This section in a nutshell - Themes 3-5 in DNA to Diversity

• Theme 3: What is Evolution?

• Theme 4: Transmitting genes in Individuals (Mendel – 4a) and populations

(Population Genetics – 4b), and beyond (Speciation, 4c)

• Theme 5: Phylogeny, Macroevolution, and Diversity

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 Theme 3: What is evolution?
• Where does biological diversity come from?

• What is evolution and how do we study it?

• Where did the idea of evolution by natural selection

come from - what ideas does it rely on?

• What are the required conditions for evolution by

natural selection to occur?

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 Where does Biological Diversity come from?
• 1.7 million species have been described (1/10 of the total number)

• For every species existing today, 100 have gone extinct since beginning of life

• Over 1 billion extant and/or extinct species!

Biological diversity reflects an interaction between

the forms that preceded them and an ongoing
process of change

All species are temporary: extinction is as much a

part of nature as is the origin of species.

How can we explain this diversity?

EVOLUTION

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 Dictionary says?
Oxford Dictionary of Biology:
The gradual process by which the present diversity of plant and animal life arose from the
earliest and most primitive organisms, which is believed to have been continuing for at
least the past 3 billion years.

Darwin said:
“Evolution” as descent with modification
Results from changes in populations over time

Now we say:
Change in allele frequencies in a population over time
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Some misconceptions about evolution by natural selection
• Evolution is a theory for the of origin
of life
• Evolution gives species traits needed
for survival
• Evolution progresses species toward
“perfection” by removing bad genes
• Life evolves only by random chance
• Evolution doesn’t affect humans
• Species are clear and easy to
recognize
• Evolution is slow and gradual
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/VIIDTrends.shtml
• Evolution is an explanation for how life
has changed since the origin
• Selection can only operate on the
available variations in a population
• “Bad” genes may be maintained by
mutation, gene flow, late effect onset
• Variation from mutation is random, but
selection favours beneficial traits
• Humans continue to adapt
• Simple view of species as groups that
can interbreed doesn’t always apply
• Usually slow, but can also occur in rapid
bursts
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How do we study evolution? – watch in your own time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv4Ca-f4W9Q

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 How do we study evolution?
• Genetics: how does inheritance work?

• Population and quantitative genetics:

How do allele frequencies change in populations over time and space?
Looking at evolution in real-time….

• Paleobiology:
How do large scale evolutionary changes affect groups of organisms?

• Integration of genetics and morphology: developmental patterns and

evolutionary transitions

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Theme 3: What is evolution?
• Where does biological diversity come from?

• What is evolution and how do we study it?

• Where did the idea of evolution by natural selection come from - what ideas
does it rely on?

• What are the required conditions for evolution by natural selection to occur?

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 Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)

• Leading comparative anatomist and

palaeontologist of his time

• Found that many species have gone extinct, (he thought in

floods) the number of species were declining
Public domain
• Showed that large bones in USA belonged to extinct mastodon,
not modern elephants

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Charles Lyell (1797-1875)

• “Principles of Geology” :

Landforms (mountains, valleys, etc.) were not fixed, but

changed slowly as a result of geological processes that
can be observed today (not catastrophes)

• Earth was much older than the accepted age

Public domain

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 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

• Believed that species changed over time – transmutation

• Lamarckism: acquired traits can be inherited , lost

through disuse

• Started Darwin thinking about the importance of

inheritance
Public domain

• Modern epigenetic research suggests he wasn’t totally

wrong

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Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)

• “Principle of Populations”:

“Population, when unchecked, increased in a geometrical

ratio and subsistence for man in an arithmetical ratio.”

Human population can increase faster than food supply -

leads to competition and survival of the “fittest”. Public domain

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 What would Malthus’ idea of limited resources look like?

Quantity

Time
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 Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

• Upper class family in England

– first studied medicine then theology

• Voyage of the Beagle (1831-36)

– Darwin hired as a gentleman’s companion

• First wrote about natural selection in his notebooks in

1838, but did not publish

Public domain

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 Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Voyage of the Beagle (1832-1837)

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Observations convinced Darwin that life
evolved

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 Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species
by means of natural selection
(November 1859)

Variation
Differences

in traits in fitness
The struggle for existence from limited resources

= favourable variations tend to be preserved and

unfavourable ones tend to be destroyed

Inheritance
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 Darwin’s Four Postulates
1. Individuals within a species ________.

2. Some variation is ______________________.

3. More offspring are produced than can _______________________________________.

4. Survival and reproduction is ____________ , but related to

____________________________.

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 Alfred Russell Wallace
(1823-1913)

• Came up with the theory of natural selection independently

of Darwin, but later, in 1858

• Spurred Darwin to publish his own work on the subject

Public domain

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Charles Darwin’s Ideas

• Biological evolution is change in species over time

–This was not a new idea at the time
–But there were no good mechanisms to explain how these changes
occurred

• Natural selection is just such a mechanism, and this is

what Darwin contributed.

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 Key Concepts

Evolution in response to natural selection is inevitable if:

–There is variation in a trait
–Variation is heritable
–Some variants survive and reproduce more than others

Next time…
Specific features of the environment can generate natural selection
on a trait

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Natural selection is the driving force of biological
diversity in different environments
Natural
Variation Selection Reproductive
in traits Success
(fitness)

Struggle for existence from limited Genes

resources : favourable variations tend
to be preserved and unfavourable
ones tend to be destroyed
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 Case Study: Darwin’s Finches and

Natural Selection

Darwin noticed species on islands quite close together were quite different
from island to island

The closer they were geographically, the more similar the species were to
one another

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 The Galapagos Islands

• Located approximately 1100km from the coast of
Ecuador, South America
• Similar distance between Calgary and Winnipeg
– Mostly ground between the two cities
– Mostly deep water between the Galapagos Islands and
the coast of South America

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Endemic Species of Galapagos Islands

Among the kinds of animals found here and nowhere
else:

– 1 penguin species
– 1 giant tortoise species
– 1 marine iguana species
– 7 species of lava lizard
– 14 species of sea cucumber
– 1 species of sea lion
– 1 species of hawk
– several species each of mockingbirds, doves, owls,
flycatchers, and yellow warblers

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 Implications
• Terrestrial species on these islands won’t have many relatives nearby
• Neighboring islands will have close relatives
–but new terrestrial species won’t arrive on these islands from the South American
mainland very often
–most of the island species have had plenty of time to differentiate from their nearest
living relatives

• Another way of saying this is that there is very little gene flow between
the islands and the mainland

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 Galapagos Finches
Warbler finch Cactus finch

Woodpecker finch Sharp-beaked finch

Small r Small
W a r b l e
insectivorous ground
tree finch finch finch

Gr
Large Cactus

es

ou
insectivorous Medium

ch
eater

nd
fin
tree finch

f
ground

inc
e finch
Tre
Insect eaters

he
s
Seed eaters Large
Vegetarian ground
tree finch Bud eater finch

Adaptive radiation - a process in which organisms diversify rapidly

from an ancestral species into many new forms 37








Medium ground finch (Geospiza

A beak gene?
fortis) on Daphne Major Island

• Sequences from 120 finches

• Phylogenetic taxonomy similar to phenotype-

based taxonomy with a few important differences
suggesting extensive gene flow (hybrid breeding)

• ALX1 gene (encodes transcription factor)

affecting craniofacial development associated
with beak shape

Lamichhaney et al. 2015. Evolution of Darwin’s finches and their

beaks revealed by genome sequencing. Nature.
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 Heritability

•It’s important to note that beak size and shape is heritable in these
finches
–A bird with a large, deep beak will have offspring with large and deep beaks

•Natural selection can occur without heritability, but evolution by natural

selection cannot!

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 What Darwin didn’t know

Natural Selection (non-random)

Phenotypic Survival/
Variation Reproduction
Heritability

DNA

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Theme 3: Learning Objectives

• Define evolution as the change in allele frequencies over generations

• Explain the process of evolution by natural selection in your own words

• Link the importance of existing variation within a population to the process of

natural selection

• Explain why heritable variation leading to differential fitness is essential for the
process of evolution

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution - without that
light [biology] becomes a pile of sundry facts, some of them interesting or
curious, but making no meaningful picture as a whole.”
- Theodosius Dobzhansky, 1973

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