LESSON 5: Evidence of Evolution

We can:
✓ Explain how fossil records, comparative anatomy, and genetic information provide evidence for evolution (S10LT-IIIf-39);
✓ Compare homologous, analogous, and vestigial structures and analyze their significance in evolutionary history; and
✓ Identify the effect of gene mutation on the evolution of the species.

Questions/Main Ideas Answers/Notes

What is EVOLUTION? ➢ The central idea of evolution is that life on Earth shares a mutual ancestor, as
you and your cousin share a common grandparent.
➢ Evolution may be defined as any net directional change or any cumulative
change in the characteristics of organisms or populations over many generations
— in other words, descent with modification.

Evidence of EVOLUTION ➢ Charles Darwin proposed the idea that all new species descend from an
ancestor. Thus, he performed an exhaustive amount of research to provide as
much evidence as possible. Today, the significant evidence for this theory is the
fossil record, embryology, comparative anatomy, and molecular biology.

1. FOSSIL ➢ Fossils are the remnants of an creature from the primitive times. They are
generally formed when an organism is covered by sediments that then harden
into sandstone, slate, mudstone, or flint. Organisms also fossilize when buried in
volcanic ash or entombed in tar or tree sap. By simply studying fossils occurring
in different strata of rocks, geologists can reconstruct evolutionary change time
and course. It can show that variation in time has happened. When fossils are set
in the order of how old they are, we can directly compare their body structures.
Through these, fossils' experts can confirm that species are not fixed but can
evolve into other species over time.

2. COMPARATIVE ANATOMY
➢ Structures are classified to be homologous if they have similar embryonic origins
A. Homologous and Analogous
Structures and analogous if they are identical only in function.

➢ vestigial structures are structures that have gone their function in the organism
and have become reduced in size (because of efficiency).
B. Vestigial Structures
 3. EMBRYOLOGY ➢ A study of organism's embryonic progress provides further clues to its
evolutionary past. For example, during your development, human folds in the
neck area are referred to as pharyngeal pouches, which in some animals
become gills. From an evolutionary perspective, many people believe similarities
in embryology are valuable because they reveal our kinship with other phylum
members.

Summary of the Lesson? (Write what you have learned/your realizations here)
I learned that...

Prepared by:

Emmanuel A. Mamaril, LPT

Teacher I, Science Department