Topic 5: Ecology and Evolution

1. Topic 5: Ecology and Evolution 5.4: Evolution

2. Evolution slider The Big Bang The Simpsons

3. Earth’s evolutionary past: • Life from more than 500 million years ago was greatly different from life today. • Fish fossils have only been found in rocks 500 million years old or younger. (less than 15% of history of life) • None of todays top predators existed at the time of dinosaurs or before. • Few organisms today have identical forms in the fossil record. (Exceptions: cockroaches, ferns, certain sharks)

4. Charles Darwin 1809 - 1882 Attenborough on Darwin “……can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and procreating their kind? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the lease injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call NATURAL SELECTION.” – On the Origin of Species

9. Organism dies and gets buried. • as layers of sediment are added, pressure increases, causing the sediments to compact into rock. • As body decays, minerals seep into the it, filling spaces where gases or fluids used to be — this is known as permineralization. • Alternately, the minerals in it chemically break down and are reformed or replaced. • Eventually, most or all of what is left is a rock-like copy of the body. Sometimes, organisms are preserved in substances such as amber, ice or tar, as well. Occasionally, imprints get filled with sediments that harden into rock, creating natural molds or casts. A good example is animal footprints How Fossils Form

11. Life 500 million years ago was very different from life today • Fish fossils only date back to 500 million years ago or younger. (< 15% of history of life) • None of the top predators today existed at the time of the dinosaurs or before • Other than some sharks, cockroaches and ferns, most living organisms have no identical form in fossil record Evidence for Evolution: fossil record

12. Whales in the desert Whale evolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2C-3PjNGok

13. Heike’s crabs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVSJNhUhV-4&feature=related

14. *Structures which are similar in form and function but are found in dissimilar species. Example: pentadactyl limbs are five-fingered limbs which differ in shape, number of bones and function. *Evidence for a common ancestor. – different uses, but basic shape and placement are the same Homologous structures

15. Homologous Structures

16. 1. Population produces more offspring than the environment can support. • Utilize nutrients/energy of parents • Force competition: food, mates, space • Disease, predation, parasitism Leads to adaptive behaviors Ex. Cuckoo bird Ex. Flowers & insects 2. Variation • Sexual Reproduction Evolutionary Mechanisms

17. Competition for food • finding • catching • opening • digesting • Competition for mates • attracting • fighting • fertilising • providing for • Predation • catching • fighting • avoiding • escaping • Competition for spaces • living space/shelter • nesting • reproductive space • Disease • invading • avoiding • removing • tolerating • Parasitism • invading • avoiding • removing • tolerating

18. Examples • Camouflage • Shapes of body parts such as beaks • Mating preferences Variation & survival

19. DNA mutation • May produce disease • May produce advantage Each generation only a few mutations. Most are not useful or harmful. Result is a wide array of variation Causes of variety

20. as a result of Random Mutation Sexual Reproduction DNA Replication Viral infection Meiosis Random fertilisation Random assortment of chromosomes metaphase 1 Crossing over (recombination) prophase I

21. Evolution lab

22. When too many individuals exist for limited resources, survival is determined by surroundings & compatibility of characteristics w/ surroundings. Natural Selection

23. Over production of offspring w/ variation • Useful increase/harmful decrease survival chance 2. Genetic characteristics poorly adapted to environment - Less successful at accessing resources 3. Genetic characteristics well adapted to environment – more successful at surviving Natural Selection Steps

24. 4. Organisms that survive to adulthood more likely to reproduce & pass on successful characteristics 5. Over many generations, accumulation of heritable changes results in evolution. Gene pool has changed. Steps cont.

26. Staphylococcus aureus- bacteria Variation: MRSA – Methycillin-resistant MSSA – Methycillin susceptible Environmental change: application of methycillin Result: MSSA is killed MRSA survives & reproduces MRSA population increases, dominant strain Methycillin no longer effective against infection Antibiotic resistance in bacteria

27. Bacteria can continue to change and become resistant to all antibiotics – superbacteria Bacteria reproduce asexually. Little variation. Sources: mutation, plasmid transfer.

30. Variation: Most individuals are susceptible to pesticide. Some carry a gene for resistance Environmental change: pesticide sprayed Result: Susceptible population reduced. Resistant population survives and reproduces Gene for resistance increases in frequency Resistant population dominates Examples: resistance of malaria to DDT, Rats to poison Pesticide resistance

31. Not artificial selection: Humans are responsible for environmental changes- creating environmental changes – pressure organism to adapt or parish. *adaptations not “chosen” – results of environmental conditions. *solution at individual level- significant to a specific population

32. Other examples of evolution in action include resistance to pesticides