GENERAL

Biology 2
CHAPTER 3
The Origin and
Diversity of Life
Nelmar N. Tuliao
Subject Instructor
 Introduction

A llmany
life descended from a common ancestor and have
things in common: They are composed of one
or more cells, they carry out metabolism and
transfer energy with ATP, and they encode heredity
information in DNA. But species are also highly
diverse from bacteria and amoebas to blue whales
and sequoia trees.
 Possible
origin(s) life
on the
Earth?
Figure 1.1

Geological timescale
and the evolution of
life on Earth
 Review of what you have learned?

 Cell theory
- All living organisms are made of cells, and all living
cells come from other living cells.
 Molecular basis of Inheritance
- DNA encodes genes which make-up and control
living organisms.
 Evolutionary Change
- Life-forms have evolved varying characteristics to
adapt to varied environment.
 Evolutionary conservation
- some characteristics of earlier organisms are
preserved and passed on to future generations.
1. Deep Time
1. Earth changed over geological
time.

• Carbon dioxide levels shifted,

affecting temperature
• Continents moved over geological
time.
• Life emerged in Archean
 Learning Outcomes Review 1.1

The history of Earth extends over 4.6 billion years, but

the geological record of what occurred during the Hadean
eon before life emerged is limited. Initially, the Earth was
inhospitable to life, but as conditions changed, life
emerged more than 3 billion years ago. Multicellular
species appeared only within the last billion years.

■ Given an opportunity to study the diversity of life in the

fossil record, which eon would you choose? Support your
choice
Origins of Life
Figure 1.2
Weathering rocks pull CO2 from
the atmosphere.

H2O and CO2 in the atmosphere

combine to form carbonic acid
(H2CO3), which interacts with
rock to release HCO3– and Ca2+.
These ions wash into the ocean
and form calcium carbonate
(CaCO3), which precipitates and
sequesters the carbon in the ocean
sediment.
Origin of Life

1. Early organic molecules may have

originated in various ways

• Organic molecules may have had

extraterrestrial origins
• Organic molecules may have
originated on early Earth
Figure 1.3
Miller and Urey Experiment
 Reproduced early atmosphere

- assembled reducing atmosphere

rich in hydrogen with no oxygen gas
- atmosphere placed over liquid
water
- temperature below 100°C
- simulate lightning with sparks
Origin of Life

2. Metabolic pathways
may have emerged in
various ways

3. Single cells were the

first life forms
 Learning Outcomes Review 1.2
Whether all the organic molecules necessary for life formed on Earth
or some formed elsewhere and came to Earth within meteors
remains an open question. Although conditions on early Earth
cannot be completely reconstructed, it is likely that the
temperatures were extreme and that the atmosphere had a very
different gaseous composition than it does today that allowed
organic molecules, metabolic pathways, and cells to evolve.

■ If you could time travel back to early Earth and return with a
primordial pool sample, what types of molecules would you look for
to understand the origins of early life? Construct an argument for
the origins of life based on your predicted molecules.
 Mechanisms of
Evolutionary Change
1. Mutation

Mutation is a change in DNA, the

hereditary material of life. An
organism’s DNA affects how it
looks, how it behaves, and how it
functions. So a change in an
organism’s DNA can cause
changes in all aspects.
 Mutation
A mutation could cause beetle
parents with genes for bright green
coloration to have offspring with a gene
for brown coloration. That would make
genes for brown coloration more
frequent in the population than they
were before the mutation.
 Mutation
Some individuals from a
population of brown beetles might
have moved into a population of
green beetles. That would make
genes for brown coloration more
frequent in the green beetle
population than they were before
the brown beetles migrated into it.
In evolutionary biology, migration
 is also called “gene flow.”
2. Genetic Drift
(Also known as allelic drift or the
Sewall Wright effect after biologist
Sewall Wright) is a change in allele
frequencies caused by random
sampling.

It is also known as the change in the

frequency of a gene variant (allele) in a
population due to random sampling of
organisms.
Genetic drift: In one generation, brown beetles happened to have many
offspring survive to reproduce. In the same generation, a number of green
beetles were killed randomly when someone stepped on them and had no
offspring. The next generation had more brown beetles than the previous
generation — but just by chance. These chance changes from generation to
generation are known as genetic drift.
3. Natural Selection

It is one of the basic mechanisms of

evolution, along with mutation,
migration, and genetic drift.

Darwin’s grand idea of evolution by

natural selection is relatively simple
but often misunderstood.
Natural selection: Imagine
that green beetles are
easier for birds to spot (and
hence, eat). Thus, brown
beetles are a little more
likely to survive to produce
offspring. They pass their
genes for brown coloration
on to their offspring. So in
the next generation, brown
beetles are more common
than they were in the
previous generation.
4. Artificial Selection

Farmers and breeders allow only

plants and animals with desirable
characteristics to reproduce, causing
the evolution of farm stock. This
process is called artificial selection
because people (instead of nature)
select which organisms get to
reproduce.
Selective breeding is a
technique used when
breeding domesticated
animals, such as dogs,
pigeons or cattle. Some of
these animals will have
traits that a breeder will
want to preserve.
5. Recombination

Recombination is a process by which

pieces of DNA are broken and
recombined to produce new
combinations of alleles. This
recombination process creates genetic
diversity at the level of genes that
reflects differences in the DNA
sequences of different organisms.
It is the rearrangement of genetic material, especially by
crossing over in chromosomes or by the artificial joining of
segment of DNA from different organisms.
Modes of Speciation
Speciation

Speciation is the formation of new

and distinct species through
evolutionary process. There are
various of speciation: allopatric,
sympatric, parapatric, and
peripatric.
Allopatric speciation
 happens when members of a population
that originally occupy the same habitat
within the same range split into two
geographically isolated populations
caused by physical barriers as mountain
formations, wide rivers, and lava flows.
This prevents the two groups from
matting regularly, eventually causing that
lineage to speciate.

Example: Kaibab squirrel and Abert squirrel

which are separated by Grand canyon.
Sympatric speciation
 transpires when two groups of the
same species live in the same
geographic location diverge into two
or more different species even
without physical barrier. It often
occurs in some insects that become
dependent on different host plants
in the same location. This
speciation can be seen in bacteria,
apple maggot fly, and cichlid fish.
Parapatric speciation

 new species evolve from

populations which are
neighbors to one another but
do not mate randomly.
Individuals of each species may
cross habitats from time to
time but gene flow is reduced
due to distance.
Peripatric speciation

 A special form of allopatric

speciation where new species
evolved from smaller isolated
populations that are prevented from
interbreeding with the main
population.
 Thank you!
Any question or
point of clarification?