Chapter 22 Evolution by Natural Selection

1. Key Concepts

- Populations and species evolve, (i.e. characteristics change through time)

– evolution = changes in allele frequencies over time

- Natural selection occurs when individuals with certain alleles produce the most offspring in a

population.

- Adaptation = genetically based trait that increases an individual’s ability to produce offspring in

a particular environment.

- Evolution by natural selection is not progressive (goal oriented)

- Individuals DO NOT evolve, populations CAN evolve

- Organisms do not do things for the good of the species

- not all traits are adaptive

- All adaptations are constrained by trade-offs and genetic and historical factors.

2. The struggle to explain similarities between organisms AND diversity of forms

- Plato (428-348 BC) claimed every organism is an imperfect copy of a perfect, immutable

(unchanging) essence or archetype

- Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC, Plato’s student) proposed a linear, “great chain of being” based on

increasing size and complexity, with humans at the top.

- “typological thinking”

– species = unchanging

– Variation = unimportant

3. The Evolution of Evolutionary Thought

- 1809 Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck proposed a formal theory of evolution

- simple organisms evolve by moving up the chain over time

 - inheritance of acquired characters- individuals change in response to their environment and pass

on changes to their offspring

4. The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

- Proposed in 1858 by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace

- characteristics of species can be modified from generation to generation

- change in species is not linear, but based on variation among individuals in populations

(population = individuals of the same species living in the same area at the same time)

5. Evolution by natural selection

- Individuals in a population with certain heritable traits tend to produce more offspring than

individuals without those traits, leading to changes in the makeup of the population.

- “descent with modification” (Darwin)

- The pattern component of the theory of evolution by natural selection makes two claims about the

nature of species:

(1) they change through time

(2) they are related by common ancestry.

6. Evidence for Change through Time: Extinction

- Fossils in sedimentary rock are associated with different intervals in the geologic time scale.

- Decay of radioactive isotopes identifies geologic time scale.

– Earth is about 4.6 billion years old

– Life on Earth is about 3.4 billion years old

- Many extinct species (99.9% have gone extinct)

- Darwin interpreted extinction as evidence that species are dynamic. If species have gone extinct,

then the array of species living on Earth has changed through time.

7. Evidence for change through time: Transitional Forms

- Extinct fossil species are typically succeeded, in the same region, by similar living species;
- “law of succession”

- Darwin interpreted this as evidence that extinct forms and living forms are related, that they

represent ancestors and descendents.

8. Evidence for Change through Time: Vestigial Traits

- Reduced or incomplete structure that has reduced or no function

- But, similar to functioning organs or structures in closely related species

9. Stopped here

10. Common Ancestry: Geographic Relationships

- Darwin’s mockingbirds: different islands had distinct (but similar) species.

- Darwin proposed that the mockingbirds were similar because they had descended from a common

ancestor.
 - The mockingbird species are part of a phylogeny, a family tree of populations or species.

11. Common Ancestry: Genetic and Developmental Homology

- Homology = similarity between species descended from a common ancestor.

- Genetic homology = similarity in DNA sequences of different species

– Chimpanzees and Humans - 98% similar

- Developmental homology = similarity in embryonic traits.

12. Structural Homology

- Structural homology = similarities in adult morphologies

- Similar traits in different species are often due to common descent

– Independently created species would not share homologous traits

13. How Does Natural Selection Work?

Darwinian evolution in four steps:

1. Individuals in a population vary in their traits.

2. Some of these trait differences are heritable.

3. More offspring are produced each generation than can survive. Only some individuals in the population

survive long enough to produce offspring.

4. Individuals with certain heritable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce  Natural selection

14. How Does Natural Selection Work?

Modern abridged statement : Evolution by natural selection occurs when

(1) heritable variation leads to

(2) differential success in survival and reproduction.

• Evolution = change in allele frequencies in a population over time.

15. Industrial melanism

16. The Process of Evolution: Fitness and Adaptation

- fitness = the ability of an individual to produce offspring (relative to other individuals)

- adaptation = heritable trait that increases fitness in a particular environment (relative to

individuals lacking that trait)

17. Resistance to Antibiotics: M. tuberculosis

- Bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis tuberculosis (TB, consumption)

– killed up to a third of all adults in 19th century cities

- Controlled with sanitation, nutrition, and antibiotics (rifampin)

- Since 1980s drug-resistant strains of TB have evolved

18. Resistance to Antibiotics: M. tuberculosis

- Galapagos finches today

- Peter and Rosemary Grant have documented evolutionary changes in finch body size and beak

shape for 30+ years

- beak form and body size is heritable

- 1977 a major drought - 84% of the finches died of starvation

- Did natural selection alter beak size of surviving finches??

- HO No change in beak size.

HA Beak characteristics did change.

- Body Size, Beak Size, and Beak Shape in Finches

19. Selection Versus Evolutionary Change

- Natural selection  individuals

- evolutionary change  characteristics of a population

- Individuals do not change under natural selection

– They produce more surviving offspring than other individuals

- Acclimation = changes in an individual’s phenotype in response to changes in the environment

(genotypes remain fixed)

 – Not heritable!!

- adaptation = change in a population’s allele frequencies in response to natural selection

- Evolution by natural selection :

NOT goal directed or progressive (making better, complex forms)

Organisms are NOT "higher" or "lower”

DOES favor individuals that happen to be better adapted to an environment at the time.

20. Darwinian Evolution Produces a Tree of Life

- Extant species are related by a common ancestry and all have evolved equally through time.

- As evolution continues, species may become simpler or more complex, depending on which traits

are favored by the environment.

21. Why are many adaptations imperfect?

Not all traits are adaptive, adaptations are often limited by:

1. Genetic constraints/correlations – 2 traits may be in opposition, can’t both be expressed

2. Too little genetic variation

3. Fitness trade-offs – compromise between traits

4. History - all traits evolve from previously existing traits

22. Animals Do Not Do Things for the Good of the Species

• Individuals with self-sacrificing alleles die and do not produce offspring.

• Individuals with selfish alleles survive and produce offspring.