GEOLOGICAL FACTORS

INFLUENCING EVOLUTION
Geology plays a crucial role in shaping the course of
evolution. From plate tectonics and volcanic activity to
glaciation and soil composition,and mass extinction the
Earth's dynamic processes have a profound influence on
the development and adaptation of life over geological
timescales.
Plate Tectonics and
Continental Drift
1 Pangaea
The supercontinent Pangaea began to break apart over 200
million years ago, leading to the formation of the modern
continents.

2 Plate Movement
Gradual movement of tectonic plates has shaped the Earth's
surface, creating new landmasses and altering the distribution
of resources and habitats.

3 Isolation and Speciation

Continental drift has isolated populations, leading to the
evolution of new species uniquely adapted to their
environments.
Volcanic Activity and Climate Change
Climate Impacts Habitat Transformation Evolutionary Pressures

Volcanic eruptions can Volcanic activity can The environmental

release large amounts of create new land changes triggered by
ash and gases, altering formations, change the volcanic activity can
the global climate and composition of soil, and exert strong selective
affecting the evolution of transform the landscape, pressures, driving the
species. leading to the emergence evolution of organisms
of new ecological niches. that are better adapted to
the new conditions.
Glaciation and Sea Level Fluctuations
Ice Ages
Periods of glaciation and ice sheet expansion have drastically altered
global climate and sea levels, reshaping the distribution of habitats and
species.

Habitat Shifts
As glaciers advance and retreat, species must adapt by migrating, evolving
new traits, or going extinct, leading to significant changes in ecosystems.

Allopatric Speciation
Isolation of populations due to sea level changes can facilitate the
development of new species through allopatric speciation.
Soil Composition and Nutrient
Availability
1 Nutrient Cycling 2 Adaptations to Soil
The availability of essential Plants and microorganisms have
nutrients in the soil, such as evolved specialized traits to thrive
nitrogen, phosphorus, and in different soil environments, from
potassium, can influence the nutrient-rich loams to nutrient-poor,
growth and evolution of plants and acidic soils.
the animals that depend on them.
3 Coevolution
The interdependence between soil organisms and the plants they interact with can
drive the coevolution of specialized traits and relationships.
Geological Timescales and
Evolutionary Timelines
Deep Time
The vast timescales of geological
history, spanning billions of years,
provide the necessary context for
understanding the evolution of life on
Earth.
Fossil Evidence
The geological record preserves a
wealth of fossil evidence, allowing
scientists to study the patterns and
mechanisms of evolution over
geological timescales.
Evolutionary Pacing
The rate of evolutionary change can
vary greatly, from gradual, incremental
changes to rapid bursts of speciation,
driven by the underlying geological
processes.
Interdisciplinary Approach
Integrating geological, paleontological,
and biological data is crucial for
understanding the complex interplay
between the Earth's dynamic systems
and the evolution of life.
INTRODUCTION TO
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
• Alfred Wegener was
climatologist and arctic
explorer who suggested the
idea of continental drift.

• He thought the continents

we know today had once
been part of an earlier
“supercontinent”.

• He called this great

landmass Pangaea.
 Pangaea

Before After

● Wegener’s theory of continental drift states that the existing continents of the earth
were once glued together forming a super landmass.
● Over time, the landmass broke and drifted away and is still drifting to this day. In his
proposal, he stated that the super content, which he named Pangaea, meaning ‘’all
earth” once existed.
● As a result of movement of the supercontinent, Pangaea split into two super
landmasses namely Laurasia and Gondwanaland.
● aurasia, makes up the northern continents of today. Gondwanaland makes up the
southern continents of today
PANGAEA EVOLUTION
 Causes of Continental Drift

● The causes of continental drift are perfectly explained by the plate tectonic theory.
The earth’s outer shell is composed of plates that move a little bit every year. Heat
coming from the interior of the earth triggers this movement to occur through
convection currents inside the mantle.
● Almost all plate movement occurs in boundaries which lie between different plates.
When plates drift away from each other, there is formation of new crust at divergent
boundaries. On the other hand, tectonic movement destroys crust during interaction
of the plates.
● Continental drift has impacted the universe in many ways. It has affected the global
climate, the world’s geographical positions and the evolution of animals.Continental
drift also comes along with grave effects such as Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and
Tsunamis
 Wegener’s Evidence

3
1 Geologic
Evidence in the layers
Fossil
of rocks across
Evidence in the places
continents 2
Climate certain fossils are
Evidence in the found
changing climates
during the past
 Geologic Evidence

● Rocks of the same age and type and displaying the

same formations are found in south-east Brazil and South
Africa.

● The trends of the mountains in the eastern USA and

north-west Europe are similar when placed in their old
positions.

● Similar glacial deposits are found in Antarctica, South

America and India,now thousands of km apart.
 Climate Evidence

● Glacial deposits at current equator.

● Fossilized palm trees in Greenland.

● South Africa today has a warm climate.

Yet its rocks were deeply scratched by ice sheets that once
covered the area.

● Greenland had once been near equator and had slowly

moved to the Arctic Circle.

● South Africa, once closer to the SouthPole, had moved

slowly north to a warmer region.
 Fossil Evidence

There are many examples of fossils found on separate

continents and nowhere else, suggesting the continents were
once joined. If Continental Drift had not occurred, the
alternative explanations would be:

● The species evolved independently on separate continents

- contradicting Darwin’s theory of evolution.

● They swam to the other continent/s in breeding pairs to

establish a second population.
 MASS
EXTINCTION
Mass extinctions occur when global extinction
rates rise significantly above background levels in
a geologically short period of time.
 Five Major Mass Extinction Events
• Ordovician-Silurian extinction
- 444 million years ago
The Ordovician period (485-444
million years ago) saw a significant
change in Earth's life, with species
diversity increasing over a 30-
million-year period. However, the
first mass extinction occurred due to
massive glaciation, ice cap
formation, and the rise of North
America's Appalachian Mountains.
This led to a drastic cooling of the
planet, causing sea levels to
plummet and causing toxic metals
to accumulate.
• Late Devonian extinction - 383-
359 million years ago
In several pulses across the
Devonian, ocean oxygen levels
dropped precipitously, which dealt
serious blows to conodonts and
ancient shelled relatives of squid and
octopuses called goniatites. The
worst of these pulses, called the
Kellwasser event, came about 372
million years ago. Rocks from the
period in what’s now Germany show
that as oxygen levels plummeted,
many reef-building creatures died
out, including a major group of sea
sponges called the stromatoporoids.
Permian-Triassic extinction - 252
million years ago
Some 252 million years ago, life on
Earth faced the “Great Dying”: the
Permian-Triassic extinction. The
cataclysm was the single worst event life
on Earth has ever experienced. Over
about 60,000 years, 96 percent of all
marine species and about three of every
four species on land died out. The
world’s forests were wiped out and
didn’t come back in force until about 10
million years later. Of the five mass
extinctions, the Permian-Triassic is the
only one that wiped out large numbers of
insect species. Marine ecosystems took
four to eight million years to recover.
 Five Major Mass Extinction Events
Triassic-Jurassic extinction - 201
million years ago
Around 201 million years ago, Earth
experienced a sudden loss of up to 80%
of all land and marine species due to a
quadrupling of atmospheric CO2 levels.
This was likely triggered by greenhouse
gases from the Central Atlantic
Magmatic Province, a large igneous
province in central Pangaea. The
increase in CO2 acidified the Triassic
oceans, making it harder for marine
creatures to build their shells from
calcium carbonate. Crocodilians, the
dominant vertebrates on land, died out,
and the earliest dinosaurs, small, nimble
creatures on the ecological periphery,
rapidly diversified. Remnants of these
ancient lava flows are now scattered
across eastern South America, eastern
North America, and West Africa.
Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction -
66 million years ago
One day about 66 million years ago, an
asteroid roughly 7.5 miles across
slammed into the waters off of what is
now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula at
45,000 miles an hour. The massive
impact—which left a crater more than
120 miles wide—flung huge volumes of
dust, debris, and sulfur into the
atmosphere, bringing on severe global
cooling. Wildfires ignited any land
within 900 miles of the impact, and a
huge tsunami rippled outward from the
impact. Overnight, the ecosystems that
supported nonavian dinosaurs began to
collapse.
 How do mass extinction events
contribute to evolution?

• After a large mass extinction event, there is typically a rapid

period of speciation among the few species that do survive; since
so many species die off during these catastrophic events, there is
more room for the surviving species to spread out, as well as
many niches in the environments that need to be filled. There is
less competition for food, resources, shelter, and even mates,
allowing the “leftover” species from the mass extinction event to
thrive and reproduce rapidly.
END OF PRESENTATION
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