to
ancestors that had similar structures

Similar structures with different functions

▸ Scientists studying the anatomy of living things have also noticed that many different
species share similar structures.
▸ But these structures are used differently by each species. For example, lizards, bats, and
manatees have forelimbs that have a similar bone structure.
▸ The process of natural selection caused the variations in form and function that can be
observed today. These organisms lived in different environments and so were under
different pressures.
▸ For lizards the environment was land, for bats it was the air, and for manatees the
water. The environment influenced the selection of traits
1. Homologous Structure - organs or skeletal elements of animals and organisms that,
by virtue of their similarity, suggest their connection to a common ancestor.
These structures do not have to look exactly the same, or have the same function.
2. Analogous Structure - similar structures that evolved independently in two living
organisms to serve the same purpose.

Similarities in Development
▸ Scientists in the 1700s were fascinated by the fact that various animals looked similar in
their earliest stages of life.
▸ They noted that as the organisms developed, they became less and less alike. Today’s
scientists continue to compare the developmental stages of different species.
▸ The adult stages of many species do not look similar. For example, a rabbit does not
look anything like a chicken. However, study reveals that the early life stages of a
chicken and a rabbit are similar. An organism that is in an early stage of development is
called an embryo.

Genetic Evidence Supports Evolution.

▸ The key to understanding how traits are passed from one generation to the next lies in
the study of DNA, the genetic material found in all organisms.
 ▸ DNA contains the information all organisms need to grow and to maintain themselves.
When organisms reproduce, they pass on their genetic material to their offspring.
▸ DNA contains a code that a cell uses to put together all the materials it needs to
function properly. The code is made up of four different chemical subunits called bases.
▸ The bases are symbolized by the four letters A, T, C, and G. Located within DNA are
individual genes.
▸ A Gene is a segment of DNA that relates to a specific trait or function of an organism.
▸ Each gene has a particular sequence of bases. The cell takes this sequence and
translates it into the chemicals and structures the organism needs.

Cytochrome c
▸ Cytochrome c is part of the electron transport chain down which electrons are passed to
oxygen during cellular respiration.
▸ Cytochrome c is found in the mitochondria of every aerobic eukaryote — animal, plant,
and protist. The amino acid sequences of many of these have been determined, and
comparing them shows that they are related.
▸ Human cytochrome c contains 104 amino acids, and 37 of these have been found at
equivalent positions in every cytochrome c that has been sequenced.
▸ We assume that each of these molecules has descended from a precursor cytochrome
in a primitive microbe that existed over 2 billion years ago. In other words, these
molecules are homologous.
▸ The data can then be tabulated to show the number of differences. A cladogram, or
branching tree can then be made to show the relationship among the organisms

Sequencing Cytochrome c
▸ The first step in comparing cytochrome c sequences is to align them to find the
maximum number of positions that have the same amino acid.
▸ Sometimes gaps are introduced to maximize the number of identities in the alignment
(none was needed in this table).
▸ Gaps correct for insertions and deletions that occurred during the evolution of the
molecule.