Fossilization and Information Loss

- Fossilization is rare
- For dead remains to survive into fossil records requires exceptional conditions

How Information in Fossils is Lost

Scavenging
- Low preservation potential of remains if exposed at the Earths surface (oxygen)
- After an organism dies, its tissues are destroyed sue to a variety of factors
- Large and small scavengers take their share of soft tissue

Microbial Decay
- Microbes break down dead organic matter further at the molecular level
- Decay often proceeds from the inside out

Physical (Mechanical) Weathering

- Breaks down hard mineralized tissue (shells, bones, teeth)

Chemical Weathering
- Mineralized tissues tend to dissolve and erode at the surface

Hard Parts are Preferentially Preserved

- Hard parts have a greater chance of survival in the fossil record than soft tissues because hard parts are more robust,
stable, and resistant to destruction
- BUT are rarely preserved properly because soft tissue decay removes the connective tissue that holds the hard parts
together

Disarticulation  dissociation of hard parts

Fragmentation  Breakage and dissociation of fragments thus formed

Hard Parts that May Survive are Subject To

- Dissolution  Breakdown of hard parts through the dissolution of minerals
- Abrasion  Destruction of hard tissues due to “sandblasting” effects of suspended sediment particles

Promote Preservation
- Absence of oxygen slows down decomposition process and discourages scavenging
- Rapid entombment (animal dies quickly)
- Precipitation of stable minerals  calcium carbonate, calcite, silica, calcium phosphate

Modes of Preservation
Petrification/ Permineralization
- Filling of pores with additional minerals
- Iron carbonate
- Gives us an idea how dinosaurs were reconstructed

Silification
- The original organic components of an organism are replaces by silica such as quartz, chalcedony or opal

Pyritization
- Marine environments (brachiopods)
- Preserved with iron and sulfur

Phosphatization
- Hard parts filled with phosphate

Molds and Casts

- Internal mold  preserves the detail of the inner surface
- Cast  Infilling of an external mold, all of the material that the outside material mold filled with other stuff
- External mold  Preserves external features
Soft Tissue Preservation
- Muscles, skin … things that tend to rot away, therefore it is rare to preserve
- Must be preserved immediately (buried alive)

Carbonization
- Formation of carbon from organic matter

Refridgeration
- May be preserved by ice

Tar Impregnation
- Taking a material that will preserve hard and soft parts
- Something high in salt and vinegar = bacteria doesn't grow

Phosphatization
- Soft tissue replaced by phosphate

Post Burial Process

- Recrystallization  Overtime, crystals of a mineral tend to increase in size to achieve greater stability  loss of detail
- Compaction  When the sediment is soft, you can distort it

Stromatolites: Trace fossils formation by sediment accretion

Sediment trapping by bacterial silmemats and filaments will go through

Coprolites:
Fossilized poo

The Origin of Life

Domains Kingdoms
1. Archaea  Archaebacteria
2. Bacteria  Eubacteria
3. Eukarya  Protista, Plantae, Fungi, Animalia

Nanobacteria
- About 1000x smaller than regular bacteria
- Debate lies in whether or not it is too small to contain genetic material

Evolution of Earths Atmospheres

1. Initial atmosphere much like Jupiter (rich in Hydrogen and Helium from solar nebula)
- Burned off by Solar wind/ escaped weak gravitational field
- So far away from the sun they have attained their original atmosphere
- As the sun began to undergo fusion and let off heat, losing the Jupiter like atmosphere
2. Second atmosphere much like Venus (dominated by carbon dioxide from Earth’s interior)
- “The big bump”
- Much like Earths second atmosphere, and rich in carbon dioxide from Earths interior through volcanoes
- Extreme greenhouse
3. Third and present atmosphere (rich in oxygen)
- Modified from second atmosphere due to rise of Anaerobic photosynthesizing organisms
- Original atmosphere had no oxygen at all, but living things made earth have the oxygen rich atmosphere it has today

Some Basic Characteristics of Living things

- Metabolism  Living things harvest energy from environment, use energy to build, maintain their bodies
- Regulation  Living things have a complex integrated system that controls conditions within their bodies
- Replication  Living things can produce offspring
- Response to external stimuli  Living things to respond to conditions of their external environment as individuals
and larger populations
Basic Stages Envisaged in the Development of Life
Raw Ingredients
- Assumed to have been present in the atmosphere and hydrosphere of early earth
Monomers
- Demonstrated to be capable of forming abiotically in Miller experiments
- Used high energy electrons on a mixture of methane, water, and ammonia
- Adenine, ribose, and deoxyribose synthesized abiotically
- Problem: ingredients may not have been present in early life
Polymers
- Assumed to have formed through concentration, dehydration of monomers through…
1. Evaporation of solution near hot springs
2. Freezing and concentration of solution in cold environments
3. Adsorption into changed mineral surfaces
Cell Membrane
- Required to form the first isolated cell (containing complex material)
- Lipids can form liposomes (hollow spheres of lipids)
- Proteins will form microspheres when dehydrated and agitated
Important Properties of Microspheres
1. Maintain separate stable phases in water
2. Membrane maintains electric pH and redox gradients
Reproduction
- Problematic: What came first?
- Synthesis and replication of RNA happens with the help of enzymes
- Proteins are synthesized using coded information in RNA and DNA
Living Cell

RNA World (The Naked Gene)

- RNA can function as both
1. “information” molecules that can be replicated
2. Catalysts like protein enzymes as ribozymes

Rationale of Naked Gene Hypothesis

1. Earliest life form was an energy harvesting RNA molecule that could catalyze it’s own replication
2. The RNA molecules most efficient at energy harvesting and producing themselves from environmental changes would
win over less effective individuals
3. Natural selection would build complex metabolic and regulation systems incorporating protein enzymes
4. RNA that could replicate in double stranded form would proliferate since these forms would have two copies of each
code, allowing better detection of errors in code

Making Genetic Material Abiotically isn’t Impossible, but it’s Not Easy
Problems
1. RNA, DNA are very complex molecules
2. Need high concentration of building blocks to concentrate and polymerize
3. Replication of RNA is a two step process
- Single strand of RNA present, each of its links attract complimentary link (mirror image) out of prebiotic sources like
making a zipper from one side as template for the other
- Process would have to be repeated using new mirror image to duplicate original side (requires enzymes)

Did Replication Start from Proteins?

1. Sheltered lagoon filled with tiny proteinoid microspheres
2. Proteinoids catalyze chemical reactions and form outer surfaces acting like cell membranes
3. Nucleic acids (DNA, RNA), formed on proteinoid enzyme templates
4. RNA or DNA evolve to function as replicator molcules
5. Splitting and fusion of microspheres with exchange of material

The Clay Critter Revisited

Properties of Mineral Crystals
1. The result of atoms naturally organized themselves
 2. Organization at micro and macro scale
3. Clay minerals electrostatically charged, grow by adding layers to themselves (like pages in a book)
4. When broken, the fragments can continue to produce on their own (abiotic reproduction)

Clay Critter
1. Growing clay crystals compete with each other for resources they grow
2. Crystals break apart, be transported in new area where they continue to grow and fragment again; in effect, the world
is populated with competing clay beings
3. Genetic code in effect, charged mineral surfaces
4. Eventually clay critters begin to absorb and incorporate carbon based molecules to apparatus
5. Synthesis of DNA or RNA to augment and ultimately replace clay based genes

Earths Earliest Life

Origin of Life Recap
How and where the first living cell came into beings… Possibilities:

1. That the essential ingredients for life were assembled in an aquatic environment (in dissolved form) and these were
late incorporated into a cell membrane
2. That the cell membrane itself (a permeable membrane) acted to bring the ingredients together and that these were
eventually incorporated inside the membrane
3. That the complex ingredients (including genetic material) were assembled on charged mineral particles, and were
later encapsulated in a cell membrane (perhaps the membrane originating as an organic film that covered the mineral
surface)

Single Celled Prokaryote Microfossils – 3.5 billion years ago (Archean)

Stromatolite 3.5 billion years (Archean)
Filamentous Prokaryote Microfossils (Probably Cyanobacteria) 3.46 billion years ago (Archean)

Key Points
1. Between 4.5 to 2.5 billion years ago, there was almost no OXYGEN present in either the hydrosphere or the
atmosphere
2. From about 2.5 to 2.0 billion years ago, enough oxygen was dissolved in sweater to precipitate IRON oxides as
sediment (forming magnetite and hematite in banded iron formations)
3. Beginning at about 2 billion years ago, there was enough oxygen in the atmosphere to oxidize (rust) iron on land –
from here onward, banded iron formations decrease in abundance because iron was no longer dissolved in high
quantities of seawater
- Up to around 2 billion years ago, life flourished in the absence of OXYGEN

Still, there are a few Interesting Points to Consider

- The evolution of early, simple, life, (prokaryotes) was extremely SLOW (very little change over the span of 3.6 and 1.5
billion years ago)
- Simple eukaryotes appeared by at least 1.5 billion years ago
- Eukaryotes had a bit of a slow start (between 1.5 billion and at least 575 million years ago) then exploded in diversity
upon the rise of multicellular forms

Evolution of Sex and the Rise of Eukaryotes

Two Main Types of Organisms
1. Prokaryotes (include Archaea and Bacteria)
- Lack of nucleus
2. Eukaryotes (Eukarya only)
- Has a true nucleus
Prokaryotes
- Very simple cells enclosed by cell wall containing an inner part of amino acids and sugars and an outer part of lipids
- Have a single chromosome contained within a nucleoid region rather than a distinct membrane bound nucleus
Reproduction
- Simple process of binary fission
1. The cell makes an identical copy of its genetic material and each of the two copies ends up in each daughter cell
2. The daughter cells are clones of their parent
- Advantage: reproduce quickly
- Disadvantage: No genetic diversity and can be killed easily

Eukaryotes
- Complex cells with a membrane bound nucleus, and other structures such as mitochondria and plastids
- Cells of eukaryotes are much larger than prokaryotes
Production
- In eukaryotes, genetic material is contained within the chromosomes, which are paired in the nucleus (humans have
23 pairs)
- Have two ways can reproduce – Mitosis and Meiosis
Mitosis
- Involves the replication of genetic material and splitting to form clones
- Function: The main process involved in maintaining tissue growth and to some extent reproduction

Meiosis:
- Involves splitting of the genetic material that can later be recombined (via sexual reproduction) to restore full genetic
code
- Function: Fundamental process involved in reproduction among eukaryotes (meeting of 2 cells, sperm and egg to
produce an offspring

Asexual vs. Sexual Reproduction

Asexual  Prokaryotes
- Mutation
- Errors in code transcription
Sexual  Eukaryotes
- Mutation
- Errors in code transcription
- Crossing over and trading of genetic material between chromosomes pairs
- Splitting and recombination of genetic material
- Natural selection acts on these sources of variation to weed out the bad and keep the good. Sexual reproduction in
eukaryotes ensures lots of variation and change

Origin of Nucleus
- Nucleus was produced by the infolding of the cell membrane and intaking the genetic material within the cell
- Genetic material in chromosome like clump, and then the infolded membrane surrounds the genetic material

But Not all Eukaryotes are Alike… Why do we have plants and animals?
- Answer probably lies in the types of organelles eukaryotes possess
Animals and Plants have mitochondria
- The “power plants” of cells
- Provide the energy a cell needs to move, divide, and produce secretory products
- Food (sugar) is combined with oxygen to produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate) – the primary energy source for the
cell
- Similar to some bacteria in form and function

Plants have plastids

- The “food factories” of plant cells
- It is here that photosynthesis occurs (energy from sunlight is harnessed to produce sugar)
- Similar to cyanobacteria in form and function

Endosymbiosis Theory
- It has been suggested that mitochondria and plastids are actually bacteria that decided to reside in large host
prokaryotes
Could Eukaryotes have started out as big prokaryotes without mitochondria?
- Giardia doesn’t have one, so it is likely that ancestral eukaryotes were able to survive without one as well
- Thrives in an anaerobic environment and eats anaerobic bacteria.
- Its ancestor probably had a mitochondrion, but Giardia evolved to live without one

Serial Endosymbiosis Hypothesis

1. A prokaryote ingested some aerobic bacteria. The aerobes were protected and produced energy for the prokaryote
2. Over a long period of time, the aerobes become the mitochondria, no longer able to live on their own
3. Some primitive prokaryotes also ingested cyanobacteria, which contain photosynthesis pigments
4. The cyanobacteria become chloroplasts, no longer able to live on their own.
- The basic thoughts on the origin of plant and animal cells
1. Aerobic bacterium becomes mitochondrion
2. Cyanobacterium becomes plastid

Evidence for Origin of Mitochondria and Chloroplasts as “Guest” Bacteria

- Mitochondria and chloroplasts are of similar size to bacteria
- Have complex double membrane systems similar to bacteria
- Fairly self contained, as if they derived from functional cells
- Divide by binary fission (asexually) similar to bacteria

Up to 575 million years ago, eukaryotes remained relatively simple in form (cysts, blobs, and strands) Then the snowball earth
event happened

Formation and Breakup of Rodinia

- Supercontinent Rodinia forms at about 1100 million years ago
- Rodinia breaks up at about 750 million years ago
- Continents clustered near equator
- Believed to have triggered the “snowball earth”

The Snowball Earth

- Almost entire earth froze over
- Breakup of a single landmass (Rodinia) leaves small continents scattered near the equator
- Carbon dioxide is removed from atmosphere by intense weathering of silicate rich continental rocks
- Reduced carbon dioxide in atmosphere causes global temperatures to fail
- Carbon dioxide more abundant than today

1. Before the Snowball

- Ice packs form in the polar oceans, spread towards the equator
- White ice reflects more solar enegery than darker seawater, driving temperatures lower
- Starts a runaway glaciation effect

2. Into the Ice House

- Temperatures to -50C
- No rainfall, ice is 1 km thick
- Most microscopic organisms die
- No rainfall, so carbon dioxide emitted from volcanoes is not removed from the atmosphere

3. Snowball to Slush
- 10 million years of volcanic activity raises carbon dioxide concentration
- Greenhouse warming effect causes ice at equator to melt
- Open waters in the tropics absorb more solar energy than ice, accelerating the warming of oceans

4. From Freeze to Fry

- Over 50 C , intense cycle of evaporation and rainfall
- Carbonic and acid rain weather and erode rock debris
- Swollen rivers wash bicarbonate and other ions leading to deposition of carbonate sediment
 Survey of the Invertebrates
- Latest Proterozoic (Ediacaran Period)
- Oxygenated atmosphere and seas
- Complex, soft bodied metazoa

Adolph Seilacher
- Concept of Vendozoa
- Soft bodies
- “quitted” structure (fluid filled bags)
- Dependent on microbial mats
- Fixed to seafloor, photosynthesizers”

- Start out simple by a single celled protista

- Phylum Protista: the importance of chanoflagellates
- Some chanoflagellates form colonies that all individuals cooperate in moving their flagella, generating a current from
which food particles can be extracted
Sponges
- Have collared cells, but these form a larger, integrated structure supported by rigid spicules or organic tissue
- The differentiation of cells required by the evolution of HOX genes (genes that dictate differing functions of cells)
- Sponges show a fractal organization
- Two layers of tissue – ectoderm and endoderm

Worms or Bilaterans
- Most complex metazoan body plan
- Trioblastic  3 principal cell layers: ectoderm, mesoderm, endoderm
- Basic bilateral symmetry: fractal geometry breaks down, but tissue differention is incredible

The Coelom
- The ectoderm and endoderm can be viewed as essentially solid continuous layers
- The mesoderm is a little more complicated in that it actually lines a fluid filled body cavity called the coelom
- It is within the coelom that internal organs other than the gut develop

Coelom and Orifice Development

Protostomes
- In the protostomes, the coelom develops directly from mesodermal tissue
- Another distinguishing characteristic to the protostomes is the development of the mouth before the anus in the
young embryo
Deuterostomes
- The coelom develops from out pockets of the gut
- Another distinguishing characteristic to the protostomes is the development of the nus before the mouth in the young
embryo

Evolution of the Coelom

- The coelom may have initially evolved as a hydraulic device
- A bilateran with a coelom can squeeze its internal fluids with body muscles
- The squeezing bulges the body wall at the weakest point can can be used as a power drill for burrowing
- This pumping could facilitate the transport of oxygen through the body without relying on the bathing of tissues in
oxygenated water by diffusion through a thin ectoderm
- This means that animals could efficiently deliver oxygen through their bodies without compromising the effectiveness
of their outer skins (ectoderm) or size
- This also meant that animals could evolve exoskeletons

Important Protostomes
Flatworms
- Do not have a coelom and it is likely that something like a flatworm gave rise to more advance coelomate bilaterans

Phylum Mollusca, brachipoda, bryozoa, arthropoda

Deuterstomes
- Endchinodermata (spiny skin), Hemichordata, Chordata
 Evolution of Fishes
- The origin of fishes can be traced to the first chordates (something like Pikaia or the modern Branchiostoma) that
lacked a backbone but possessed a flexible rod of tissue called a notochord
- Like other chordates, these have the basic worm-like body plan, muscle packs and a pharynx

- Primitive Cephalochordates: Fish like forms without backbone (but with well differentiated head and body
- Earliest fishes were jawless fishes, that evolved into jawed fishes
- Diversity of fish peaked in the Devonian period.

First True Fishes

Jawless Fishes (Agnatha)
Ancient Armoured (Ostracoderms)

Evolution of Jaws (Step 1)

- The evolution of jaws is an example of evolutionary modification of existing structures to perform new functions
- Jaws are modified gill arches
- Start with no jaws and many gill slits

Step 2
- Lose first couple gill arches and modify third in line into solid jaws (upper mandible is upper part of arch becomes
attached to skull, lower mandible remains free)

Step 3
- Modify next gill arch in line into secondary components of the upper and lower mandibles

First Jawed Fishes (Acanthhodians)

- Distinguished by spines that supported primitive “fins” and slightly hardened internal skeleton
- May have been ancestors of bony fishes
- Range: Silurian Permian

Placoderms
- Distinguished by jaws and thick plates of bony armour
- Fairly primitive jawed fishes
- Hard outer skeleton

Cartilaginous Fishes: Chondrichthyes

- Sharks, rays, skates
- Distinguished by cartilaginous skeleton, exposed gill slits, and skin with imbedded denticles
- Silurian – Recent

Bony Fishes
- Fins supported by thin bones that radiate out from body
- Fins attached to body by fleshy lobe with complex internal bone structure
- Fins more robust and muscular than in any rayed rish
- Devonian-Recent

Rayfinned Fishes
- Forms one usually thinks of as fishes
- More diverse group of present day fishes

Lobe finned Fishes

- Once fairly diverse (palezoic)
- Three major groups (Coelocanths, lungfishes, and rhipidistians)
 Evolution of Amphibians
Middle to Late Devonian: Rhipidistians
- Lungs were developed in two groups of lobe-finned fishes – Rhipdidstians and lungfishes
- The rhipidistians are considered to be the ultimate ancestor of the tetrapods (vertebrate animals with four limbs
adapted for life on land)
- Rhipdipistian’s have evolved “land animal like features” approaching those of primitive tetrapods

Tooth Structure
- Labyrinthodont tooth structure is shared between Rhipidistian fishes and the earliest amphibians
- Strongly supports the relationship between the two

Skeletal Modifications
- Skeletal structure of Rhipidistians was already similar to that of amphibians (especially in fins)

Tirktaalik
Fish Characteristics
- Gills
- Scales
- Finns
Amphibian Characteristics
- Robust rib bones
- Triangular skull shape
- Neck with separate pectoral girdle (shoulder supports)
- Functional “wrist” joint
- Lungs – properly
“Fishapod”

Late Devonian
- Ichthyostega was an early true tetrapod
- Robust ribcage would have allowed greater lung breathing efficiency
- Stronger pectoral and pelvic girdles allowed the primitive amphibians to cope with the minimal support provided by
air on land
- Special kind of skin that helped them retain bodily fluids and desiccation

Change in Function of Limbs

- Whereas fish ancestors used their tails for propulsion and their fins for maneuverability
- Fishapods and tetrapods had begun to use their limbs for locomotion and their tail for balance

Carboniferous to Permian
- Amphibian nostrils became increasingly functional for breathing air
- Amphibians evolved hands and feet with five digits
- Amphibian tails became reduced in size
- Amphibian backbones grew stronger (enabled their bodies to grow bigger)
- Obtained eardrums

Evolution of Neck and Ear

- Fishes need limbs to support bodies and ears to hear sounds
- Fins changed to legs
- Several bones of the skull changed into shoulder bones
- Tongue cartilage (part of the jaw in fish) became an earbone

Amphibian Diversification
- By the Permian period, amphibians had become quite diverse (some were very large)

Advantages for Amphibians Living on Land

- Less competition for food
- Avoidance of large predatory fishes

Disadvantages for Amphibians Living on Land

- Amphibians have gas permeable skin to aid their inefficient lungs and it must be kept moist
- Must have water to reproduce – water is needed for external fertilization
 - Amphibian jelly like eggs can not survive out of water

Modern Amphibians
1. Anura  Frogs and toads
2. Caudata  Salamanders and newts
3. Apoda  Caecilians

Evolution of Reptiles
Amniote Egg
- Great leap forward for tetrapods
- Certainly not immune to various dangers posed by terrestrial conditions
- Provides a great range of lifestyles that did the eggs of fishes and amphibians

Outer Shell
- An egg shell maintains space for embryo
- The shell protects contents of the egg from outside conditions, but it is permeable to gasses

Amnion
- The amnion is a fluid filled sac in which the embryo floats
- Amniotic fluid mimics the conditions that the embryo would require if the egg lacked a tough shell

Outer Hull/Shell
- The allantois serves two important functions
1. To deliver oxygen to the embryo and to take carbon dioxide away
2. To store excretory products

Food Supply/Yolk
- The yolk serves as the embyro’s principal food supply

Water Supply/ Albumen

- The albumen of the egg (the egg’s white) serves at the embryo’s water supply
- Serves as an effective shock absorber

Advantages of the Amniote Egg

1. Because amniote eggs were self contained units, they could be laid on dry land, away from water bodies
2. Embryos in amniote eggs were less prone to being adversely affected by changing environmental conditions (e.g.
drying up of ponds, changing temperature, agitation due to storms and floods)
3. Greater strength of shells allowed animals to lay larger eggs which allowed a longer development period for the baby
animal
- Longer development time within the egg meant that babies were better equipped for survival after hatching

Changes in Skin Texture

- Another major modification made in the evolution of reptiles from amphibians was the development of a tough, dry,
covering of keratin (the same protein in our hair and nails) on the surface of the skin
- Scales and similar hardened structures on reptilian skin are made of keratin
- The acquisition of a dry tough skin meant that reptiles were not in constant danger of “drying out” as are the
amphibians

Captorhinomorphs: Stem Reptiles

- The oldest form of reptiles  Carboniferous period
- This group of reptiles is believed to have been the stem for all later reptiles
- Hylonomus, one of the oldest known captorhinomorphs has been found in Carboniferous rocks

Skull Structure
- The basis of amniote classification is the number and arrangement of holes behind the eye socket in the skull
- With respect to these fenestrae, the most important bones are the POST ORBITAL and SQUAMOSAL bones

Anapsid
- The anapsid condition is characterized by the absence of temporal fenestrae
 - It is the most primitive skull type among the amniotes
- The anapsid group includes the earliest “stem” reptiles (captorhinomorphs) and perhaps the turtles and tortoises

Synapsid
- Characterized by a single opening below the junction of the post orbital and squamosal bones
- Includes the pelycosaurs (sail baked reptiles), mammal like reptiles (therapsids), true mammals

Diapsids
- Characterized by two openings – one above and one below the junction of the post orbital and squamosal bones
- Represented by all of the archosaurs (ruling reptiles)
- Snakes and lizards, thecodonts
- Crocodilians, pterosaurs (flying reptiles)
- Dinosaurs, birds

Euryapsids
- The euryapsid condition is characterized by single opening above the junction of the post orbital and squamosal
bones
- Represented by extinct marine reptiles: ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs

To Summarize

Anapsids
- No temporal fenestrae
- Turtles, tortoises
- Captorhinomorphs

Synapsids
- One temporal fenestrae low in skull
- Pelycosaurs
- Mammal like reptiles
- Mammals

Diapsids
- Two temporal fenestrae’s
- Lizards and snakes
- Crocodilians
- Pterosaurs
- Dinosaurs
- Birds

Euryapsids
- One temporal fenestra high in skull
- Icthyosaurs
- Plesiosaurs

Limitations of Post Cranial Skeleton in “Primitive” Amniotes

- One setback remaining for primitive reptiles was the sprawling stance imposed by the position of the legs relative to
the body
- A sprawling stance is fine for reptiles are active sporadically (ambush prey, or escape quickly but briefly)

Limitations of Post Cranial Skeletons

- The side to side motion that accompanies walking deforms the “chest cavity” with each bend and prevents lungs from
expanding to their full capacity
- The animal cannot sustain speed for long periods of time
- Wastes a lot of energy waddling
- A lot of stress is imposed on shoulder and hips (because most of the animal’s weight is supported at the junction
between the limbs and the body
 Evolution of Dinosaurs

Dinosaur Hip Structure

Omithischian  All plant eaters, pubis is facing backwards, plant eaters need to eat more therefore they need larger stomachs
Saurischian  Lizard hipped dinosaurs because the hips are similar to a lizard, ilium, pubis bone, ischium

Saurischians
Theropods
- Killing machines from upright posture
- Tail is essential for balance
- Meat eaters
Sauropods
- All plant eaters
- Work on all fours
- Defense mechanism = tail

Ornithischian
Orhnitopods
- Arose from sauropods
- Hollow canal from the back of throat up into the nostril area
- Function  mating sounds
Stegosaurs
- Plated dinosaurs
- Peaceful plant eaters
- Plates housed blood vessels  radiator that gains and subtracts heat
- Digestion maintains heat
Ceratopsian
- Have a frill (shield) in the back
- Function of the frill  skull is heavy so it gives the neck muscle attachment and allows the neck muscle attachment
and allows the dinosaur to hold its head back
Ankylosaurs
- Back was covered in plates
- Club of solid bone at the end of the tail
- Had 4 toes on ground
- Only way to kill it was on its back
Pachycephalosaurs
- Small bone headed dinosaur
- Function of head  bash together to compete for mates

Maiasaura: Good mother lizard

Camouflage and keeps the eggs warm by burying them

Oviraptor – “egg stealer”

Bird Like Dinosaurs

- Sinosauropteryx
- Caudipteryx
 Marine Reptiles and Flying Reptiles
- The greatest diversification of reptiles, beginning in the Triassic period and coming to a head in the Cretaceous period
included the appearance and great success of marine and flying reptiles
- Among the marine reptiles were the ichthyosaurs (euryapsids), plesiosaurs (euryapsids), marine turtles (anapsids
or diapsids) and mosasaurs (diapsids)
- In the Mesozoic area, pterosaurs ruled the skies
Pterosaurs  Flying reptiles
Ichtyosaurs  Marine turtles
Mosasaurs  Great marine lizards

Ichthyosaurs
- Evolved from land dwelling reptiles with hands and feet
- Modification of body for sea life  developed flippers

Plesiosaurs
- Evolved from a land dwelling reptile
- Modification of limbs to form flippers, and lengthening of neck for darting movement to catch prey

Marine Turtles
- Large amount of biomass in the ocean
- Turtles got very big

Mosasaurs
- Great marine lizards
- Lizards that adapted aquatic life
- Komodo dragon is the closest living thing
- Evolved from land lizard, retaining lizard like body but limbs and tail modified for swimming
- Common prey  other marine reptiles, birds, large ammonites (squid like molluscs)
- They puncture the ammonites so they are no longer buoyant, then able to pull out the soft tissue

Modifications for Flight

- Extremely lightweight skeleton (hollow bones)
- Long tail for balance in early forms (but smaller tail in later forms)
- Wing produced by modification of last finger and development of membrane connecting the wing to the body
- Prominent sternum (breastbone) for attachment of strong flight of muscles
- Lightened their skeleton so they can fly
- Pterosaurs lost forms of their tail, and formed the crest on their heads

Evolution of Birds
- Study of dinosaurs in china has excited many paletologists who suspected a direct link between dinosaurs and birds
- Close link between dinosaurs dates back to the discovery of the remains of Archaeopteryx in Solnhofen Limestone in
Germany

Archaeopteryx
- Feather found in 1860
- This feather was not only exceptionally preserved but showed the asymmetric form that is a characteristic of flight
feathers
- Specimen found in 1861 called “the London Specimen” was significant because it established that the type of bird
from which the single feather found previously was derived from

Difference between Archaeopteryx and Modern Birds

Similarities
- Feathers
- Big toe
- Pubis elongated and backwards
Differences
- Has no bill
- Flexible wrist
Hands Versus Wings
- Hoatzin bird chicks retain the three fingers in a “hand” prior to the forelimb developing into an adult wing

S Shaped Neck, Locomotion on Toes

- Ostrich, Ornithomimus

Foot Morphology
- Hind foot

Furcula
- In birds, a fircula, had to do with frequent use of arms for flight

Upstoke
- The upstroke in flight is made possible by a pulley system involving muscles and tendons
- The supracoracoideus muscle (the “tender” of a chicken breast) is attached to the sternum
- Contraction of the supracoracoideus pulls on a tendon that loops through the top of the shoulder and is attached to
the upper surface of the humerus (upper arm)
- The arm is raised as the tendon pulls tight

Downstroke
- Downstroke in flight is accomplished by outer chest muscles
- The pectoralis muscle is attached to the underside of the humerus and the keel of the sternum
- Contraction of the pectoralis muscle pulls the arm downwards
- The furcula (wishbone) acts as a spring to restore shoulder (coracoid) bones to the position necessary for the next
upstroke

Hollow Bones
- The bones of a bird are incredibly lightweight, due to the amount of empty space inside, but at the same time are
remarkably strong
- The strength is provided by interior struts (similar to the grid work in a high rise building)

Origin of Flight in Birds

Aboreal Hypothesis
- Translation from parachuting to gliding, then to flapping and powered flight. Modern flying lizards use skin wings
supported by elongated ribs for parachuting and gliding over short distances
- Main objection: The legs of theropods are generally much longer than the arms which would have made climbing
difficult

Running Raptor Hypothesis

- “Protofeathers” (modified scales) provided lift for running dinosaurs
- Main objection: Running would have created lots of drag (actually slowing the animal down)

Prey Coralling/Flyswatter Hypothesis

- Wings evolves as devices for corralling swarming food sources (insects)
- Main objection: the blast of a
- ir that would have accompanied by rapid limb motion (swatting action) would have allowed insects to escape

Display and Fighting Hypothesis

- Long feathers originally used for “display”
- Downward smashing motion of forelimbs of a fighting bird resembles the power stroke in flight
- Bird like dinosaurs able to leap highest in fights were selected for

Interesting Recent Discovery

- Feathered dinosaur Microraptor had plumage on both front and hind limbs (which, in turn were similar in size)
- Microaptor would have been well suited to parachuting/gliding
- Perhaps the arboreal hypothesis for birds isn’t so wrong?`
 The Cretaceous Tertiary Mass Extinction
- Five massive extinctions:
- Permian was the biggest
- All species will eventually go extinct
1. End Ordovician
2. Late Devonian
3. End Permian
4. End Triassic
5. End Cretaceous

Sea Level Fall

Late Mesozoic
- Sea level high
- Land areas separated
- Lots of shelf area for shallow marine organisms
Early Cenozoic
- Sea level lower
- Continents further apart
- Less shelf area for shallow marine organisms
K-T- MASS EXTINCTION

Drainage of Interior Seas

Lowering in sea levels resulted in
- Loss of shelf area
- Acidification of land areas (less habitat diversity)
- More connection between continents

Flood Basalt Volcanism

- The result of great volcanic activity associated with rising heat plumes from mantle
- Deccan traps record eruption of more than 500,000 million cubic km of basaltic lava over perhaps about 5 million
years (but began before end of Cretaceous Period)
- There appears to be correspondence between some (but not all) mass extinctions and flood basalt events

Computer Model of Effects of K-T- Impact Winter

- No sunlight = no photosynthesis= cascade of death through food chains
- Earth in darkness for at least 6 months after asteroid impact
- Any plant eaters will not have any food and will go extinct and then anything that eats the plant eaters will go extinct

Shocked Quartz in K-T Boundary Clay

- Shock metamorphism
- Has only been observed at meteorite impact sites and nuclear test sites

Tekites, Glass beads found in boundary sediments

- Due to melting of rock by energy of bolide (asteroid or comet) impact?
- Glass found in boundary sediments of Gulf of Mexico
- Further away from the impact, you get beads

Soot Particles found in boundary clay similar to fly ash from coal burning plants
- Suggest global wildfires associated with ignition of large amounts of dead plant matter on Earths surface

KT Asteroid Impact
- Asteroid and shock wave blast long trench
- Rings of complex crater form
- Impact winter
- Debris injected into atmosphere
- Lots of dead, rotting organic matter
- Global wildfires
- Blocking of sunlight
- Consumption of ozone
Survival of the Fittest
- Does it work during mass extinction?
- In mass extinction, the specialists lose
- Early mammals inferior at the time (when the conditions were stable) but because of their generalized life habits, had
a higher change of surviving ecological disaster than dinosaurs

End Ordovician Extinction

- Cooling due to gathering of continents at the south pole
- Possible glaciation

Late Devonian Mass Extinction

- First forests
- Onset of glaciation

End-Permian (Mother of all mass extinctions)

- Coincided with final assembly of Pangaea and Eruption of Siberian traps
- Had deserts through most of Pangaea

End Triassic Mass Extinction

- Little known about this one but possible due to oxygen depletion in the ocean
- Coincided with extrusion of flood basalts accompanied initial spreading of Atlantic

Extinctions Numbered According to Severity

#5 Cretaceous Teritary
- 47% of marine genera
- Bolide impact
- Flood volcanism
- Cooling, rapid sea level fall

#4 Triassic Jurassic
- 52% of marine genera
- Flood basalt volcanism (central atlantic)

#3 Late Devonian
- 57% of marine genera
- Global cooling (coincidence with expansion of land plants?

#2 Ordovician Silurian
- 60% of marine genera
- Global cooling, then rapid warming
- Rapid sea level fall followed by rapid sea level rise

#1 Permian Triassic
- 95% of all marine species
- Bolide impact
- Food basalt volcanism in Siberia
- Assembly of Pangaea
- Global cooling, major sea level fall

- If we can see what happened in the past, we can wee what might happen in the future

- What can we do and how can we change this situation so that our extinction will be delayed?
 Diversification of Mammals
Differences between Reptiles and Mammals
Reptiles Mammals

No Milk Milk

Small brain case Expanded brain case

Jaw contains more than one bone Jaw contains only one bone

Simple Teeth Complex teeth

One ear bone Three ear bones

Continual Growth Limited Growth (stop growing at

adulthood)
Variable Temperate Constant Temperature

Scales or Knobby Skin Hair

Pelycosaurs
- Among the earliest of the mammal like reptiles were the pelycosaurs (evolved from anapsids by the Early Permian)
- Retain sprawling posture of primitive Anapsids
- Distinguished by their sail
- Both carnivorous and herbivorous forms

Therapsids (Mammal Like Reptiles

- Succeeding the pelycosaurs were the therapsids
- Got off to a pretty good start, diversified in the mid to late Permian and then things went downhill
- Therapsids themselves hit hard by end Permian mass extinction, then again by the end Triassic, and totally wiped out
by early cretaceous
- Primitive mammal like reptiles had decidedly reptilian characteristics
- More advanced mammal like reptiles have sprawling stance but very mammal like in many other skeletal features
(pits in skulls of some forms even suggest whiskers)

True Mammals
- By a stroke of luck, one group of therapsids gave rise to mammals during the Triassic
- First true mammals appeared on Earth together with the earliest dinosaurs during the Triassic
- A few early groups of mammals lived during Mesozoic but went extinct by early Cenozoic

Three Major Groups of Living Mammals (Therians)

- Originated in Jurassic
1. Monotremes  egg laying mammals
2. Marsupials  pouched mammals
3. Placentals  mammals with placentas

Reptiles to Mammals: Hearing with our Jawbones

- Evolution of ear: Stapes acquires “stirrup” shape
- Articular bone in jaw becomes malleus
- Quadrate bone in jaw becomes incus

- Mammal groups shoe remarkable degree of evolutionary convergence

Mammalian Evolution
- Life obviously recovers after major extinctions – this is illustrated by mammalian evolution
- Two factors are clear
1. This process is slow by ecological standards, because ecological ecosystems have been destroyed beyond recognition
as many or even most of their species have become extinct
2. The process is extremely fast by evolutionary standards showing that exceptional conditions are in effect, promoting
extraordinary rapid evolution
- The link between these two factors is that ecosystems are reconstituted anew after mass extinctions

Post Cretaceous Recovery

- Dominant land vertebrates of the late cretaceous (the dinosaurs) are not replaced for 5 to 10 million years
- During that time there are no large herbivores and few predators of any size at all
- Yet by the early Teritary, there are several different lineages of 4 to 5 ton herbivorous mammals which are of different
ancestry on the separate continents; and there are large carnivorous birds
- No mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, or plesiosaurs to survive K-T extinction, but by Eoene times there are very large
mammals eating fish in the oceans (whales)

The Incumbency Effect

- There is a major effect in evolutionary ecology: The incumbency effect
- It is difficult to remove an incumbent politician (one who is already in power) and in much in the same way it is
difficult for a species to evolve to displace a species which is already well adapted to its position
- Typically, it is invaders that can displace incumbents, rather than the species evolving in the same ecosystem

The Force of Incumbency

- Obviously the force of incumbency is much diminished if an ecosystem is drastically affected in a mass extinction
- The P-Tr (Permian Triassic) and K-Tr Cretaceous tertiary marks the ends of eras

Mass Extinctions Reset the Clock

- So the mass extinctions indirectly bring about major renewals in the history of life, by bringing about major
catastrophes
- This is not a political statement: but it is a statement of evolutionary reality
- In particular, the processed of renewal after mass extinctions are overdue for studies as detailed as those that have
been devoted to extinctions

Relative Abundances of Large Land Animals

- Mammal like reptiles suffer from Triassic Jurassic extinction
- It took a mass extinction to oust dinos and replace them with diminutive mammals that evolved from mammal like
reptiles

Land Vertebrates: A Little More Complex

- The Mesozoic World was warm with poorly defined latitudinal climatic variations
- Land bridges were widespread despite many inland seas

Evolution of Large Mammals

The Tertiary
- The Tertiary witnessed the diversification of many mammalian and bird groups, flourishing in the tropical conditions
- During the early Tertiary the contienents were isolated by shallow seas, and different lineages of mammals evolved on
each one

Earliest Tertiary
- On land, many new types of mammals appear in a dramatic evolutionary radiation filling the ecological roles vacated
by the dinosaurs
- But compared to the majestic Cretaceous megafauna, these animals were small
- Dominant forms were holdovers from the Cretaceous and quickly died out as large scale replacement commenced
- By Eocene, mammals included many giant yet small brained rhinoceros like types
- Rhino like mammals equivalent to large herbivorous dinosaurs?

- There were huge flightless carnivorous birds (phorusrachids) 2 meters tall with curved beaks that mimicked the great
theropod dinosaurs of the Mesozoic
 - Birds became dominant before mammals
- Had heads larger than horses
- Around briefly after dinosaurs went extinct

Late Tertiary
- Modern mammals and flowering plants evolved as well as many strange mammals that are no longer evolved
- Shrinkage of inland seas plus plate movement create land bridges
- Climate changed and it became dryer on land
- Grasses became very widespread
- Grasses important in the growth of mammals

Late Tertiary
- The most astonishing thing was the evolution of grass
- This led to the evolution of long legged running animals adapted to life on the savanna and prairie
- The horse family Equiidae was a success story during the late Tertiary
- Horses and other grazing mammals evolved high crowned teeth to cope with a diet of abrasive grass
- Two groups of grass grazers 1. Even toed – camels and rhinos, 2. Odd toed – horses
- Three toes on ground and shortening of side toes and enlarging middle toe – into hooves
- Dawn horse – terrier sized and 4 toes

Great American Biotic Interchange

- Land bridge between North and South America brought land mammals of different origins into competition (with
both winners and losers)
- Collision of groups of mammals from 2 separate groups (North-bears), (South- monkey,sloth)
- Opossums play dead because they’re scared

Significance of Plate Tectonics to Interchange

- Pangaea initially split into Northern supercontinent Laurasia and Southern supercontinent Gonwanaland
- Each Supercontinent developed its own types of land mammals (dominated by placentals in Laurasia and by
marsupials in Gonwanaland)
- Supercontinents further split into smaller continents
- Smaller continents came into contact, allowing interchange of Laurasia and Gondwana faunas which caused extinction

Another Event in Late Tertiary

- Hominids appeared in the Africa savannas, the Australopithicines

Late Tertiary
- Initiation of last ice age, climate much cooler
- 18 million years ago
- More extinctions as climates cooled, culminating in ice age
- Episodes of continent scale glaciation in Northern and Southern hemispheres with interludes of warmer interglacial
conditions
- There were still many forest animals however. The mastodons lived on every continent except Australia

Evolution of Primates
How and Where Did Primates Originate?
Arboreal Theory
- Primates became primates by adapting to life in trees
- Enhanced sight (depth perception)
- Grasping feet and hands
Visual Predation Hypothesis
- Binocular vision, grasping hands and feet, and reduced claws developed because they facilitated the capture of insects
- First adapted to life in the bushy forest undergrowth and low tree branches

Oldest Primates
- The earliest primates date to at least the Paleocene (65-54 million years ago) but possible appeared as early as Late
Cretaceous
- The Eocene (54-38 million years ago) was the epoch of prosimians with at least 60 different genera in two families
The Big Split
- Common ancestor splits into Anthropoids (higher primates) and Prosimians (lower primates)
Major Differences between Anthropoids and Prosimians
- Anthropoid eyes are rotates more forward compared to Prosimians
- Anthropoid have a fully enclosed bony eye socket
- Anthropoid = dry nose, Prosimian = Wet nose
- Anthropoid molars more complex than prosimian

Prosimians  Lemurs, Lorises

Early Anthropoids
Parapithecines
- By the Oligocene (38-23 million years ago) anthropoids dominated over lemurs and relatives
- The beginnings of the anthropoid group are traced to generalized forms such as the parapithecines (aegyptopithecus)

Aegyptopithecus
- Body of aegtptopithecus resembled a lemur, but teeth more anthropoid like
- Thought to be the realitive between New world monkeys and old work monkeys

Living Representations (Anthropoids) New World Monkeys

- Marmosets, Taramins, Spider monkeys

Early Anthropoids (Dryopithecines)

- Dryopithecines thought to be the common ancestor of the Old World monkeys and ape human line
- Proconsuls teeth has similarities with modern apes but below the beck, the skeleton is more monkey like

Living Representations (Anthropoids) Old Monkeys

- Baboons, Macaques, Mandrills

Living Representations (Anthropoids) – Hominoids – Human related

- Lesser Apes (Gibbons)
- Panids, Pongids (Great Apes) – Gorillas, Chimps, Orangutan
- Gibbons similar to ape than monkey
- Hominoids have lost their long tail

Plate Tectonics and Isolation

- New world monkeys and old world monkey hominoid groups probably became isolated as continents were splitting
apart

Primitive Hominoids
- The common ancestor of gibbons, apes and hominoids is believe to have resembled Pierolapithecus which lived
during the Miocene

Misconceptions
1. Our ancestors were apes. Contrary to our beliefs, evolutionists do not claim we evolved directly from apes. More likely
we evolved from a common ancestor. In other words, we are related to apes, but did not necessarily evolve from them
2. Hominoid evolution progressed along a single linear track directly from primitive ancestor to modern form. Most
evolutionists acknowledge assert that hominids evolved several branches (more like a bush than a stick) and that
some of these branches overlapped in time and space

- The last ancestral population held commonly by humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees is known as Hogopans
- The lines of the orangutans, gibbons, and siamangs having split off several million years earlier, the hominid line
almost certainly diverged from those chumps and gorillas late in the Miocene epoch, between 7 and 5 million years
ago
- Hogopans probably split into the three separate lines leading to gorillas, chimpanzees and humans no more than 8
million years ago which each group moving into separate niches: equatorial forest (gorilla), woodland (chimpanzees)
and open grassland (hominids)
 Rise of the Hominids
An Interesting Aside
- Among the most unique ancient apes was Gigantopithecus – the largest primate that ever lived (10 feet tall and
weighed 1200 pounds)
- Died out around 400,000 years ago (so coexisted with Homo erectus)
- Some people believe it is still alive today as Yeti and bigfoot

Hominoid Evolution
- First human like ancestor appeared 4 million years ago
- Australopithecines
- Pevlis becomes shorter, and flatter, pelvic canal expands
Legs longer and arms shorter
- Digits shorter and straighter
- Foramen magnum (attachment area at base of skull) becomes directed downward

Bipedal Locomotion
- Footprints of Australopithecus in volcanic ash
- Male and female… with child?
- Form and shape of footprints mean that there is more weight on one side of the body meaning they could have been
carrying something such as a child

Australopithecines
- Difference between Australopithecus Africanus and robust – has lower mandible and molrs
- Large molars = large surface areas for grinding

Australopithecus to Homo:
- Body size increases
- Change from largely herbivorous to omnivorous diet
- Bony facial ridges progressively reduced
- Upper and lower jaws protrude less
- Tooth size reduced
- Tooth morphology changes: sharper molars
- Cranial capacity increases
- Habitat changes from woodland to savanna
- Tool use
- Discovery and increased use of fire
- Development of language Development of prolonged parental care
- Overall increase in brain size

Early Part of Homo Lineage

- Australopithecines  Homo habilis and Homo rudolphensis  Homo ergaster
Late Part of Homo Lineage
- Homo Ergaster  Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis  Potentially Homo neandtherthalensis  Homo sapien

Early Technology
- Simple tools with chopping/cutting edge  tools with more refined bifaced edge
Later Technology
- Tools with maximized cutting surface  Sophisticated spear points. Cave drawings appear by 30,000 years
- Best material to use: sedimentary rocks made out of quartz

Development of Homo Sapiens

- There are two currently main models to explain the development and distribution of modern Homo sapien sapiens
1. The replacement model
2. The regional continuity model

Replacement Model
- This model envisages modern humans evolving from archaic homo sapiens 200,000 -100,000 years ago only in Africa
- It is thought that modern Homo sapiens migrated from Africa into the rest of the Old world replacing all of the
Neandterals and other late archaic homo sapiens
 - If this is correct, then all modern people share a relatively modern African ancestry
- According to this model, the regional anatomical (racial) differences that we see among humans today are recent
developments evolving only in the last 50,000 – 40,000 years
- If so, all other lines of humans that has descended from homo erectus presumably went extinct

Regional Continuity Model

- Envisages modern humans evolving more or less simultaneously in all major regions of the Old world from local
scatters archaic Homo sapiens populations
- For example, modern Chinese are seen as having evolved from Chinese archaic homo sapiens and ultimately from
Chinese homo erectus
- This would mean that the East Asians and some other peoples in the Old World have an origin of great antiquity
- Advocates of the regional continuity model believe that the ultimate common ancestor of all modern people was an
early ancestor (homo erectus) that arose in Africa, but which rapidly dispersed to other regions
- It is further suggested that there was sufficient gene flow among European, African and Asian population to prevent
long term reproductive isolation and the subsequent evolution of distinct regional species
- It is argued that intermittent contact between people of these distant area would have kept the human line a single
species at any one time
- However, the model also accommodates periods of some isolation which would have produced differing racial
varieties

Which Model Makes More Sense?

- Fossil evidence in favour of replacement model
- The oldest known modern Homo sapiens remains come from Africa and adjacent areas of southwest Asia
- Elsewhere in the Asia and Europe, modern homo sapien appears about 50,000 years later
- Unless modern homo sapiens remains 100,000 years or older are found in Europe or East Asia, the replacement
model best explains available data

Genetic Evidence in Favour of Replacement Model

- Geneticists argue that the geographic area where modern humans have resided the longest should have the greatest
amount of genetic diversity
- This is based on the premise that the rate of mutation is more or less constant everywhere
- Through comparisons of mitochondrial DNA sequences from people in different modern populations, it was
concluded that Africa has the greatest genetic diversity and therefore must be the homeland of all humans
- Assuming a specific rate of mutation, the common ancestor of all modern humans was a woman who lived 200,000
years ago

Fossil Evidence in Favour of Regional Continuity Model

- Proponents of the regional continuity model is claim that there has been some continuity of some anatomical features
from archaic Homo sapiens to modern humans in Europe and Asia. These include
1. A heavier brow in Europeans, relative to other populations (brow shape similar to that seen in Neandertals)
2. Facial characteristics in Oriental people can be seen in Asican archaic homo sapiens dating to 200,000 years ago
3. East Asian commonly have shovel shaped incisors (similar to homo erectus) while Africans and Europeans rarely
do
- It would seem that there is a direct local linkage between Asian homo erectus and modern Asians and that there are
sufficient differences between them among other populations to suggest a multiregional origin

Morphological Differences: Homo Neanderthalensis vs. Homo Sapien

- Another dilemma: how closely are Neanderterlas related to us or separate species
- Extinction of Neanderthals:
- If subspecies of Homo sapiens could have interbred with other subspecies
- Or Neanderthals belong to a spate species that went extinct due to competition between Homo sapiens

Neanderthals have gotten a bad rep

- People say Neanderthals are stupid
- They show a surprisingly sophisticated level of intelligence
- Apparently had respect for members of their groups (burial sights include evidence of flowers)
- Evidence for long term care for injuries
Were Neanderthals Religious?
- Evidence on burial rituals
- Evidence includes the position of the remains in presence with flower pollen, and animal remains (possible food for
afterlife)
The Hobbit People
- On Flores, an island of Indonesia, scientists have recently found skeletons of a diminutive species of human that grew
no larger than a three year old modern child (1m high)
- Named homo floresiensis

Who are They?

- Believed to be a long term isolated descendent of large bodied Javanese Homo erectus
- The ancient humans could have assumed a “dwarfed” form in response to ecological pressures of the island (limited
food)
- They used stone tools and co-existed on the island with dwarf elephants, giant rodents, and komodo dragons
- It is estimate that Homo floreiensis lived on Flores between 95,000 years ago until at least 13,000 years ago.
- This means that their time range overlapped with mainland homo sapiens

Humankind, the Environment Crisis and Future of Life on Earth

How Will We Go and When?
- Since microbes began pumping oxygen into Earth’s atmosphere in the Achaean, humans are the only other group of
organisms that has so profoundly affected the Earth’s conditions
- Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned that our consumption of resources and disregard for the
consequences of this consumption will bring an end to the age of humans
- Others suggest that humans might be wiped out in a more spectacular way, by natural events over which we have no
control

Events we Have No Control over

Bolide Impact (Impact from comet or asteroid)
- To cause a serious affect on human civilization, the impactor would have to be1.5 kilometers or more in diameter. It
has been estimated that impacts by objects of this size occur once in a million years (not that the impactor that
produced Chicxulub hit Earth 65 million years ago but the size of that one was about 10.0 km in diameter)

Supervolano
- Every 50,000 years or so, a volcanic eruption capable of injecting enough ash and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere
to cause a dramatic effect on global climate for a few years
- 74,000 years ago, Toba (in Indonesia), erupted enough ash and cooling gasses into the Earths atmosphere. Freezing
conditions existed in the tropics for about 5-6 years. Humans teetered at the edge of extinction, and barely made it
through

Factors We Have Some Control Over

Climate Change
- This is obviously the biggest, but most complex concern. Average global temperatures have been climbing since at
least the mid- 1800’s with an accelerated increase from 1960 onward
Habitat Destruction
- Destruction of habitat means lower biotic diversity and in the case of forests, decreased consumption of atmospheric
carbon dioxide
Overpopulation and Competition for Resources
- Humans have a very high demand for food and energy
- The human carrying capacity is still up for debate
- But… the biggest potential problems lies in the inequality in resource use
Resource Supply and Demand
- Current estimates for the total amount of conventionally recoverable oil on the planet is around 2 trillion barrels
- We have consumed almost 1 trillion of this – so roughly half the oil is gone
- The rest will last another 40 years at current rates
- It continues to rise steadily

Will We Go out with a bang?

- Might the unthinkable happen due to competition for resources?
Or will we go out with a whimper?
- A bacterial or viral pandemic? Within the last century, humans have witnessed four major flue epidemics plus HIV and
Sars.

Natural History Repeats Itself

- We have so much to gain and nothing to lose from learning the past
 - So… what can you take from this course?

Remember The Earth’s Four Spheres

- The earth is a closed system… consisting of interacting components (geosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere)
- There is some exchange of energy but no exchange of matter (practically speaking) between the Earth system and
outer space
- Any change in any one or more of these components can affect the others… sometimes in a dramatic way
- Biosphere responses include
 Appearance of New species… adaption… mass extinction… and recovery

Is The Past is the Key to Present

- We are animals
- We face the same (or at least similar) selective pressures as other animals
- A few things that have negatively affected life in the past
 Climate Change
 Competition for resources
 Overspecialization
 Spread of Disease
 Reproduction in Habitat diversity
 Acid Rain
 Ozone Depletion

Our Closed System

- The state of the Earth at any given time are the sum of the interactions between processes of the four spheres
- In our closes system, we restuck with what we’ve got (unless we master colonization of other planets), so we’d better
take care of it

A Glimpse of the Future

- What would survive the next mass extinction?
- This will depend on how it happens
- For example, who could survive a nuclear
- Rodents and Insects  all bets are off for humans
- The world will go on… with or without us

Plate Tectonics
- In the future, continents will all drift together

- Whoever survives the next mass extinction will lead the next revolution in Earth’ s biological history
-