BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

Submitted By: Manzoor Ahmad

Roll No: 44687

BS 8th

Submitted To: Mam Samina Yasmeen

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY
HAZARA UNIVERSITY MANSEHRA
2021

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION.......................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................2
Darwinian Revolution................................................................................................2
Population Thinking...................................................................................................3
The Study of Evolution..............................................................................................3
The evidence of evolution..........................................................................................4
The Fossil Record.......................................................................................................4
The Geological Time..................................................................................................5
Evolution has no Definite Direction...........................................................................5
The Fauna of Burguess Shale.....................................................................................6
The Dinosaurs.............................................................................................................7
Stegosaurus.................................................................................................................7
Molecular biology and homology..............................................................................7
The Linnean System...................................................................................................8
The Classification of Biological Diversity is a Proof of Evolution............................8
Molecular phylogeny..................................................................................................9
Human Evolution........................................................................................................9
The Future of Evolution...........................................................................................10
Humanidad............................................................................................................10
References....................................................................................................................12

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 BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

Introduction

Few ideas have changed our vision of nature as profoundly as the very idea of change

underlying the evolution of living beings. Biological organisms are grouped into

natural units of reproduction that we call species. The species that now populate Earth

come from other species that existed in the past, through a process of descent with

modification. Biological evolution is the historical process of transformation of a

species into other descendant species, and its reverse is the extinction of the vast

majority of species that have ever existed. One of the most romantic ideas contained

in the evolution of life is that any two living organisms, no matter how different they

are, shared a common ancestor at some time in the past. We and any current

chimpanzee share an ancestor something like 5 million years ago. We also have a

common ancestor with any of the existing bacteria, although in this case the time to

the ancestor goes back to more than 3000 million years.

Darwinian Revolution

Although the idea of evolution had precedents, it was not until 1859, with the

appearance of the work The origin of the species of the British naturalist Charles

Darwin, that biological evolution as explanation of diversity of life was definitively

established. Darwin compiled and interpreted a large number of observations and

experiments from very diverse research disciplines and presented them as an

irrefutable argument in favor of the fact of evolution. But Darwin also provided a

mechanism to explain the complex and characteristic adaptations of living beings:

Natural Selection. What did the theory of evolution and natural selection mean in the

context of nineteenth-century biology? In 1802 the theologian W. Paley publishes the

work Natural Theology, where he argues that the functional design of the organisms

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evidenced the existence of an omniscient creator. According to him, the human eye,

with its delicate design, was a conclusive proof of the existence of God. For

naturalists who wanted to explain biological phenomena by natural processes, explain

the adaptation, the wonderful fitting of organisms to their environment, was the

fundamental problem.

Population Thinking

There is grandeur in this view of life... that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on

according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most

beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

The Study of Evolution

Studies and statements about evolution generally refer to one of two different aspects:

the investigations about the fact of evolution and those that refer to the mechanism of

evolution. The first cover the biological disciplines, such as paleontology, taxonomy,

comparative biology, population biology... which unequivocally show the fact of

evolution. The second ones, the affirmations about the mechanism of evolution, are

the main object of Population Genetics, and they inform us of the factors, forces or

processes that produce the evolutionary change, that is to say, the natural mechanisms

that cause descent with modification. An everyday analogy that illustrates this

distinction is that of weather. Precipitations, Winds, Cold drops, Typhoons, are all

evidences that make weather a fact of nature. Now, if we want to explain why the

different meteorological phenomena occur, then we have to introduce ourselves in the

field of the affirmations of the process, about the meteorological mechanisms. Then

we must propose those factors, such as temperature differences between different air

masses, that produce meteorological phenomena.

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The evidence of evolution

The evolution that occurs on a reduced scale, within a species and in the interval of a

few generations, is called microevolution. Macroevolution is the evolution on a large

scale, and covers considerable periods of time, and large transformation processes; in

the most extreme case it would comprise the whole evolution of life. Small-scale

experiments and/or observations of current populations or species can be carried out

and direct evidence of evolution can be obtained. There are many examples in which

evolution is detected in action, like the classic case of industrial melanism that will be

discussed later. Artificial selection made by man in dogs or horses are also clear

examples showing the potential for modification within species. Due to its own

temporal dimension, we can not demonstrate macroevolution directly, except in cases

of creation of new plant species through the crossing of different species by man.

Although the evolutionary evidence provided by the fossil record, comparative

biology, and molecular biology is indirect, it is no less conclusive when it comes to

demonstrating the community of origin of all organisms.

The Fossil Record

The sediments that have accumulated on the earth's crust during its geological history

leave an inestimable trace, generally in the form of bones or hard petrified skeletons,

of dead organisms in the past: these remains are the fossils. The fossil record is a

wonderful window into the history of life. If it did not exist, we could not invent it.

Without it, the emptiness about the evolution of life on earth would be irreplaceable.

We could speculate, theorize infinitely, but who could have imagined that the Earth

was dominated for 150 million years by immense and fantastic reptiles, the dinosaurs,

that disappeared in a relative moment of time, if the dinosaur fossils did not tell us?

The disintegration of the radioactive chemical elements in the rocks has made it

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The Geological Time

The geological time has been divided into a series of hierarchical stages, the ages, the

periods, and the epochs, which do not follow a linear chronology, but rather chronicle

the key moments of the history of life. The transitions between the four eras, the

Precambrian, the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic represent great changes

in the fauna and flora of the whole Earth. In the first period of the Paleozoic era, the

Cambrian, 570 million years ago, pluricellular animals that have hard parts, such as

shells, and exoskeletons, suddenly appear in the fossil record... The end of the

Paleozoic coincides with the greater extinction on Earth, in which 96% of the species

disappeared. At the end of the Mesozoic, in the transition between the Cretaceous and

Tertiary periods, there is the known extinction of the dinosaurs, together with 70% of

the existing species..

Evolution has no Definite Direction

The history of life is a story of extinction and death... with a few survivors. 99.9% of

the species that have ever existed are now extinct. Whole groups of organisms, such

as dinosaurs (excepting birds), trilobites, ammonoids, have been extinct forever

without leaving any descendants.

As noted by paleontologist S. Gould, the fossil record is not a conventional story

that leads to different lineages to more excellence, more complexity, more diversity.

The history of life does not show a defined course, it has no direction or meaning.

Evolution is a story of massive elimination followed by differentiation within a few

survivors. It is a priori impossible to determine the direction of evolution because of

the importance of concrete, contingent events, such as the extinction or not of a group

of organisms in the case of a mass extinction, or the possession or not of an adequate

adaptive variant when this is required, they are the true agents of history.

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Mass Extinctions

There are two extinction regimes: normal extinction, which affects species that fail to

follow their environment in their daily struggle to adapt, and mass extinction, which

are faster and more devastating in its magnitude. At least five mass extinctions have

occurred, and they have left many ecological holes that have been occupied by the

descendants of the surviving species. This occupation of the available biospace is

often accompanied by a rapid and extensive morphological diversification called

adaptive radiation. The cause of mass extinctions is not known with certainty,

although physical causes such as the impact of asteroids or climate changes seem

more likely than biological causes. According to a recent hypothesis, there are cycles

of mass extinction approximately every 26 million years, and the periodic impact of

cometary showers on Earth could explain this cycle.

The Fauna of Burguess Shale

If we had the opportunity to return to a moment in the past, the period before the

Cambrian would undoubtedly be one of the most attractive. In the Cambrian, 570 M

ago, the fossil record undergoes the large explosion of the first multicellular animals

with hard parts. Darwin wondered why these first animals were already anatomically

complex and without apparent precursors. The answer lies in the Burgess Shale site,

located in the Canadian Rockies. Due to very special conservation conditions, here it

is found the only soft-body fauna (without hard structures) that exists from a time

immediately before the Cambrian explosion.

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The Dinosaurs

During the Triassic period, dinosaurs from a line of reptiles emerge and initiate a

dynasty over the terrestrial environment that would last 150 M. More than 350 species

of dinosaurs have been identified, and it is believed that this is a much lower estimate

than the number of species that really existed. Among the dinosaurs are the largest

animals that have ever lived on Earth. The Seismosaurus, the largest known

herbivore, was about 40 meters long. Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest carnivores,

was 12 m long. Dinosaurs are divided into two large orders, those of lizard pelvis

(Saurischians), which include both carnivorous and herbivorous species, and those of

bird pelvis (Ornistiquios), whose species were all herbivores. The dinosaurs became

extinct almost entirely, except for a minor line that gave rise to the birds, 65 M ago.

Along with them, 75% of the existing species disappeared in a short period of time. It

has been proposed that the impact of an asteroid on the earth's surface could be the

cause of this mass extinction.

Stegosaurus

Who could have imagined that the Earth was dominated for 150 million years by

immense and fantastic reptiles, the dinosaurs, that disappeared in a relative moment of

time, if there had not been fossils of dinosaurs that told us about it?

Molecular biology and homology

Molecular biology has provided the most universal evidence of homology. All living

organisms share the same hereditary material, DNA, a helical molecule whose

information is encoded in 4 different letters or nucleotides. Likewise, the genetic code

is practically Universal, all organisms share the same dictionary that gives the

meaning to the DNA sequence. Both examples are very robust proofs of the intimate

relationship that exists between the living beings.

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The Linnean System

The Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-78) devised the classification system

that is used, with some modifications, nowadays. There are seven inclusive levels of

classification, which are, from least to greatest, the species, the genus, the family, the

order, the class, the type or Phylum and the kingdom. The scientific name of each

species has two parts, the lion, for example, is called Panthera leo. The first part refers

to the genre and the second to the species. Consider an example of how the current

species are grouped in the different linnean categories. The lion, the panther, the tiger,

belong to the genus Panthera, which along with the genus Felix (the domestic cat) and

others are grouped in the family of felines. The felines, with the canids and bears,

constitute the order of the carnivores. Primates, rodents, carnivores, ... meet in the

mammal class. These organisms share characteristics such as suckling their young

with milk, gestate them in the uterus through a complex organ, the placenta. Their

skin is protected by fur or hair. Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish gather

in a single type or phylum, because they all have a backbone, a maximum of four

members, and red blood with hemoglobin, are chordates. Insects, spiders, crustaceans,

and centipedes are classified in another type, the arthropods. Clams, snails and squid

are grouped in mollusks, and so on. The chordate type, arthropod, mollusk and others

form the Animal kingdom. The tree of life is ordered following divisions that go from

general characteristics to more specific aspects.

The Classification of Biological Diversity is a Proof of Evolution

The fact that the diversity of life is hierarchized is a strong argument in favor of

evolution. The anatomical structures and basic adaptations shared among species can

be easily explained if we assume that current species shared ancestors, but we would

not expect such a pattern if the species had been created independently.

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Molecular phylogeny

The universality of the carrier molecule of genetic information makes DNA a very

appropriate character for the comparative and phylogenetic study of the species.

Morphologically it is not possible to compare a bacterium with a man, however it is

possible to establish a comparison with DNA molecules of both organisms, since they

are formed by the same nucleotide base language. With sequence data we can

compare any group of organisms, however distant they may be. The molecular data

have other additional properties that all together make them the ideal character of

phylogenetic studies. Many works obtain and analyse the sequences of genes and

proteins of different species to solve questions still doubtful about the relations among

organisms. The molecular data has shown that our species is much closer to the

chimpanzee and the gorilla than we thought.

Universal Phylogenetic Tree

The molecular analysis of sequences has also taught us that there is a division in the

very root of the tree of life that is more fundamental than the division of 5 kingdoms

that is taught normally. In place of the two canonical cell types, prokaryotes and

eukaryotes, there are three major cell types, the archaebacteria, the eubacteria and the

eukaryotes. This new tree is called the universal phylogenetic tree.

Human Evolution

The morphological, biochemical, and genetic similarities place the human being in the

order of primates of the mammalian class. Within primates, they are the chimpanzee,

the gorilla and the orangutan, their closest relatives. The sequence comparison data

show that there is a similarity of 98.5% between human and chimpanzee DNA. This

resemblance is greater than that between the chimpanzee and the gorilla or the gorilla

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and us, so the chimpanzee and humans share a more recent common ancestor than

both with the gorillas. This closeness, which has been estimated around 6M years, is

much greater than what was inferred only with morphological data, and shows the

ability of DNA data to reveal kinship relationships. In human evolution there are two

major acquisitions, the bipedal gait, and the extraordinary development of the brain.

The fossil record shows us that the upright posture preceded brain development and

that Africa is the cradle of humanity. Australopithecus, 1.5-5M years old, is the first

anthropoid with bipedal gait. His cranial capacity was similar to that of the current

chimpanzee and gorilla. Homo habilis and Homo erectus are the lines that follow

chronologically until the arrival of our species, Homo sapiens, 100,000 years ago.

The Future of Evolution

Humanidad

With the appearance of the human brain, a singular fact occurs: the emergence of

objective consciousness in the biosphere. We are sparks of consciousness in a

Universe that until our irruption was blind and deaf to its becoming. For the first time,

and in a recursive sense, the universe thinks of itself when we discover its existence in

the same way that we think and discover ourselves with our brain. This constitutes the

most transcendental moment of the whole evolution. The scientific thinking that

results from the activity of minds working collaboratively to understand the physical,

biological and mental reality of our universe leads us to higher levels of

consciousness. As Mosterín (2005) points out, we are heading towards a cosmic

consciousness, where higher levels of empathy, joy and lucidity will be reached.

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Scientific and cultural evolution is not limited to the laws of natural selection and

genetic inheritance. It follows a process of horizontal transmission (between

individuals of one generation) and vertical transmission (between generations) that is

much faster than the typical processes of biological evolution. The human being is on

the threshold of being able to direct evolution in the path that he/she believes most

appropriate. We will greatly limit the hazards of mutation, genetic segregation and

gamete union. Mutated genes that cause serious diseases to the human species may be

replaced by their non-deleterious counterparts.

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References

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developmental model". Evolution. 62 (2): 301–315. doi:10.1111/j.1558-

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other vertebrates: mechanisms of evolutionary and developmental

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