EVOLUTION

Charles Robert Darwin

Charles Darwin was born in England on February

12, 1809

After graduating from the best school at

Shrewsbury in 1825, Darwin went to the
University of Edinburgh to study medicine.

 In 1827 he dropped out of medical school and

entered the University of Cambridge.
Charles Robert Darwin

 Darwin was an avid collector of beetles while at Cambridge

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Charles Robert Darwin

 In 1831, he joined a 5 year scientific expedition on the survey

ship HMS Beagle as their geologist.
Charles Robert Darwin

 The idea of evolution has been around for a long time (even
before Darwin)

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Charles Robert Darwin

 Darwin read a book called “Principles of Geology” by Charles

Lyell on the Beagle

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Charles Robert Darwin
 Lyell suggested that the fossils found in rocks were actually
evidence of animals that had lived many thousands or millions of
years ago.

 Lyell's argument was reinforced in Darwin's own mind by the

rich variety of animal life and the geological features he saw
during his voyage.
Charles Robert Darwin
 Darwin noticed that each island supported its own form of finch
which were closely related but differed in important ways.

Geospiza tnagnirostris. 2. Geospiza fortis.

Geospiza parvula. 4. Certhidea olivasea.
Charles Robert Darwin
 Darwin found that the shapes of tortoise shells corresponded
to different habitats.

Galapagos Tortoises

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Charles Robert Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin
 Another scholar of the time, Thomas Malthus, studied populations
and had a great impact on Darwin’s understanding of finches,
other organisms, and his theory of evolution.

 Malthus believed that given unlimited resources, a population would

grow exponentially.

 Under normal conditions, a natural population would be limited by

food, water, habitat, etc. resulting in a balancing of population
numbers.

 Influenced by the ideas of Malthus, Darwin

proposed a theory of evolution occurring
by the process of natural selection.
Charles Robert Darwin
 Survival of the fittest

 The animals (or plants) best suited to their environment are

more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the
characteristics which helped them survive to their offspring.

 Gradually, the species changes over time.

Charles Robert Darwin
Darwin worked on his theory for 20 years.

After learning that another naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace

had developed similar ideas
 the two made a joint announcement of their
discovery in 1858.
Charles Robert Darwin
 In 1859 Darwin published :
 ‘ The Origin of Species ‘ by Means of Natural Selection

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 Evolution
 Change over time
 Occurs to species, not individual
 Explains diversity on Earth today
 Great variety of types of living things
 Between species 10 – 100 million species on earth

 How Evolution Works :

 Explained by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell

Wallace Darwin wrote On the Origin of Specie
s
 How Evolution Works
1. Overpopulation
• more individuals born than can survive
 How Evolution Works
2. Competition
• for limited resources some will survive
 How Evolution Works
3. Variation
• Differences among individuals a result of genetic mutation –
changes in DNA
 How Evolution Works
4. Adaptation

 some variation gives some individuals a slight

survival advantage these are favorable traits
 traits or characteristics that help an organism
survive in its ecosystem

 three types:
 How Evolution Works
1.Structural and Behavioral :
Physical structure that helps organism survive

Adaptations
Behavioral Adaptations Physical Adaptations
• Polar bears dig dens to • The white fur of the polar
protect themselves from bear helps it blend In with
cold winds. the snow and Ice.
• The ability to be a strong • The thick layer of fat er
swimmer help with hunting Its skin helps it stay warm
in such cold temperatures.
. un •• and round ears
help maintain body heat
 How Evolution Works
2. Chemical
Chemical that helps organism survive

Octopus Skunk
 How Evolution Works
3.Camouflage

Allows an organism to blend with its environment

Owl Frog
 Types of Evolution

Divergent Evolution
• Organisms have a common ancestor
• Changes in environment cause them to adapt
• So they may look/ act differently, but they are still related!
 Types of Evolution
Convergent Evolution
• Organisms have similar features
• However, they don’t have a common ancestor!
• So they may look/ act the same, but they are not related!

Rah: Shar'k Reptli., lclhVQn n, ,r (extinct)

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 Types of Evolution
Convergent Evolution
• Organisms have similar features
• However, they don’t have a common ancestor!
• So they may look/ act the same, but they are not related!

Rah: Shar'k Reptli., lclhVQn n, ,r (extinct)

Bltd: Pwuguin
 Speciation
 The most widely accepted definition: A species
 is a group of individuals capable of interbreeding to produce
fertile offspring
 it has a problem : Hybrid Infertility
 Horse X Donkey = Mule
(Cannot Reproduce and produce Fertile offspring)
 Speciation

 So a better definition of a species might be:

 A group of individuals capable of interbreeding to
produce offspring that are fertile and these offspring, in
turn, can produce offspring that are fertile.

 The process by which new species develop from the

existing species is known as : Speciation.
Speciation

Wii
In mathematics: i
if A = B, and B = C interbreed

thenA=C 0

But in a ring species:

�1 A = B, B = C, C = D, D = E
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cc davehuth.com/bl
Speciation
 Evolution
Microevolution:
• genetic change in a population from one generation to the next
Macroevolution:
• Processes through which new species arise
 Microevolution

Moths :
• At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England, coal burning
produced soot that covered the countryside in many areas
 Microevolution

• What do you think happened?

Industrial
Area
 Microevolution
 White moths became easier to see, while the black moths became harder to see.
 The black moths were more likely to survive and pass on the gene for
dark color to their offspring
 Over time, the black moths have become more common
 Macroevolution

• Transitional Fossils :
Prominent examples:
 Archaeopteryx
 Tiktaalik
 Darwinius masillae
 Ardipithecus ramidus
 Australopithecus
afarensis
 Macroevolution

Archaeopteryx : Origin of
birds
Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 150.8–148.5 Ma
 Macroevolution

Tiktaali roseae : Fish to Reptile

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Temporal range: Late Devonian, 375 Ma

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 Macroevolution
Tiktaalik
roseae

The Missing Link

Tiktaalik
Eusthenopteron

Pectoral tin Transi1ional Hind limb

foollike s1ruc1ure
 Macroevolution

Darwinius : Origin of Primates

masillae
Temporal range: Middle Eocene, 47 Ma
 Macroevolution

Ardipithecus : Apes to humans 4.4 Ma

ramidus
 Macroevolution
Australopithecus Apes to 2.9_3.9 Ma
afarensis: humans
Human Family Tree

,-- Puranthropus group

Ardlpithecus
group
Human Family Tree
Human Family Tree
Human Family Tree
Human Family Tree
 How Darwinism influence
History?
A 21st-century person looks at the world quite
differently than a citizen of the Victorian era did.

This shift had multiple sources, particularly the

incredible advances in technology. But what is
not at all appreciated is the great extent to which
this shift in thinking indeed resulted from
Darwin’s ideas.
First, Darwinism rejects all supernatural
phenomena and causations.

The theory of evolution by natural selection

explains the adaptedness and diversity of the
world solely materialistically. It no longer requires
God as creator or designer (although one is
certainly still free to believe in God even if one
accepts evolution).
Darwin pointed out that creation, as described in
the Bible and the origin accounts of other
cultures, was contradicted by almost any aspect of
the natural world.
 Eliminating God from science made room for
strictly scientific explanations of all natural
phenomena; it gave rise to positivism; it produced
a powerful intellectual and spiritual revolution, the
effects of which have lasted to this day.

Second, Darwinism refutes typology. From the time of the

Pythagoreans and Plato, the general concept of the
diversity of the world emphasized its invariance and
stability. This viewpoint is called typology, or essentialism.
The seeming variety, it was said, consisted of a limited
number of natural kinds (essences or types), each one
forming a class. The members of each class were thought
to be identical, constant, and sharply separated from the
members of other essences.
Variation, in contrast, is nonessential and
accidental. A triangle illustrates essentialism: all
triangles have the same fundamental
characteristics and are sharply delimited against
quadrangles or any other geometric figures.

Typological thinking, therefore, is unable to

accommodate variation and gives rise to a misleading
conception of human races. For the typologist,
Caucasians, Africans, Asians or Inuits are types that
conspicuously differ from other human ethnic groups.
This mode of thinking leads to racism. Darwin
completely rejected typological thinking and introduced
instead the entirely different concept now called
population thinking. All groupings of living organisms,
including humanity, are populations that consist of
uniquely different individuals.
By rejecting the constancy of populations, Darwin
helped to introduce history into scientific thinking and
to promote a distinctly new approach to explanatory
interpretation in science.

Third, Darwin’s theory of natural selection made any

invocation of teleology unnecessary. From the Greeks
onward, there existed a universal belief in the existence of
a teleological force in the world that led to ever greater
perfection. This “final cause” was one of the causes
specified by Aristotle. After Kant, in the Critique of
Judgment, had unsuccessfully attempted to describe
biological phenomena with the help of a physicalist
Newtonian explanation, he then invoked teleological
forces. Even after 1859, teleological explanations
(orthogenesis) continued to be quite popular in
evolutionary biology.
 Fourth, Darwin does away with determinism.
Laplace notoriously boasted that a complete
knowledge of the current world and all its
processes would enable him to predict the future
to infinity. Darwin, by comparison, accepted the
universality of randomness and chance throughout
the process of natural selection.
That chance should play an important role in natural processes has been an
unpalatable thought for many physicists. Einstein expressed this distaste in
his statement, “God does not play dice.” Of course, as previously
mentioned, only the first step in natural selection, the production of
variation, is a matter of chance. The character of the second step, the
actual selection, is to be directional.
Despite the initial resistance by physicists and philosophers, the role of
contingency and chance in natural processes is now almost universally
acknowledged. Many biologists and philosophers deny the existence of
universal laws in biology and suggest that all regularities be stated in
probabilistic terms, as nearly all so-called biological laws have exceptions.
Philosopher of science Karl Popper’s famous test of falsification therefore
cannot be applied in these cases.
Fifth, Darwin developed a new view of humanity and,
in turn, a new anthropocentrism. Of all of Darwin’s
proposals, the one his contemporaries found most
difficult to accept was that the theory of common
descent applied to Man. For theologians and
philosophers alike, Man was a creature above and
apart from other living beings. Aristotle, Descartes and
Kant agreed on this sentiment, no matter how else
their thinking diverged.

But biologists Thomas Huxley and Ernst Haeckel

revealed through rigorous comparative anatomical
study that humans and living apes clearly had
common ancestry, an assessment that has never
again been seriously questioned in science. The
application of the theory of common descent to
Man deprived man of his former unique position.