BIO REVIEWER

• The earliest concept evolution did not start with Charles Darwin. It was in the 18th century that many naturalists began to state the idea that life might not have been fixed since creation.
• Paleontologist discovered fossil that gave them a picture of the past
• John Ray


  • Established the modern concept of a species, noting that members of one species do not interbreed with members of another species
  • First used the term species as the basic unit of taxonomy
  • Studied fossil and recognized them as remnants of organisms that were once alive
• Carl Linnaeus


  Developed the modern taxonomic system that is still used today
• Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon


  • Wrote a 36-volume Histoire Naturelle (Natural History) series
  • Suggesting that our planet had initially formed in a molten state and that it's gradual cooling must have taken far longer than 70 000 years
  • Considered the role of vestigial organs, creating a possibility of species descending from earlier organisms
• Erasmus Darwin


  • Aware that the modern organisms are different from the fossils scientists have collected
  • Believed that offspring inherited features from their parents and that the organism today descended from a common ancestor
• Georges Cuvier


  • Studied and wrote books on comparative anatomy, which were extremely useful in interpreting the remains of fossils
  • Classified animals based on their body plans, which became important in analyzing relationship among organism
  • Known as the father of Paleontology
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck


  Proposed that individuals were able to pass on their traits to their offspring
• James Hutton


  • Recognized that Earth is extremely old (more than millions of years)
  • Proponent of uniformitarianism, which state that the present geological feature of the Earth is the result of gradual processes such as erosion and sedimentation
  • Charles Darwin was able to adapt the principle of gradual change to his model of how species evolved
• Charles Lyell


  • Considered the shopping of Earth's surface as a result of gradual long-term natural changes
  • Collected many pieces of evidences to support the principle of uniformitarianism and wrote about them in his book Principle of Geology, which was also influential to the creation of Charles Darwin's Theory
• Charles Robert Darwin


  Came up with the idea that the best-adapted organisms are those that can survive to breed and pass on their traits to their offspring (Natural Selection)
• Alfred Russell Wallace


  Arrived at the same conclusion as Darwin's: that organisms with favorable traits are those that carry on to the next generation
• Charles Darwin was born in England on 12 February 1809
• In 1831, Darwin went aboard the H.M.S. Beagle in its voyage around the world
• Darwin's most famous travel involved in Galapagos Islands, composed of many small island located 1000 km west of South America. He noted the characteristics of certain animal, such as shape of tortoise or the beaks bird, vary from one island to another. And the species that present in one location were different from the species found in other location and animal that look alike may actually belong to several different species (e.g. Mockingbird).
• Darwin wrote and published the book entitled On the Origin of Species, in which he proposed the famous theory of evolution by natural selection. Which according to him has been taking place for millions of years.
• Natural Selection


  Process in nature through which living organisms adapt and change in response to an environmental condition
• Darwin explain in Natural Selection that high birth rate and a shortage of life basic need would eventually force organism into completion for resources. The struggle for existence means that members of each species compete to obtain food, living space, and other necessities of life and those that are stronger and faster are able to protect themselves.
• Evidence of Evolution


  • Biogeography
  • Fossil Record
  • Homology
  • Embroyology
  • DNA/Protein Sequences
• Biogeography


  The study of the distribution of plants and animals on Earth
• Fossil Record


  Provides strong evidence of the history of life on Earth and how different organisms have changed over time
• Fossils


  Contains preserved remains or evidence of ancient organism
• Homology


  Evidence of evolution can be found by studying and comparing certain body parts of different animals
• Embroyology


  Involves the similarities in the early development of various organism
• DNA/Protein Sequences


  The study of DNA and protein sequences is important for identifying the evolution organisms on Earth. In fact, DNA sequencing is the most advanced tool or evidence for evolution
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was a French Naturalist, Biologist, academic, and soldier
• Lamarck was one of the first scientist to recognize that living things have changed over time
• Lamarck proposed that all species descended from other species
• Lamarckism


  The notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also called the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
• Theory of Use and Disuse


  • Organisms could alter their size, shape, or structure of particular body parts or organs by continuously using them in new ways
  • If a body part were used, it got stronger. And if not used it become deteriorated
  • Lamarck proposed that giraffes used to have short necks, but their population caused a shortage in their food supply on the ground, so they tried to eat the leaves on the trees, which caused them to stretch their necks over time, enabling the next generation to have longer necks
  • The theory of disuse states that if an animal chooses not to use its body part, that body part or organ would eventually decrease in size for several generations until it finally disappears, as seen in the Spurs or Vestigial Limb structures found in snakes
• Theory of Inheritance of acquired Characteristics


  Organisms inherited their traits from their parents, and they may also pass them on to the next generation of offspring, as seen in the presence of long trunks in elephants
• Lamarck's theories of use and Inheritance of acquired characteristics proved to be incorrect in several ways. Unlike Darwin, Lamarck was not aware of how traits were inherited. He did not know that inheritable characteristics of organisms are not affected by their behavior.
• Lamarck's theory about elephants was quite different from Darwin's. For Darwin, most elephants used to have short trunks and some had longer trunks. When there was scarcity of food and water, those with short tanks were not able to reach the water and food, and they eventually died. The ones with longer trunks survived and reproduced.