Topic 5: Ecology and Evolution

5.4: Evolution

Evolution slider

The Big Bang

The Simpsons

Charles Darwin1809 - 1882

“……can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and procreating their kind? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the lease injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call NATURAL SELECTION.” – On the Origin of Species

Attenborough on Darwin

Competition for food• finding• catching• opening• digesting

Predation • catching• fighting• avoiding• escaping Parasitism

• invading• avoiding• removing• tolerating

Disease• invading• avoiding• removing• tolerating

Competition for mates• attracting• fighting• fertilising• providing for

Competition for spaces• living space/shelter• nesting• reproductive space

as a result of

Random Mutation

Sexual Reproduction

DNA Replicatio

n

Viral infection

Meiosis Random fertilisatio

nRandom

assortment of chromosomes metaphase 1

Crossing over (recombination)

prophase I

Evolution lab

Other examples of evolution in action include resistance to pesticides

Belief in evolutionUntouched by the hand of GodHow people in various countries view the theory of evolutionFeb 5th 2009IT IS 150 years since the publication of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which suggested that all living things are related and that everything is ultimately descended from a single common ancestor. This has troubled many, including Darwin himself, as it subverted ideas of divine intervention. It is not surprising that the countries least accepting of evolution today tend to be the most devout. In the most recent international survey available, only Turkey is less accepting of the theory than America. Iceland and Denmark are Darwin's most ardent adherents. Indeed America has become only slightly more accepting of Darwin's theory in recent years. In 2008 14% of people polled by Gallup agreed that “man evolved over millions of years”, up from 9% in 1982 Ross and Phoebe

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/fossil-evidence.html

Whales in the desertWhale evolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2C-3PjNGok

Heike’s crabs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVSJNhUhV-4&feature=related

http://www2.edc.org/weblabs/ExploringEvolution/evolution.swf