• Darwin’s Idea of Common Descent

• Darwin’s Idea of Gradualism

• Darwin’s Idea of Multiplication of
Species
• Darwin’s Idea of Natural Selection
Darwin’s Idea of
COMMON DESCENT
• evolution = descent with modification
• All organisms are related through descent from some unknown
ancestor that lived in the distant past.
• As the descendants spilled into various habitats over time, they
accumulated diverse modifications (adaptations) that fit them to
specific ways of life.
• The history of life is like a tree.

• The Linnean classification scheme reflected the branching

genealogy of the tree of life, with organisms at the different
levels related through descent from common ancestors.
The evolutionary history of
organisms can be portrayed
as a tree growing through
time.
Genealogy of the primates
Darwin’s Idea of
GRADUALISM
• The origin of new species and adaptation are closely related
processes.
• A new species would arise from an ancestral form by the
gradual accumulation of adaptations to a different
environment.
• e.g. Darwin’s finches  ADAPTIVE RADIATION

large ground finch small tree finch woodpecker finch

Darwin’s Idea of
MULTIPLICATION of SPECIES
 The existence of an enormous number of species

 some species are very similar (not as distinct from

each other!)

 gradual changes in various characteristics as

organisms became modified according to the
conditions in which they lived
Darwin’s Idea of NATURAL SELECTION
as the Mechanism for Evolution

• Overproduction
- All species have a tendency and the potential to
increase at a geometric rate.
2. Competition
- The conditions supporting life are limited.
- Only a fraction of the offspring in a population will live
to produce offspring, so that the number of individuals
in a population remains fairly constant.
 The environments of most organisms have been
in constant change throughout geologic time.
3. Variation
- Individuals in a population vary greatly in their
characteristics.
4. Adaptation
- Some variations enable individuals to produce more
offspring than other individuals.
5. Natural Selection
- Individuals having favorable traits will produce more
offspring, and those with unfavorable traits will produce
fewer offspring.
• Speciation
- Given time, natural selection leads to the accumulation of
changes that differentiate groups from one another, such
that a new species may arise.
Industrial Melanism:
The Peppered Moth (Bis to n be tula ria )
 Natural Selection  Survival of the Fittest
Other examples:
1. Insecticide resistance
2. Drug resistance in bacteria
 A population is the smallest unit that can
evolve.
 Natural selection acts on individuals, but
individuals do not evolve.
 Natural vs. Artificial Selection

Camouflage as an example of
evolutionary adaptation
 Divergent evolution – from one species
to several different forms; adaptive
radiation

 Convergent evolution – results in

increased resemblance between
unrelated species

 Coevolution – occurs when two or

more species evolve in response to each
other
 Biological diversity is the
product of evolution.
 The mechanism of modification
has been natural selection
working continuously over
long periods of time.
At the time, Darwin did not understand the genetic basis for
evolution.

 Variations arise from mutation and genetic recombination.

 Much of the variation observed in the individuals of a

population is heritable.
 Variation mostly occurs as a result of gene mutations
and genetic recombination.

 Evolution is the change in allele frequency within a

population over time.

gene
allele
frequency
gene pool

Ernst Mayr
The Processes
 Evolution involves populations, not
Individuals
 Species is a population of organisms whose
members can interbreed under natural
circumstances and reproduce fertile (viable)
offspring
 Two fundamental processes give rise to new species:
 Cladogenesis: The splitting off of one species into two
clades, usually because of geographical isolation, but
also because of reproductive isolation.
 Two kinds of species develop by cladogenesis:
 Sympatric Species: Those whose speciation is the
product of geographical isolation
 Allopatric Species: Those whose speciation is the
product of reproductive isolation of population in the
same region.
 Anagenesis: The replacement of an ancestral species by
a daughter species over time; the ancestral species
become extinct.
 Cladogenesis:
 Time I: Genes flow freely in
region
 Time II: Barrier separates two
populations
 Time III: Mutations change
genotype and phenotype of 2
populations
 Time IV: Two populations cannot
interbreed even with removal of
barrier
 Definition: Branching of one
species into two
 From clade (“branch”) or group
with common evolutionary
ancestry.
 Allopatric speciation
occurs when two
populations are separated
by a geographical barrier
(river, mountain range)
 In this example, three
species of fish have
evolved in separate zones
 Sympatric species are those
that are separated by a
reproductively isolation
mechanism
 Speciation occurs among three
populations of fish even
though the different species
occupy the same region
 There are several ways for
subspecies to become
reproductively isolated
 Ecological Isolation: Different populations are separated by
occupy a slightly different niche
 Seasonal Isolation: The breeding season of two closely related
populations do not match.
 Sexual Isolation: One or both sexes of a species initiate mating
behavior that does not act a stimulus to the opposite sex of a
closely related population
 Mechanical isolation: Populations do not mate because of an
incompatibility of the male and female sex organs of the
individuals (extreme example: wolves and Chihuahuas)
 Gamete Isolation: Incompatibility of sex cell with bodily
environment
 Hybrid Infertility or Sterility: Hybrids do not survive or
reproduce (mules)
 Micromutation: Mutations with
 extensive or important phenotypic
results
 Example: Axolotl (species of
salamander)
 This salamander starts life as
tadpole-like larvae, as do other
salamanders
 Axolotl, however, never grows up
—doesn’t sprout mature legs,
keeps its gills, remains aquatic
existence.
 Injection of a hormone enables
maturity and to live on land, so
that one mutation can and does
create major change
 Definition: Evolution and spreading out of
related species into new niches
 Niche: An environment in which an organism
is found and its adaptive response to that
environment
 Generalized Adaptive Radiation: The
adaptation of a species to a wide range of
niches. Homo sapiens is an example.
 Specialized Adaptive Radiation: The
adaptation of a species to a narrow range of
niches.
 Absence of similar and therefore competing
species
 Occurrence of extensive extinction, thereby
emptying an environment of competitors
 Adaptive generalization of new group of
related species which enable it to occupy
several niches and displace species already
there.
 Example: Darwin’s finches on Galápagos
Islands who were blown there by winds from
mainland Ecuador
 Niches opened up for 13 varieties with
different bills, including those that feed on
cactus or eat specific insects in trees
 Others use twig or cactus spine to probe for
insects
 A vampire finch sucks blood from larger birds
 Ground finches (Geospiza) who are seed and cactus eaters;
 Tree finches (Camarhynchus), who are insect and bud eaters
 Warbler finches (Certhidea) who vary by color.
 Definition: Adaptation of a species to a narrow range
of environmental niches
 Example: Again, some species of Darwin’s finches on
Galápagos Islands are examples.
 Medium ground finch was nearly wiped out in the
1977 drought
 Sudden change could eliminate this or others of these
genera and species of finches
 Example: prosimians adapt on in habitats afforded by
Madagascar and are close to extinction.
 Definition: Adaptation of a species to a wide range of
environmental niches
 Examples:
 Mammals spread after the disappearance of dinosaurs
65 m.y.a. and occupied innumerable niches, from
grassland (ungulates) to trees (bats)
 Monkeys with a mixed diet occupied diverse arboreal
(tree) habitats; they displaced the prosimians
 Humans: from frozen north to tropical rainforest or
desert—thanks to culture—are the most generalized
primate
 Definition:
 Slow, step-by-step changes over time
 Intermediate forms assume “missing links”
 Darwin postulated this model
 Examples: From monkeys to apes; apes to
hominins (e.g. Lucy); and from early hominins
to modern Homo sapiens
 Fossil record does not reveal fine gradations from one
lifeform to a descendant life form: no “missing links.”
 Bipedalism occurred quickly as the fragmentary fossil
record shows.
 Reproductive advantage: do slight changes bestow this
advantage?
 Continuum question: at which point does a population
become two species?
 Sometimes, change can take place rapidly, either through
oscillating selection or punctuated equilibrium
 Definition: Adaptive variation around a norm rather
than direction in response to environmental variation
 Example: Medium and small ground finch lacked a bill
strong enough to crack tough seeds
 Occurrence of drought selected plants whose seeds had
a tough exterior
 Survival of large, longer-billed finches
 Smaller, shorter-billed finches returned after the
climate returned to normal,
 Shifting bill size and lengths reflected the oscillation of
the environmental conditions.
 Definition: Species tend to
remain stable over time, then,
evolutionary changes occur
suddenly (in terms of centuries or
millennia)
 Causation: Populations may
become fragmented and isolated,
and from there new forms arise
 Small, new populations may
invade a region, and through the
founder effect and better
adaptation, create and spread a
new species
 Example: Archaeopteryx (ancient
bird), a dinosaur with feathers:
suddenly appears and may have
created a new class known as
Aves (birds)
 A summary of gradualism and punctuated equilibrium
 Pseudoscience consists of scientifically testable
ideas in form that are taken on faith even after
they are proven as false
 (Scientific) Creationism is the belief in a literal
biblical interpretation of the creation of earth in
six days 6,000 to 10,000 years ago
 The claim is testable, has been tested, and has
been demonstrated to be false.
 Existence of strata, such as the Grand Canyon,
accumulated over 2 billion years falsifies the claim that
the earth is only a few thousand years old
 Presence of extinct lifeforms, from fossil fish to
dinosaurs, demonstrate that other forms existed at one
time but are now extinct
 Presence of ancient hominins establish extinct
humanlike creatures that look like us but are not us.
 Both kinds of evidence are abundant
 Species is unit of evolution
 Evolutionary change is more random than
progressive
 Speciation is the basic process of evolutionary
change
 Changes may be gradual or rapid
 Scientific rule: follow the evidence
 Evidence for evolution is overwhelming in the
form of geological strata and fossil lifeforms
 Mike Riddle
Answers in Genesis
 A history of apemen – the track record
 Two case studies
1. Neandertals
2. Australopithecines and Lucy
 How evolution hinders critical
thinking
 How things change
 The Bible teaches that Evolution begins with
God created man the assumption that
man has evolved from
ape-like creatures

So God created man in his own image, in the

image of God created he him; male and
female

Genesis 1:27

Pick your relative

 Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, Biology – Visualizing
Life, 1998, p. 213.

“Look closely at your hand. You have five flexible

fingers. Animals with five flexible fingers are called
primates. Monkeys, apes, and humans are examples
of primates….Primates most likely evolved from
small, insect-eating rodentlike mammals that lived
about 60 million years ago.”
 Miller and Levine, Biology, 2000, p. 757.

“But all researchers agree on certain basic facts.

We know, for example, that humans evolved from
ancestors we share with other living primates such
as chimpanzees and apes.”
Segment of lower ape-like jaw
Segment of human skull
 New York Times ran an article:
“Darwin Theory Proved True.”
 Featured in textbooks and encyclopedias
 In 1953 scientists studied the bones

The Truth
A fraud (600 year old bones)
 1922 fossil evidence was discovered
 Used to support evolution in the 1925
Scopes trial
 The claim: 1 million year old
intermediate link

The Truth
An extinct pig’s tooth
 1930s

What they found

What they drew

 Time Magazine (Nov. 7, 1977)

“Ramapithicus is ideally structured to

be an ancestor of hominids. If he isn't,
we don't have anything else that is.”
 The claim: 14 million year old intermediate between ape-like creatures and
humans

The truth
 In 1970 a baboon living in Ethiopia was
discovered.
 Same dental structure
 Similar morphological features found on
Ramapithecus
 Ramapithecus dropped from human line
 Piltdown Man ……… Hoax
 Nebraska Man …….. Pig
 Ramapithecus …….. Ape

What about the dates?

In each case the date (age)
was completely WRONG!
 Neandertals
Lucy and the Australopithicines
Original Drawing of Neandertal
 First found near Dusseldorf, Germany in 1856

 Constructed to look ape-like

 Brain capacity about 200 cc larger
Initial construction discovered to be wrong

 Used jewelry
 Used musical instruments
 Did cave paintings
 Capable of speech
 Buried their dead
Marvin Lubenow, “Recovery of Neanderthal mtDNA:
An Evaluation,” Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal,
1998 p.89.

“Most anthropologists recognize burial as a very

human, and a very religious, act. But the strongest
evidence that Neandertals were fully human and
of our species is that at four sites Neandertals and
modern humans were buried together.”
 From Buried Alive by Dr. Jack Cuozzo
Drawing of a Neandertal fossil
purchased at the souvenir counter at
the museum in Berlin giving an ape-
like appearance

Lower jaw 30 mm (over an inch) out of the

socket
 From Buried Alive by Dr. Jack Cuozzo

Flat, human
appearance Lower jaw 30 mm (over an inch) out of the
socket
Thick brow
Stocky body build
Short extremities
 Common dates for Neandertals are
130,000 to 30,000 years ago
 Neandertals existed for about
100,000 years (2,500 generations)
 1 2000

300 million 6 billion

100 generations

Where are the fossils?

There should have been over 50 billion
Neandertals that lived during this time!
  1964: Neanderthals are a sub-species of
humans
 1997: Neanderthals are a separate species
(based on mtDNA find)

Luigi Cavalli-Sforza (Professor of genetics Stanford

University), Genes, People, and Languages, 2000, p. 35.
“The results of mitochondrial DNA show clearly that Neandertal was not our
direct ancestor, unlike earlier hypotheses made by some
paleoanthropologists.”
 How was this comparison made?

1,669 modern humans were compared

with one Neanderthal
 When compared to modern humans there were 22 mtDNA substitution
differences

 Between modern humans the range is from 1 to

24 mtDNA differences

Neanderthal and human

Human and human

What does this mean?

 There are a few modern humans who differ by
2 substitutions more than the Neanderthal
individual

 Therefore, using evolutionists logic, these

people are a separate species (not human)

~ 8% of the people here tonight

are not human
 Protruding brow ridge
 Stocky body build and short extremities
 Isolated population of people
 Lived in a cold, harsh climate
 100% human

Neandertal man,
reconstructed from a
skull found in La
Chapelle-aux-Saints,
France
A Case Study in Deception
Lucy and the
Australopithecines
 What was found
 Did Lucy walk upright

Note: Lucy is
our ancestor
Artistic conception
Australopithecus
africanus

What do you notice about this picture?

Note contemplative gaze, human

hands and use of tools.
John Gurche, artist, National Geographic, March,
1996 p. 109.

“I wanted to get a human soul into this

ape-like face, to indicate something
about where he was headed.”
 Lucy discovered in 1974
 About 40% of the fossil was found
 Claimed to be 3.5 million years old
 Claimed bipedal (walked upright)
 No similarity in appearance to humans

 Long arms are identical to chimpanzees

 Jaws are similar to chimpanzees
 Upper leg bone is similar to chimpanzees
 Lucy’s legs were very ape-like
 Brain size (400-500 cc) overlaps chimpanzees
 Large back muscles for tree dwelling
 Hands similar to pygmy chimpanzee
 Feet were long and curved
To determine if Lucy walked upright three areas of anatomy were examined

1. The rib cage

2. The pelvis
3. Leg and foot bones
  Ape ribs are conical shaped
 Human ribs are barrel-like

Human Ape

Circular barrel-like Conical shape

Peter Schmid (paleontologist at the Anthropological Institute
in Zurich) Quoted from Origins reconsidered: In Search of
What Makes Us Human by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin

“I noticed that the ribs were more round in cross-

section, more like what you see in apes. Human ribs
are flatter in cross-section.
But the shape of the rib cage itself was the biggest
surprise of all. The human rib cage is barrel shaped,
and I just couldn’t get Lucy’s ribs to fit this kind of
shape.”
Brad Harrub (Ph.D. Anatomy and Neurobiology)
and Bert Thompson (Ph.D. Microbiology), The
Truth About Human Origins, 2003, p. 47.

“In Lucy’s case, her ribs are conical,

like those found in apes.”
Chimp

Human
 J. Stern & R. Sussman, American Journal of
Physical Anthropology, 1983, pp. 291 & 292.

“The fact that the anterior portion of the iliac blade

faces laterally in humans but not in chimpanzees is
obvious. The marked resemblance of AL 288-1
(Lucy) to the chimpanzee is equally obvious…
It suggests to us that the mechanism of lateral
pelvic balance during bipedalism was closer to
that in apes than in humans.”
 Lucy’s pelvis is “wrong”
because it is very ape-like

PBS Nova Series; In Search of Human Origins

episode one 1994 (Dr. Owen Lovejoy)
PBS Nova Series; In Search of Human Origins
episode one 1994 (Dr. Owen Lovejoy)
15° carrying
angle (valgus)
Human = 9°
Gorilla = 0°
Chimp = 0°

Orangutan = 9°
Spider monkey = 9°
•http://www.slideshare.net/PaulVMcDowell/speciation-and-
evolution

•http://www.slideshare.net/whittumjd/facts-about-apemen

•http://www.slideshare.net/chuckiecalsado/darwins-theory-of-evolution-4857