Evolution

• Common descent

  • describes how species have a common ancestry
• Speciation

  • refers to the formation of new species
• Gregor Mendel

  • Scientist that did experiments on garden peas and determined many concepts related to the mechanisms of inheritance
• Friedrich Miescher

  • scientist able to isolate DNA in 1860s
• Mutations

  • alterations in DNA sequence result in modified amino acid sequences
• Adaptation

  • general mechanism refers to when organisms adjust to the changes in their environment
• Genetic drift

  • mechanism of change in the allele frequencies in populations is brought about by random events
• Population bottleneck

  • coupled with a drastic reduction in a population
• Ontogenetic changes

  • changes occur within a lifespan of an organism
• Phylogenetic changes

  • changes occur across lineages and generations of species
• Comparative anatomy

  • branch of biology that deals with the common structures and their functions between organisms
  • field that studies the comparisons between the structures of organisms to establish their evolutionary relationships
• Historical biogeography

  • branch of biology that deals with distribution of organisms across time and space
  • concerns itself with the past and present distribution of organisms
• Chimpanzees

  • humans' closest living relative
• Palawan

  • island of the Philippines that broke off from what was mainland Asia millions of years ago
• Unified Theory of Evolution

  • the theory describes Darwin's findings and other concepts that have been established about evolution since on the origin of Species
• unified theory of evolution is sometimes also referred to as the modern synthesis or neo-Darwinism.
• Gradualism describes the small incremental changes that may happen during the process of evolution.
• Natural selection describes how organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and pass on their traits to their offspring.
• Genetics provides a solid basis for explaining how traits can be passed on from one generation to another.
• genetics provides an explanation of how traits can change from one generation to another over time
• adaptations are not universal
• Genetic drift can say that there are random factors or events in nature that can affect organisms regardless of how adaptive the characteristics that they have.
• Phylogeny and Systematics

  • studying the evolutionary relationships among organisms
  • deciphering how species are related to each other and how lineages have diverged in order to form new species.
• molecular methods

  • most significant method in Phylogeny
  • analyze the DNA sequences of organisms and compare them with each other
• Phylogenetic changes from fishes to early amphibians involve terrestrialization
• scientific theory is one that is grounded on facts and laws and incorporates rigorous scientific testing or experimentations
• Evolution does not have a goal
• Survival of the fittest is not accurate, survival of the fit is
• Biogeography

  • deals with the distribution of species across the world
• Our understanding of evolution today is greatly influenced by Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.