10.

4 Evidence of Evolution
Write all things in red, sequentially in your notebook

EQ: What modern-day evidence supports the Theory of Evolution?

1. Comparative Anatomy
• Darwin realized that all vertebrate limbs had the same basic bone structure regardless of how it was used
so he proposed that animals with similar structures may have evolved from a common ancestor with a
basic version of that structure.

Homologous structures are similar structures that were inherited from a common ancestor. Vary in form
and function, but the general anatomy is similar

• Similarities and differences in homologous structures help determine how recent the common ancestor
is; the more similarities the more recent the shared ancestor
o Ex. The front limbs of reptiles and birds are more similar to each other than to an amphibian or
mammal indicating a more recent common ancestor for reptiles and birds.

• The common ancestor for reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals was likely a lobe-finned fish
 • Plants also have homologous structures: stems, roots, flowers, etc.

Analogous Structures (An – means “negative or not”) are similar in unrelated organisms.
The structures are similar because they evolved to do the same job or live in the same environment, not
because they were inherited from a common ancestor.

The resulting organisms are said to have undergone Convergent Evolution.

Ex. Insect wing and a bird wing

Vestigial Structures (video clip)
• Structures inherited from an ancestor but that have lost most or all of the original function due to
different selective environmental pressure(s)
• Ex. Hipbones in whales – not useful now, but may have played
a role in land locomotion.
• Why retain the structure at all?
o One hypothesis is that if the structure isn’t a
hinderance, there’s no reason natural selection
would eliminate it.

2. Embryology
• Study of the early developmental stages of many vertebrates look very similar
• Many embryonic cells develop in the same order and in similar patterns to produce homologous tissues,
organs and structures
o (ie. all vertebrate limb bones develop from the same clumps of embryonic cells)
• The similarities in embryonic structure and patterns of development may suggest the organisms may have
descended from a common ancestor
 3. The Age of Earth, Radiometric Dating and the Fossil Record
• Evolution takes a LONG time so Earth must be VERY old… like 4.6 billion+ years; and life has been around
for about 3.5 billion of those years.
• How do we know how old it is?
• Radiometric dating allows scientists to establish the approximate age of rocks and fossils by comparing
the amount of molecules that have decayed (changed) to the remaining molecules, thus providing data
that can be analyzed

Understanding Radiometric / Absolute Dating

How radioactive dating works:

Some elements (uranium, plutonium, carbon, and more) are radioactive. This means that over time,
they are converted into different elements (kind of like how popcorn seeds turn into popped corn when
heated). Through testing and experimentation, scientists have been able to calculate and discover how
long it takes these elements to convert to HALF the amount of the original molecules that were
contained in the original sample!

We are made of many different elements and molecules (carbon,

phosphorus, oxygen, water, nitrogen, hydrogen, and many more) that
begin changing when we die. Why change then? Because we stop
eating and breathing then! If we’re no longer eating or breathing, we’re
no longer taking in carbon through food or air and so whatever we had
when we died is the amount that starts “converting” down.

Carbon’s half-life is 5730 YEARS!

This means that every 5730 years, HALF of the carbon converts into Nitrogen-14.

5730 years

5730 years

5730 years

HOWEVER… after 5730 years

about FIVE Half-lives
(~40,000 years), the
remaining Carbon is
pretty much
undetectable.
The Fossil Record
• The fossil record isn’t, however, perfect:
▪ most dead things don’t fossilize,
▪ fossils are hard to find
▪ many “intermediate” forms are yet-to-be-found
• Still, the existing record allows us to trace the evolution of many modern species to extinct ancestors

Scientists also use Relative Dating to determine the approximate age of fossils

Relative Dating
• Age of fossil is determined by comparing its placement with that of other fossils within layers of rock
• Index Fossil – easily recognized, datable fossil

Younger
Older
4. Genetics and Molecular Biology
• Darwin didn’t know about genetics and heredity and worried that this lack of knowledge might prove fatal
to his theory
• We now know this branch of science offers some of the strongest, supporting evidence
• At the molecular level, the genetic code is universal (adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine)
• All living things have DNA and RNA and protein synthesis… and it happens in nearly identical ways in
almost all organisms… suggesting a common ancestor
• Scientists can map the change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and
proteins across generations
o The amount of difference in DNA is a test of the difference between one species and another –
and how closely or distantly related they are.

ATCGCCTAGCGATTC ATGGCCTAGCGAATC TAGGGCACTAGCGAA

A horse and cow have a much more similar DNA sequence than a horse and a chicken. Because the horse and
cow have more genes in common, they look more alike & share a more recent ancestor
5. Biogeography
• The study of where organisms live now and where their ancestors lived in the past
• Patterns in the distribution of living and fossil species can help us determine how modern organisms
evolved from ancestors

• Closely Related but Different: The Galapagos Finches evolved from the mainland species. Over time,
natural selection resulted in different, yet closely related, island species

One Pattern:
• ADAPTIVE RADIATION (aka Divergent Evolution)
• New species with different adaptations radiate out/separate from a fairly recent common ancestor.

Another Pattern:
• CONVERGENT EVOLUTION (converge = come together)
• Similar environmental pressures have resulted in similar adaptations.
o The ancestor is VERY distant

1. Answer the EQ and update your notebook

2. Complete the following new vocabulary terms: (18) Homologous structure, (19)
Analogous structure, (20) Vestigial structure, (21) Embryology, (22) Radiometric
dating, (23) Half life, (24) Fossil record, (25) Relative dating, (26) Index fossil,
(27) Genetic code, (28) Biogeography, (29) Adaptive radiation/divergent
evolution, (30) Convergent evolution