Evolutionary Trends

BIO 101
By
Alafia, A.O. (Ph.D)
Evolutionary trend

► Evolutionary biology is a subfield of biology concerned with the study of the

evolutionary processes that produced the diversity of life on Earth.
► Evolutionary biologists study the descent of species, and the origin of new
species.
► Evolution is a scientific theory proposed by Charles Darwin. It occurs at the
population level, It is made possible by genetic variations
► EVIDENCES THAT SPECIES EVOLVE COMES FROM THREE LINES OF INVESTIGATION
► Relationship were discerned among major groups of animals (Comparative anatomy)
► Explorers discovered difference in the world distribution of species (Biogeography)
► Geologist discovered apparent sequence of changing fossils in distinct layers of the earth
History of Life on Earth
► BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO EXPLOSION OF DYING STARS RIPPED THROUGH OUR
GALAXY AND LEFT BEHIND A DENSE CLOUD OF DUST AND GAS
► AS THE CLOUD COOLED
► There are scientific evidence that earth and the other planets of the solar
system formed about 4.6 billion years ago.
► Evidences have shown that conditions on early Earth made the origin of life
possible e.g is the fossils of microorganisms that are about 3.5 billion years
old.
► There are approximately two million species of animals and plants living
today,
► How did this diversity of life come to exist?
The Voyage of the Beagle
► Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
► He went on a voyage from England with the aim of drawing a chart
of the South American coastline
► But while on the journey, he observed and collected samples of
South American plants and animals.
► He noted their adaptive characteristics to their environment.
► They had a stop at the Galapagos , a group of Islands located close
to the equator about 900km west of South America.
► There he observed some unusual animals.
► e.g Birds with different beak sizes and different species, some
were unique to individual islands while others lives on two or more
adjacent island
Darwin and the theory of Evolution
Darwin developed two main ideas from four observations
❖ Observations
1: Members of a population vary greatly in their traits
2; Traits are inherited from parents to offspring
3: All species are capable of producing more offspring than their environment can support
4: Owing to lack of food or other resources, many of these offspring do not survive
❖ Ideas
❖ That descent with modification explains life’s unity and diversity
❖ That natural selection brings about the match between organisms and their
environment
 Darwin and the theory of Evolution
► Darwin conclusion therefore means that Animals and Plants have arisen by a process of slow and
gradual change over successive generations.
► This gradual change is brought about by NATURAL SELECTION

We can therefore infer that

i. Individuals whose inherited traits give them a higher probability of surviving and reproducing in
a given environment tend to leave more offspring than other individuals
ii. This unequal ability of individuals to survive and reproduce will lead to accumulation of
favorable traits in the population over generations
Fossils

► Fossils are the remains of animals and plants that died a very long time ago
and became preserved in rocks. These remains are our ‘window to the past’ .
► In general, it takes at least 10,000 years but usually millions, for fossils to
form.
► Fossil evidences shows that past organisms were very different from those
now alive.
► .
 LEVELS OF EVOLUTION
► There are two levels of evolution
► Microevolution
► Macroevolution

► Microevolution- changes in allele frequencies in a population over

generations, it occurs at the genetic level. Small scale changes.
What causes allele frequency to change
► Natural selection
► Genetic drift – chance events that alters allele frequencies
► Gene flow – the transfer of alleles between populations.
Only natural selection can cause ADAPTIVE RADIATION
LEVELS OF EVOLUTION

► Macroevolution-Larger changes, such as when a new species is formed. It

includes the idea that all life forms is connected and can be traced back to
one common ancestor.
► Macroevolution is cumulative microevolution
► The sweeping changes in life on Earth revealed by fossils illustrates
MACROEVOLUTION
► The process of evolution can be summarized in three sentences:

❖ Genes mutate.
❖ Individuals are selected.
❖ Populations evolve.
► Note: individuals do not evolve but populations evolve e.g Biston betularia
(English moth), Geospiza fortis.
Evolution
► Evolution can be viewed in two related but different ways
As a pattern
As a process
One way to assess whether natural selection or other
factors are causing evolution at a particular locus is to
determine what the genetic makeup of a population
would be if it were not evolving at that locus, and then
compare with the real scenario. If there are no
difference we can conclude that the real population is
not evolving.
Hardy-Weinberg EQUILIBRUM
►
The Hardy-Weinberg Theorem
► Assumptions
► Size must be extremely large (frequency
will not change by chance)
► Random Mating
► No Migration / No gene flow
► No Mutation
► No natural selection

• If they are met, they EVOLUTION will not

occur.
FACTORS THAT BRING ABOUT EVOLUTION

► Violations of the conditions in the Hardy-Weinberg

equilibrium can bring about EVOLUTION
► New mutations brings about alteration in allele frequencies
, but mutations are rare.
► Non random mating can affect frequency of homozygous and
heterozygous genotypes but these may have no effect on
allele frequencies in the gene pool.
► The three mechanisms that alter allele frequencies directly
and cause most evolutionary change are natural selection,
genetic drift and gene flow.
► These three mechanisms cause decrease in genetic
variation.
GENETIC VARIATION

► Variation is the range of differences that there are between individual organisms.
► Variation in traits has a heritable basis
Variation can be within species
(Think of all the differences between individual humans)
These are different varieties of the same species Or between species:
 ► Natural Selection is defined as differential reproductive success of
pre- existing classes of genetic variants in the gene pool.
► This is the process by which biological evolutionary changes take
place. It is based on the following concepts
1. Individuals in a population have different traits which can be
inherited
2. These individuals produce more young than the environment
can support
3. The individuals best suited to their environment will leave
more offspring's, resulting in a change in the genetic make
up of that population.
► The most common action of natural selection is to remove unfit
variants as they arise via mutation. In other words, natural selection
usually prevents new alleles from increasing in frequency.
► Natural selection can maintain or deplete genetic variation depending on how
it acts
► Mechanisms that increase genetic variation are mutation, recombination and
gene flow.
Example

► Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) has an allele

that confers resistance to several insecticides.
The allele has a frequency of 0% in flies
collected in the wild in early 1930’s , before the
introduction of DDT. However, strains of flies
collected after 1960 , the allele frequency is 37%.
► This type of evolution is called ADAPTIVE
EVOLUTION
GENETIC DRIFT

► Chance events can cause allele frequencies to

fluctuate unpredictably from one generation to
the next, especially in small populations .
► This process is called GENETIC DRIFT.
► Certain circumstances can result in genetic drift
having a significant impact on a population. Two
examples are the founder effect and the
bottleneck effect.
The founder effect

► Founder effect occur when a few individuals become

isolated from a larger population, this smaller group may
establish a new population whose gene pool may establish
a new population whose gene pool differ from the source
population.
► This can occur when storm indiscriminately transports
some individuals (and their alleles ) but not others, from
the source population.
► Now, lets look at some examples
► British colonist founded a settlement (Tristan de Cunha).
One of the colonists carried a recessive allele for retinitis
pigmentosa, a progressive form of blindness that afflicts
homozygous individuals. Of the 240 descendants of the
founders, 4 had retinitis pigmentosa.
► The frequency of the allele that causes this disease is ten
times higher on Tristan de Cunha than in the population in
which the founders came.
The bottleneck effect

► A sudden change in the environment e.g. drought , fire or

flood may drastically reduce the size of a population.
► A severe drop in population size can cause BOTTLENECK
EFFECT.
► By chance, certain alleles may be overrepresented ,
underrepresented or totally absent.
► Even if a population that has passed through a bottleneck
ultimately recovers in size, it may have low levels of
genetic variation for a long period of time.
Summary of effects of genetic drift

Genetic drift is significant in small populations

It can cause allele frequencies to change at
random over time
It can lead to a loss of genetic variation within
populations
It can cause harmful alleles to become fixed
GENE FLOW

► This is the transfer of alleles into or out of a population

due to the movement of fertile individuals or their
gametes
MECHANISM OF MACROEVOLUTION

► Speciation -- Increasing Biological Diversity

► Extinction – reducing Biological Diversity
► Speciation is the process of a single species
becoming two or more species.
ORIGIN OF SPECIES: Mode of Speciation
► A species is a group of populations whose members have the
potential to interbreed in nature and produce viable, fertile
offspring
► There are two types of speciation: allopatric and sympatric
speciation.
► The two differ in geographical distribution of the populations in
question.
► Allopatric speciation is the most common form of speciation. It
occurs when a population is split into two (or more)
geographically isolated subdivisions that organisms cannot
bridge. Eventually, the two populations' gene pools change
independently until they could not interbreed even if they were
brought back together. In other words, they have speciated.
► .
ORIGIN OF SPECIES
► Sympatric speciation occurs when two subpopulations
become reproductively isolated without first becoming
geographically isolated.
► Insects that live on a single host plant provide a model for
sympatric speciation. If a group of insects switched host
plants they would not breed with other members of their
species still living on their former host plant. The two
subpopulations could diverge and speciate.
► . Agricultural records show that a strain of the apple maggot
fly Rhagolettis pomenella began infesting apples in the
1860's. Formerly it had only infested hawthorn fruit.
ORIGIN OF SPECIES
►

► Speciation has been observed. In the plant

genus Tragopogon, two new species have
evolved within the past 50-60 years. They are T.
mirus and T. miscellus. The new species were formed
when one diploid species fertilized a different diploid
species and produced a tetraploid offspring. This
tetraploid offspring could not fertilize or be fertilized
by either of its two parent species types. It is
reproductively isolated, the definition of a species.
► Factors that promote sympatric speciation
► 1. Polyploidy
► 2. Habitat differentiation
► 3. Sexual selection
Extinction

► Extinction is the ultimate fate of all species.

► The reasons for extinction are numerous.
► A species can be competitively excluded by a closely related species,
the habitat a species lives in can disappear and/or the organisms that
the species exploits could come up with an unbeatable defense.
HISTORY OF EARTH

► Geologic records has told us that Earths time can be divided into three Eons,
► The first two Eons – the Archean and Protoezoic together lasted
approximately 4 billion years. The Phanerozoic eon, the last half billion years
ago encompasses most of the time that animals have existed on earth.
► It is divided into three Eras : the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
► Each era represents a distinct age in history of Earth and its life.
► The first evidence of life dates back to 3.5 billion yaers ago and the record
comes from fossilized stromatolites, formed by Prokayotes
Evolutionary trends in ANIMALS

► 1. Trends in Symmetry
► 2. Trends in Digestive Tracts
► 3. Trends in Body Cavities
► 4. Trends in Cephalization
► 5. Trends in Segmentation
► 6. Trends in Skeletal modification
EVOLTUTIONARY TREND IN SYMMETRY

► Asymmetry ( No Symmetry )
► Radial Symmetry
► Bilateral Symmetry
Digestive system complete

► Incomplete
► Complete
Incomplete
Evolutionary Trend in Body cavity

► Acoelom (No Coelom )e.g platyhelminthes Flatworms

► Pseudocoelom (False Body Cavity) e.g Round worm
(Ascaris)
► Coelom (True Coelom) e.g Earthworm
Advantages of coelom and
psuedocoelom
► The reproductive and
digestive organs can evolve
more complex shapes and
functions.
► The gut tube and other
organs are cushioned and
thus better protected.
► Can act as hydroskeleton
providing support and
rigidity for the soft animal.
► The activities of the
suspended gut can take
place undisturbed by the
activity of the animal’s
outer
EVOLUTIONARY TREND IN CEPHALIZATION

► Cephalization is considered an
evolutionary trend, whereby nervous
tissue, over many generations, becomes
concentrated toward one end of an
organism.
► This process eventually produces a head
region with sensory organs.
► Protostomes or “First Mouth Animals”
During their embryonic development the mouth forms first
and the anus second.
► Deuterostomes: “Second Mouth Animals”
During their embryonic development the anus forms first
and the mouth second.
Larva

Deuterostome Protostome
Evolutionary Trend in Segmentation

► Segmentation in biology refers to the division of some animal and plant body
plans into a series of repetitive segments.

► i. this similar repeated units permit larger organisms

► ii. in annelids (segmented worms), segments are similar
► -- form fluid filled compartments that can be stretched or
compressed separately-- worm locomotion
► iii. segmentation permits specialization of different
segments
 Evolutionary Trend in SKELETAL
MODIFICATION

► TREND AMONG PRIMATE

• FROM LEGGED GAITS TO SPECIALIZED MODE OF LOCOMOTION E.G BIPEDALISM
(TWO LEGGED GAIT)
• CHANGES IN THE SHOULDERS, BACKBONE, PELVIC GIRDLE, LEGS AND

• CHANGE IN DENTITION
• MODIFICATION OF HANDS LEADING TO INCREASED MANIPULATIVE SKILLS
• LESS RELIANCE ON SENSE OF SMELL, MORE RELIANCE ON ENHANCED DAYTIME
VISION
• FROM SPECIALIZED TO OMNVOROUS EATING HABITS
• BRAIN EXPANSION AND REORGANIZATION.- THIS TREND BEGAN WITHAMONG
MAMMALS GENERALLY BUT ACCELERATED DURING HOMONID EVOLUTION
► TREND IN BEHAIVOURAL MODIFICATION
► LONGER LIFE SPAN
► LONGER PERIODS BETWEEN PREGNANCY
► SINGLE BIRTHS RATHER THAN LITTERS
► EXTENDED PERIOD OF INFANCY DEPENDENCY