Evolution

• The Evidence for Evolution includes the unity and diversity of life, the fossil record, anatomical evidence, and convergent evolution.
• Evolution is the change that occurs in a population or species from one generation to the next.
• Darwin’s definition of evolution is “Descent with Modification” accomplished through Natural Selection.
• The current definition of evolution is Heritable change in one or more characteristics of a population or species from one generation to the next.
• Evolution can only act on traits encoded in DNA, which are inherited from parents.
• Heritable change in evolution refers to changes in traits that can be inherited from parents, such as height, skin color, genetic diseases, but not intelligence or acquired fitness.
• Biogeography can explain why the animal life of Australia is so unique.
• Natural selection is a process that favors certain traits in a population, leading to changes over time.
• The fossil record can reveal evolutionary pathways, with examples of homologous structures, developmental homologies, and molecular homologies.
• Artificial selection is a process that can produce species, either deliberate or unintentional.
• The finch evolution on Galapagos and the peppered moth variations demonstrate evolution.
• Geological eras are defined by the end of a certain period of time.
• Common arguments used against the theory of evolution can be refuted.
• Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection explains how species change over time through a process called "Descent with Modification".
• Evolution occurs over generations and requires a changing populations.
• Individuals do not evolve, populations or species do.
• Evolution takes time, at least thousands, usually millions, sometimes billions of years.
• Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.) believed species are “fixed” and can be arranged on a ladder of increasing complexity, with humans at the top.
• Archbishop Ussher (1650) claimed the world began on October 23, 4004 B.C., meaning the Earth is only ~6000 years old.
• James Hutton and Charles Lyell, geologists, suggested the world is older than 6000 years due to geological changes that are very slow and still happening today.
• Thomas Malthus suggested humans must compete for resources, and not all of them survive.
• Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) joined the survey ship HMS Beagle on a 5-year trip around the world to collect biological specimens.
• Darwin observed that fossils found in South America are very similar to animals from South America, and very different from animals (and fossils) from Europe.
• Darwin also observed that animals on the Galapagos Islands resemble animals on the South American coastline, but they are not identical.
• Vestigial Structures
• Antibiotic Resistance
• Archeopteryx, Tiktaalik, Whales, and Horses
• “Evolution is not solidly demonstrated.”
• “Proteins are too improbable.
• Unintentional Insecticide Resistance
• Fossil Evidence of Evolution
• Peppered Moths and Industrial Melanism: More Evidence of Selection
• Natural Selection
• Artificial Selection: Human-Initiated Change
• Developmental Homologies
• Descent with Modification
• Convergent Evolution and the Biogeographical Record
• “The organs of living creatures are too complex for a random process to have produced them – the existence of a clock is evidence of the existence of a clockmaker.
• Irreducible complexity
• Molecular Homologies (DNA and Protein)