BIODIVERSITY and

SYSTEMATICS:
EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIP
THE THEORIES of
EVOLUTION and
the EVIDENCE
SUPPORTING
THEM
LEARNING COMPETENCY
• Trace the development of evolutionary thought
• Explain different pieces of evidence of evolution.
• Infer evolutionary relationships among
organisms using the evidence of evolution
• Describe how evolution exist
 Lamarck’s Theories of Evolution
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck , a French biologist
who first suggested that organisms undergo
evolution.
He proposed that all organisms evolve in response
to their environment.
He also studied fossils and organisms, which led
him to formulate theories regarding evolution.
His theory explained why organisms change over
time.
 Theory of Need
“Organisms change because they
need to and as a response to the
environment, making their traits
more adaptable.”
The traits that the organisms
manifest are products of their
altered behaviors.
 Theory of Use and Disuse
“Organisms developed characteristics
by the use and disuse.”
Lamarck explained that organisms can
reshape their traits depending on the
importance of those traits to them.
An organism will develop a trait that is
useful to it, and it will lose a trait that is
useless.
 Theory of Acquired Traits
“An organism can develop acquired
traits as adaptations, and these traits
acquired in its lifetime could be passed
on to its offspring.”
 Darwin’s Theory of
Natural Selection
Charles Darwin, an English Naturalist, contributed
the widely accepted theory of evolution by means of
natural selection.
His theory of natural selection provided the
foundation for understanding the diversity of species
on Earth.
Species refers to a group of organisms that have
similar features and characteristics and can produce
fertile offspring in a specific environment.
 Major Ideas of the
Concept of Natural Selection
1. Variation of Organism
• Organisms vary in their physical,
functional, and behavioral characteristics.
• No two individuals are the same.
• Variation is important in natural selection
because it allows a specific kind of species
to survive more than other members.
• Variations of organisms are passed on to the
next generation.
 Major Ideas of the
Concept of Natural Selection
2. Survival of the Fittest
• Competition is a struggle for existence.
• All organisms will struggle for living space and
food in the natural world.
• Because of this struggle for survival, organisms
are compelled to change to fit into the
environment.
• Failure to do so will result in extinction – a
process wherein all individuals of a given
species cease to exist.
 Major Ideas of the
Concept of Natural Selection
3. Adaptation to the environment
• Organism who can adapt to their environment
would most likely survive and produce an offspring
with adaptable traits.
• Adaptation is the process of being better suited to
the environment.
• The fittest organisms would avoid extinction and
have the ability to reproduce healthy offspring,
which will guarantee transmission of adaptable
traits for future generations.
 Major Ideas of the
Concept of Natural Selection

4. Natural Selection
• Environmental conditions affect the
survival of organisms.
• Only those organisms that can adapt to
new environmental conditions will
survive and reproduce in greater
numbers than those without the capacity
to adapt.
 Major Ideas of the
Concept of Natural Selection

5. Process of Speciation
• When new species come to existence,
speciation occurs.
• This process happens when favorable traits
are gradually accumulated by the new
species and the unfavorable traits disappear.
 Types of Natural Selection
1. DIRECTIONAL SELECTION
- Happens when a change in the
environment causes a change in the
observable spectrum of phenotypes
- In this process, organisms with a
phenotype that is well suited to their
current environment are more likely
to survive.
 Types of Natural Selection
2. STABILIZING SELECTION
- Occurs when intermediate
phenotypes are more likely to
survive in the environment.
 Types of Natural Selection
3. DISRUPTIVE or
DIVERSIFYING SELECTION
- Occurs when an extreme
phenotypes are more likely to adapt
to the environment.
Embryological
Evidence
 Embryology
• It is the study of how organisms develop from
fertilization to birth.
• The development of embryos, similarities in the
DNA of protein organisms, and protein
compositions offer additional sets of indirect
evidence of evolutionary relationship.
• Embryos of different species have similarities,
especially in the later stages of development for
more closely related animals indicating related
ties.
Structural
Evidence
 Homologous Structures

• These are body structures of different

organisms that have similar arrangements
and patterns in embryonic development.
• Several kinds of organisms have
homologous limbs.
• These limbs have common internal bone
structures but are adapted for different
functions.
 Analogous Structures
• They have similar appearance and function,
but they differ in origin.
• Examples are the wings of birds, bats, and
insects for flying.
• These types of wings look similar and
perform the same function, but they possess
different internal structures.
• Vestigial Organs are body parts without
specific functions and resemble the structure
of their presumed ancestors.
Biochemical
Evidence:
Nucleotide and protein
sequence
 Nucleotide and
Protein Sequence

• The sequence of nucleotides making up DNA is

also evidence of evolution.
• The theory of evolution shows that if species
evolved over time, their genes must also have
evolved.
• In these theory of evolution, genes accumulate
modifications in their nucleotide sequence.
• Closely related species will have genes that show
more similarities in the nucleotide and protein
sequence than those of distantly related species.
 Fossil
Evidenc
e
 FOSSILS
• FOSSILS are evidences of organisms that
lived in the past.
• They can be actual remains like bones,
teeth, shells, leaves, seeds, spores or traces
of past activities such as animal burrows,
nests and dinosaur footprints or even the
ripples created on a prehistoric shore.
 TYPES OF FOSSILS
TYPES OF FOSSILS DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES EXAMPLES
Impression made in a substrate = Shells
Molds
negative image of an organism
Casts When a mold is filled in Bones and teeth
Petrified trees; Coal balls (fossilized
Petrified Organic material is converted into stone plants and their tissues, in round ball
shape)

Preserved wholly (frozen in ice, trapped

Woolly mammoth; Amber from the
Original Remains in tar pits, dried/ desiccated inside
Baltic Sea region
caves in arid regions or encased in
amber/ fossilized resin)

Carbon Film Carbon impression in sedimentary rocks Leaf impression on the rock

Trackways, toothmarks, gizzard rocks,

Record the movements and behaviors coprolites (fossilized dungs), burrows
Trace / Ichnofossils
of the organism and nests
 Indirect Evidence of Fossils
A. Body Fossils
• These includes the discovered bones,
teeth, shells, and other hard materials of
once-living organisms.
B. Trace Fossils
• These includes imprints of leaves,
stems, burrows, tracks, footprints,
coprolites(fossilized feces).
 Fossilization
a gradual process that starts when
volcanic ash or sediments cover an organism
or its traces.
Fossils can also be formed by:
• Petrification
• Freezing
• Desiccation
• Carbonization
 How Fossils are Formed
1. Petrification
• It starts when water infiltrates the
remains buried underneath and
inorganic compounds are dissolved
replacing minerals in bones and other
hardened tissues.
• Accumulation of sediments exerts
pressure on the burial site of the
organism.
 How Fossils are Formed
2. Freezing
• It occurs when organism’s remains
get frozen.
• Examples of the effects of freezing
are the remains of woolly mammoths
and rhinoceroses during the ice age.
 How Fossils are Formed
3. Desiccation
• It occurs when the remains dry up for
a long period of time.
• Example of the effect of desiccation
is the remains of giant ground sloths
in desert or dry areas.
 How Fossils are Formed
4. Carbonization
• It occurs when the only remaining
component of an organism is carbon –
the most common component in plant
fossils.
• Example of this is Amber, a fossilized
sap of ancient pine trees that may
contain fossil insects or other small
animals trapped in the sticky sap.
 Dating Fossils
1. RELATIVE DATING
Based upon the study of layer of rocks
Does not tell the exact age: only compare
fossils as older or younger, depends on
their position in rock layer
Fossils in the uppermost rock layer/ strata
are younger while those in the lowermost
deposition are oldest
 How Relative Age is
Determined
I. Law of Superposition: if a layer
of rock is undisturbed, the fossils
found on upper layers are younger
than those found in lower layers of
rocks
II. However, because the Earth is
active, rocks move and may disturb
the layer making this process not
highly accurate
Rules of Relative Dating
a) LAW OF SUPERPOSITION: Sedimentary
layers are deposited in a specific time- youngest
rocks on top, oldest rocks at the bottom
b) LAW OF ORIGINAL HORIZONTALITY:
Deposition of rocks happen horizontally- tilting,
folding or breaking happened recently
c) LAW OF CROSS-CUTTING
RELATIONSHIPS: If an igneous intrusion or a
fault cuts through existing rocks, the
intrusion/fault is YOUNGER than the rock it
cuts through
 Dating Fossils
2. ABSOLUTE DATING
 Determines the actual age of the fossil
 Through radiometric dating, using radioactive
isotopes carbon-14 and potassium-40
 Considers the half-life or the time it takes for
half of the atoms of the radioactive element to
decay
 The decay products of radioactive isotopes are
stable atoms.