BIO 113 Evolution

Paläontologie
Hugo Bucher
HS 2018

http://www.pim.uzh.ch/
 BIO 113: Evolution
E n v i r o n m e n t a l   c h a n g e   (biotic and abiotic)
Change of scale

genetic level phenotypic level species and higher levels

Microevolution Gould Macroevolution

Goodwin
Sepkovski's curve
sexual  Generic
mutation variation selection processes in 
morphogeneis
migration Darwin natural 
selection
Mendel levels of  speciation
selection
selection adaptation  Phylogeny P Fossil 
record
genetic  P P P
drift P Rates of evolution
life history

Modes  Diversity 
gradual/bursts through time
adaptive 
landscap
e Mass 
Cambrian  extinction 
explosion and 
Key recovery
P = practicals processes patterns 
Useful refs in addition to the course

• Foote M. and A. I. Miller. 2007. Principles of paleontology, 3rd edition. W.H. Freeman

• Benton, M.J. & Harper D.A.T. 2009 Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil record.
Wiley-Blackwell. (uploaded in OLAT)
 Contents
1. Fossil record and biological Evolution
2. The fossil record: Nature And structure
3. Mass extinctions
 Why study fossils ?
Datation of sedimentary rocks
relative vs. absolute age
Oil and mining industry, structural geology, etc.

Evolution
Fossil record: 3,5 billions years of history of life
A few thousand years of recorded history of life by humans→0.0001% of history of life
Long (>1Ma) and mid-term (ca.105 a) evolutionary processes in time and space
Reciprocal interactions between the evolution of life and the environment
Macroevolution: Evolution above the species level
Time calibration of divergences between clades vs. molecular clocks
Biodiversity crises and recoveries

Paleoecology
Direct evidence for reconstructing past environments

Paleogeography and Paleoclimatology

 Precursors:
Departure from biblical beliefs
Compared fossils with their living
Recognized that fossil shell beds relatives, although believed that
presently occuring in mountains some of them might have been
were ancient sea-shores produced by falling stars
Leonardo da Vinci Conrad Gessner
(1452-1519) (1516-1575)

First recognized the nature of

fossils: remnants of ancient living
organisms embedded in sediments
which were later transformed into
rock
Bernard de Palissy
(1510-1590)

Glossopetrae:
teeth of fossil
sharks.
Founder principles
of stratigraphy
Nicholaus Steno
(1638-1686)
 Precursors:
The Breakthrough
Suggested that fossils might be
useful for making chronological
comparisons of rocks of similar age
Robert Hooke
(1635-1703)

Founder of comparative anatomy Peratherium cuvieri

and vertebrate paleontology.
Demonstrated the existence of
extinctions
Georges Cuvier
(1769-1832)

Founder of stratigraphy. Used

fossils to correlate sedimentary
rocks. First geological maps.
First to clearly demonstrated
that the fossils found in
younger strata appear more
Alexandre modern than those in older
Brongniart strata
(1870-1847)
 Natural Selection
A visit to the Galapagos Islands in
1835 helped Darwin formulating
his ideas on natural selection. He
found that different species of
finches were adapted to different
environmental niches. The finches
also differed in beak shape, food
source, and how food was
captured.

Charles Darwin The origin of species (1859)

(1809-1882) Species are not fixed entities
but gradually evolve under the
influence of natural selection

Missing links result from the

incompleteness of the fossil
record

More individuals are produced than can survive

There is a struggle for existence, because of the difference
Alfred Russel between offspring size and reproducing individuals (survival of Thomas Malthus
(1766-1834)
Wallace the « fittest ») Essay on the Principle of
(1823-1913) Individuals with advantageous variations have a greater Population (1798)
Geographer, chance to survive and reproduce
plants and animals produce
Entomologist, Inheritance of positively selected traits far more offspring than can
Anthropologist
survive
 The modern synthesis (1930-50)
Natural selection and mendelian genetics
Genetic variation in populations arises by chance trough R. Fisher
mutation (mistakes in DNA replication) and recombination T. Dobzansky
(crossing over of homologous chromosomes during J.S.B. Haldane
meiosis) S. Wright
Evolution consists primarily of changes in the frequency J. Huxley
of alleles between two generations as a result of genetic E. Mayr
drift (random change in allele frequency trough time), gene
flow and natural selection
George G. Simpson
Speciation occurs gradually when populations are
(1902-1984)
reproductively isolated by geographic barriers
Tempo and Mode in
Evolution (1944)

With his work on fossil horses, Simpson discounted

orthogenesis and showed that their evolution did not
follow a simple and sustained direction (size
increase, reduction of the number of digits, etc.), but
was in fact composed of many diverging, branching
lineages.
Simpson first noted that fossil species display
intervals of morphological quiescence (interpreted
as weak directional selection or stabilizing selection) 150 species
alternating with shorter periods of accelerated
changes (interpreted as bouts of directional
selection)
 Punctuated equilibria
A critique of Neo-Darwinism
Stephen Jay Gould
(1941-2002)
Ontogeny and phylogeny
(1977)
The structure of evolutionary
theory (2002)
Pure phyletic Revised neo-darwinian Punctuated equilibria
gradualism phyletic gradualism

The core of Neo-Darwinism

All evolution is due to the accumulation of small genetic changes, guided by natural selection and evolution
above the species level is nothing but an extrapolation and magnification of the events that take place within
populations and species .
Ernst Mayr, Animal species and evolution (1963)

selection works simultaneously at 3 levels: genes, organisms, species (not only at the level of the organism).
This is called the 'hierachical theory of selection'.
internal constraints challenge the notion that mutations occur in all directions. Internal factors restrict the
freedom of natural selection to establish and control the direction of evolutionary change
natural selection is not a creative force and can only eliminate the unfit
catastrophic mass extinctions challenge Darwin's notion that biotic struggle between individuals is the most
important cause
new taxa appear abruptly and do not change until they go extinct (« Stasis is data »)
The Cambrian and other explosive radiations are not compatible with phyletic gradualism
 Reminder: Modes of selection
Prerequisites
Phenotypic variation
Variation correlates with fitness
Variation has a heritable component

Normal (Gaussian) distribution of

continuous phenotypic character
Standard deviation square root
of the variance
Stabilizing
As a rule of thumb,
selection
~68% of the population
is within 1σ of the
mean, ~95% are within
2σ of the mean, and
99% of the population
is within 3σ of the mean

Disruptive
selection

Directional
selection
The Cambrian evolutionary
radiation
 Explosive radiations:
Ammonoids and Mammals
Diversification in the vacated ecospace
« Incumbency »

Number of
families
Evo-Devo

Morphological/phenotypical evolutionary change is generated by

alteration of the timing of activity in regulatory genes

Getting your limbs back (© Hergé) Vestigial limb in primitive snake changing a flipper into a leg

External or environmental stimuli can also switch regulatory genes on or

off, thus allowing much flexibility in the use of the conservative
developmental gene tool boxes

Fossil record

Bursts of evolutionary changes linked with times of major environmental

changes take advantage of developmental plasticity and released
Darwinian competition