Bio 103

EVOLUTIONARY
BIOLOGY

GIOVANNE G. TAMPOS
 Course Learning Outcome
CLO1 Explain the causes of genetic variation and adaptation, selection in various
forms, and heritability.
CLO2 Explain the evolutionary mechanisms, principles, and theory of evolution including
how new species arise.
CLO3 Discuss the concept of fitness and natural selection and how factors like selection,
mutation, migration (gene flow), and inbreeding affect the genetic structure of the
population.
CLO4 In-depth understanding of how evolutionary science generates knowledge by way
of hypothesis testing, systematic observations, and the comparative method

CLO5 Perceive evolutionary biology as a powerful tool to deal with current changes in
biodiversity and address future challenges.

CLO6 To further understand gender equality, independent learning, and academic

integrity.
 GRADING SYSTEM

Lecture 60%
Major Exams (40%)
Activities, Assignments (20%)
Laboratory 40%
===
100%
 COURSE REQUIREMENTS
• Quizzes, Assignments,
• Research works, and Reporting
• Examinations (Prelims, Midterms, Finals),
• Laboratory exercises
 Class Policies
a) Full face-to-face for a major subject. But an LMS will be set up to
facilitate lectures, exams and laboratories
b) Quizzes and exams will be done in an LMS or using Google
Classroom. For assignments and other projects, students can submit
via the instructor’s email address or to any accessible online
platforms or the Google Classroom
c) Students opting for online classes must follow the agreed online
class schedule via Google Meet or other easy-to-use platforms.
d) Sixty percent is passing. For delinquent students, a Work-in-Progress
grade will be given.
e) Any form of cheating in the class is strictly prohibited. Violations of
such will be dealt with accordingly as per the student manual
 Foundations of Evolution
I. Introduction At the end of the lessons, the student
A. An overview of should be able to:
Evolutionary Biology 1. describe evolution and natural
B. Early evolutionary selection, including examples
ideas and Darwin related to artificial selection,
insights molecular genetics, and evolution
  in primates.
2. discuss early evolutionary ideas.
3. explain the evolutionary ideas of
Darwin.
Overview of Evolutionary
Biology
Charles Darwin –Theory of Evolution by Natural
Selection

-two revolutionary ideas presented by Darwin with his book

“On the Origin of Species” in 1859
a) diversity of life shares a common descent
b) fit of species to their environment is a
product of natural selection

-explains the diversity of life on Earth and why vast majority of

life forms existed are now extinct
 Biodiversity
“‘Biological diversity’ means the variability among living
organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine
and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of
which they are part; this includes diversity within species,
between species and of ecosystems”- Convention on Biological
Diversity (1992 in Rio de Janeiro-First Earth Summit)

•Recent estimates on global numbers of Eukaryotes- 3.5 m species

to 108 m species (lower and upper estimates)-but the working
estimates is around 8 m species (Sodhi and Ehrlich, 2010)
- only about 2 million extant species are known
 What is Evolutionary Biology?
Theodosius Dobzhansky (Geneticist) “nothing in biology makes
sense except in the light of evolution” (Dobzhansky 1973, p. 125)

Georgina Mace and her colleagues point out, “The tree of life is
currently being pruned by extinction very much more rapidly
than it is growing” (Mace et al. 2003) - suggests human-
caused extinction
 Evolutionary Biology
• A discipline that infer the relationships among
all life that has ever lived track the diversity of
life across vast stretches of time
• test hypotheses through a rigorous
combination of observation and experimental
manipulations.
• Understand evolution through descent with
modification.
Evolutionary biology is the study of the origin, maintenance and
diversity of life on earth over 3.5 B years ago.
 Natural Selection
• Genetic mutations (changes to the DNA
sequence) arise continually and change the
phenotype of organisms which could either
increase fitness, decrease fitness, or have no
effect on fitness
• fitness is measured in terms of relative survival
rates and reproductive success.
Major transitions over the last 3.5
billion of life on Earth
A. evolution of the prokaryotic cell,
B. the evolution of the eukaryotic cell,
C. the evolution of multicellularity
Artificial Selection
-process of human-directed selective breeding

Natural Selection
-traits that are associated with increased
survival and reproduction increase in frequency
Importance of Evolution
Extinctions of life
Relationships to other organisms
 Tree of Life

Phylogenetic tree-historical relationships of species

When do humans started to question about life?

Pre-Darwin ideas

Methodological Naturalism
Early Evolutionary Ideas
 Greek philosopher Empedocles (ca. 492–
432 b.c.) proposed a theory in which body
parts arose independently from the
ground, describing organisms “where
many heads grew up without necks, and
arms were wandering about naked, bereft
of shoulders, and eyes roamed about
alone with no foreheads” (Empedocles,
Book II, 244, in Fairbanks 1898, p. 189

Xenophanes (570-470 B.C.)- studied fossils in the sedimentary

rocks and concluded that rocks once under water
Methodological Naturalism
“the world as static and
unchanging over longer
periods of time”

-Though recognized change

over a small timescale
Physics and Natural History of Animals
-500 species of birds, mammals and fishes
- proposed a taxonomy of nature-called “the great chain of
being” or scala naturae
- each species occupied a link in a chain of ever-increasing
complexity-species on the link are forever fixed
Francesco Redi (1626-1697)- an Italian
physician and naturalist
Buffon and Cuvier- proposed the idea of species gone extinct (18th
century)
- challenged the Creation notion
James Ussher (1581-1656)-an Anglican Archbishop-performed complex
calculations using the Old Testament and concluded that the
universe was created on October 23, 4004 B.C.
Isaac Newton- dated the creation on 3998 B.C.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (1707–1788)-a French
naturalist and writer, calculate the age of the Earth at around 75,000
and 2 to 3 million years using physical laws about the rate at which
objects as large as Earth both heat up and cool down
James Hutton (1726–1797),a Scottish geologist, naturalist, and
chemist, he proposed based on geological evidence—the way
that rock strata were aligned, the processes of erosion and
sedimentation, and the fossil data—suggested that the world
was inconceivably old
An English physician and
philosopher
“All life developed from a single
living filament”

“the struggle for existence”

 Vestiges of the Natural History of
Creation (Chambers 1845).

Presented a more influential theory

about the origin of species,
“Principle of progressive
development”
“ the simplest and most primitive
species..gave birth to type next
above it…and so on to the very
highest…”

a) Composition of species changed

over time
b) change is slow and gradual,
unlinked to catastrophes
 Transformationist theory

“based on the idea that new,more

complex species, being human as the
most complex, have descended from
gradually older less complex species”

Hypothesis: Traits acquired during

the lifetime of an individual are
passed on to its progeny
Patrick Mathew (1790–1874)- a Scottish
landowner and writer
- proposed his own theory of natural
selection on his book “On Naval Timber
and Aboriculture”
-principles of survival of the fittest or
the circumstance-adaptive law
“As the field of existence is limited and
preoccupied, it is only the hardier, more robust,
better suited to circumstance, who are able to
struggle forward to maturity..”
(Mathew 1831)
Mathew’s Proposed ideas:
(1) resources are limited, and only so many offspring
can survive to the age of reproduction,
(2) individuals will differ in terms of traits that allow
them to garner such resources,
(3) over time, this will lead to organisms that are well
adapted to their environment
Charles Lyell (1797-1875)-a Scottish
Geologist
“Uniformitarianism”
The world as changing across enormous
expanse of time-changes that occur over
time
- influencing Darwin the idea of change
over time

Principles of Geology, Being an Attempt to

Explain the Former Changes of the Earth’s
Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in
Operation (Lyell 1830)
 Five major developments that preceded
and facilitated Darwin’s theory
a) from supernatural explanations to
methodological naturalism,
b) from catastrophism to uniformitarianism,
c) from logic and pure reason to observation,
testing, and refutation,
d) from an unchanging world to an evolving world,
e) from the idea of spontaneous generation to the
idea that species come from other closely related
species
Darwin’s journey
Proposed theory similar to Darwin
brilliant natural historian,
geographer, and collector;
identified numerous new species of
birds and insects,

Concluded that similarity of

geographically nearby species that
new species must arise from
preexisting ones
Darwin carefully discusses his ideas “On the
Origin of Species”
 Means of modification and pigeon breeding

• Led to variation in pigeons ( artificial selection)

 Artificial Selection
• Systematically breeding certain varieties of an organism over
the others
• Selective agent-human; traits-selected variety

Varieties- differences leading to subspecies and then to species

-also referred as incipient species or species in the making
Species- are strongly marked and permanent varieties
 Natural Selection of Darwin
Selective agent- nature
Natural selection- “Favors any variant of a trait that
increases the survival and reproductive success of an
individual, even if the difference is not easily detected
by a human observer or if the increase in reproductive
success is small”
 Plant traits and insect pollination

Traits selected can contribute to over-all reproduction success

Transformational (Lamarck) and Variational
(Darwin) processes of evolution
Darwin on Common Ancestry
Tree of life- historical
relationship among living things

Phylogenetic tree from the Origin of

Species
“Every species has come into existence
coincident both in space and time with
a pre-existing closely allied species”
(Wallace 1855, p. 186)
 Problems with Darwin’s Theory
• Problem 1: Accounting for complex structures
with more intricate parts.
• Problem 2: Explaining organs and traits of
seemingly little importance.
– Vestigial traits
• Problem 3: Why doesn’t natural selection run
out of variation to sort on?
– genetics
 Reactions to Darwin’s theory
• Alfred Russel Wallace, Henry Walter Bates
(1825–1892), and Joseph Dalton Hooker
(1817–1911)
– thought that natural selection was important in
driving evolutionary change,
Gregor Mendel (1822–1884)-Augustinian monk,
plant breeder, and biologist
conducted experiment between 1850s and
1860s