The Five Evidences of Evolution

1. The Five Evidences of Evolution SB5: Students will evaluate the role of natural selection in the development of the theory of evolution.

2. Support for Evolution • 1 ) The fossil record • Fossils provide a record of species that lived long ago. • Fossils show that ancient species share similarities with species that now live on Earth.

3. Evidence of Evolution • 2) Anatomical Evidence • A) Derived traits are newly evolved features, such as feathers, that do not appear in the fossils of common ancestors. • B) Ancestral traits are more primitive features, such as teeth and tails, that do appear in ancestral forms. • C) Homologous structures are anatomically similar structures inherited from a common ancestor.

4. D) Analogous structures can be used for the same purpose and can be superficially similar in construction, but are notinherited from a common ancestor.

5. E) Vestigial Structures • Structures that are the reduced forms of functional structures in other organisms • Evolutionary theorypredicts that features of ancestors that no longer have a function for that species will become smaller over time until they are lost.

6. Evidence of Evolution 3) Comparative Embryology • Vertebrate embryos exhibit similar structures during the early phases of development.

7. Evidence of Evolution 4) Comparative Biochemistry • Organisms have similarities in DNA that scientists use to classify them.

8. 5) Geographical Distribution • The distribution of plants and animals that Darwin saw during his South American travels first suggested evolution to Darwin. • He noticed that animals and plants that were on the same islands had evolved similar traits but they still were more similar to organisms from their native country/island. • Picture of a English rabbit and Mara