MCB 101

PREPARED BY: Dahiru Shuaibu

ECOLOGY, HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION

ECOLOGY: - Is the study of the relationship of living organisms with each other
and their non-living or physical surroundings.

Ecological studies give us the scientific foundation for our understanding of

agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Ecology also gives us the basis for predicting, preventing and remedying pollution.
It helps us to understand the likely consequences of massive environmental
intervention, as in construction of dams or diversion of rivers and provides the
rationale underpinning biological conservation.

BRANCHES OF ECOLOGY

a) Autecology: Autecology is concerned with study of individual organism or

single species of organism and its environment.
b) Synecology: Is concerned with the study of the inter-relationship between
groups of organisms living together in an area, for examples the study of
different organisms living on a tree (succession).

CONCEPT

Environment: The environment includes all the factors external and internal,
living and non-living factors which affect an organism.

a) Lithosphere: This is the solid portion of the earth, it is the outermost layer
or zone of the earth crust, it is made up of rocks and mineral materials and it
also represent 30% of the earth surface.

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 b) Hydrosphere: hydrosphere is the liquid or aquatic part of the earth or living
world. It covers about 70% or 2/3 of the earth crust. It is of different forms
e.g ice i.e solid form, liquid form as gases (water vapour).
c) Atmosphere: This is the gaseous portion of the earth it is a layer of gases
surrounding the earth. Over 99% of the atmosphere lies within 30km. it
contains 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.03% carbon dioxide & 0.97 rare or
inert gases.

ABIOTIC COMPONENTS
Abiotic components of an ecosystem include non-living things which include:

i. Climatic factors e.g. Temperature, wind, humidity, sunlight and rainfall

ii. In organic materials and nutrient such as carbon(iv)oxide, oxygen,
nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus e.t.c.

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LEVELS OF ORGANISATION
Organisms populations communities ecosystem biosphere
The individual organisms, populations and communities, ecologists regard these as
the living part ( biotic component) of a system called the ecosystem. This also
includes a non-living part (the abiotic component) which contains matter and
energy. Populations, communities and ecosystems are terms which have precise
meanings in ecology.
 Populations: A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live
in the same area.
 Communities: Any group or assemblages of different populations that live
together in a defined area.
 Ecosystem: An ecosystem consist of all the living things in a particular area,
along with all non-living components of the environment with which life
interacts.
 Biosphere: Biosphere consist all the environments on earth that are
inhibited by life, the biosphere includes most regions of land, most bodies of
water, and its the atmosphere to an altitude of several kilometers.

PROCEDURES

Without a consist input of energy of living systems cannot functions, sunlight is

the main energy source for life on earth of all the suns energy that reaches earth’s
surface, only small amount-less than 1percent (1%) is used by living things. This
seemingly small amount is enough to produce as much as 3.5 kilogram of living
tissue per square meter a year in some tropical forests.

In a few ecosystems, some organisms obtain energy from a source other than
sunlight. Some types of organism rely on the energy stored in inorganic chemical
compounds. For instances, mineral water that flows underground or boils out of
hot sprints and undersea vent is loaded with chemical energy.

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 Only plants, some algae, certain bacteria can capture energy from sunlight
or chemicals and use that energy to produce food. These organisms are called
autotrophs. Autotrophs use energy from the environment to fuel the assembly of
simple inorganic compounds in to complex organic molecules. These organic
molecules combines and recombine to produce living tissues, because they make
their own food, autotrophs, like the kelp (the large brown algae) are also called
producers. Both types of producers that capture energy from sunlight and those
that capture chemical are essential to the flow of energy through the biosphere.

2. CONSUMERS:
Many organism-including animals, fungi and many bacteria cannot harness energy
directly from the physical environment as autotrophs the only way these organism
can acquire energy is from other organism. Organisms that rely on other organism
for their energy and food supply are called Consumers. There are many different
types of heterotrophs.herbivores obtain energy by eating plants. Some herbivores
are cows, carterpillars and dear, Carnivores including snakes, dogs and owls, eat
animals. Human, bears, crows and other Omnivores eat both plants and animals.
Detritivores, such as mites, earthworms, snails and crabs, feed on plant and animal
remains and other dead matter, collectively called Detritus. Another important
group of heterotrophs, called Decomposers, breaks down organic matter, bacteria
and fungi are Decomposers.

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FEEDING RELATIONSHIPS

What happens to the energy in an ecosystem when one organism eats another?
That energy moves along a one-way path. Energy flows through an ecosystem in
one direction, from the sun or inorganic compounds to autotrophs (producers) and
then to various heterotrophs (Consumers).

FOOD CHAIN: A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating

and being eating, for example a food chain in terrestrial ecosystem might consist of
producers, such as grass, that is fed open by a carnivore such as lion.

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In some marine food chains, the producers are microscopic algae that are eaten by
small fish such as herring. The herring are eaten by squid, which are ultimately
eaten by large fish such as sharks; i.e, aquatic ecosystem. or

Terrestrial ecosystem

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FOODWEB: In most ecosystem, feeding relationship are more complex than can
be show in a food chain. Consider for example, the relationship in a terrestrial
habitat below;

When the feeding relationships as among the various organisms in an

ecosystem form a networks of complex interactions, ecologist describe these
relationships as a food web. The food web links all the food chain in an ecosystem.

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GENETICS: Is the scientific study of heredity and variation in living things.

HEREDITY OR INHERITANCE: Is the transmission and expression of

characters or traits in organism from parent to the offspring.

It is observed that offspring of man and other animals and plants usually resemble
their parents and also resembles one another, this is because the offspring inherit
characters or traits from their parents.

VARIATION: Variation is defined as the differences between parents and

offspring as well as among the offspring.

Even though offspring may resemble their parents, they can differ also from
them and from one another. All human beings have human features, but each
differs from the other, hence each person can be recognized. These differences
between individuals of the same species are called variation.

Hereditary Variation

heriditary variations refers to differences among individuals which can be passed

from parents to their offspring (progency). Heredity variation arises because, a part
from the case of identical twins, no two offspring inherit exactly the same set of
characteristics from their parents, each offspring inherits a different combination of
characteristics from parents.

TRANSMITTABLE CHARACTERISTICS IN HUMAN BEING

- Finger prints - Intelligence

- Haemophilia - Characteristics of voice or speech
- Colour blindness - Colour of skin, hair and eyes
- Tongue rolling - Size of nose, head and ear
- Body structure or shape - Blood grouping

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TRANSMITTABLE CHARACTERISTICS IN PLANTS

- Height of plants - Leaf texture

- Size or weight of fruit - Life span or habit of growth
- Size of leaf
- Taste of fruit
- Colour of leaf, flower, fruit or seed
- Resistance to environment factors
like disease, pests and drought

How characters get transmitted and behave from Generation to Generation

Only characters controlled by genes can be transmitted or inherited

characters are determined by genes. A diploid organism has two sets of
chromosomes referred to as homologues. Such an organism has two copies of each
gene, with the copies occupying identical location or loci on the homologues
chromosome.

Diploid organisms produce gametes by meiosis in their reproductive organs,

a male individuals produces sperms while a female produces egg cells or over.
During meiosis, the number of chromosomes in a cell is halved; the gametes are
therefore haploid, containing one set of chromosomes and hence only one copy of
each gene.

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(First filial generation)

During sexual reproduction, the gametes of a male and female individual or

parents fuse to form zygote. Each zygote is diploid as it gets one set of
chromosomes and hence one copy of each gene, from the gamete of each parent
characters determined by genes are thus transmitted from parents to offspring
through gametes.

The gene an organism inherits during fertilization, called genotypes, remains

constant throughout life. The phenotype which is the physical appearance or
feature of an organism is determined by its genotype and the environment in which
he lives. Hence, organisms with the same genotype may possess different
phenotypes if they live in different environments.

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MENDEL EXPERIMENTS
Gregor Mendel carried out several experiments on how hereditary characters were
transmitted from generation to generation, he work with the garden pea (pisum
sativum). His major aim was to find out the pattern of inheritance of different
characteristics of the pea plant.
Reasons for mendel’s choice of pea plant
The reasons why Gregor Mendel decides to use the pea plant for his experiment
are as follows.
1. Peas are usually self-pollinating and he could pollinate them by himself.
2. They have a very short life span i.e; they are annual plants.
3. The pea plants was known to have several unique characteristics which exist
in contrasting pairs as follows:
i. Some seeds were round while others were wrinkled;
ii. Some plants were tall while others were short;
iii. Some seeds were yellow while others were green;
iv. Some flowers were axial while others were terminal.
v. Some pods were green while some were yellow.
vi. Some flowers were white while some were red;
vii. Some pods were smooth while some were constricted.

METHODS USED BY MENDEL IN HIS EXPERIMENTS

Gregor mendel used two major methods in conducting his experiments.

These methods were grouped in to two; namely:

1. Monohybrid inheritance and

2. Dihybrid inheritance.

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MONOHYBRID INHERITANCE

Mendel used artificial method to cross two different plants, at a time, which
differed in one pair of contrasting characters, i.e; Tall and short plants. This
procedure was called a monohybrid inheritance and it was an example of complete
dominance.

He carried out the experiment in the following order:

i. He planted tall plants for several generations and discovered that the plants
produced were all tall plants. In the same way, he planted short plants for
several generations and discovered that the plants produced were all short.
ii. He proceeded to plant tall plants and short plants. By the time the flowers
were produced, he collected the pollen grains of the tall plants tagged the
male and pollinated the stigma of the short plant tagged the female. He also
collected the pollen grains of the short plant and placed them on the stigma
of the tall plant.
He then covered the artificially pollinated flowers with small paper bags to
prevent the chance of natural pollination by insects.
iii. Mendel once again picked the seeds formed after the cross. When he planted
the seeds, the plants obtained were all tall plants these he referred to as first
filial generation or F1.

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iv. Mendel then crossed the F1 plants, collected their seeds and sowed them.
The plants he got from these were tall and short plants in a ratio of 3:1
respectively. He then called these stages the second filial generation or F2.

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  The genotype of the F2 plants are:
1 TT
2 Tt
1 tt
 The genotypic ratio is 1:2:1
 Their phenotypes are:
3 Tall plants
1 Dwarf plant.
 Their phenotypic ratio is 3:1.
v. Mendel then crossed the F1 plants, collected their seed and showed them.
The plant he got from these were tall and short plants in a ratio of 3:1
respectively. He then called these stage the screen filial generation or F2.

MENDELS FIRST LAW OF INHERITANCE

This first law is also called the law of segregation or principle of segregation of
genes. The law states that genes are responsible for the development of the
individual and that they are independently transmitted from one generation to
another without undergoing any alteration. OR
The characteristics of an organism are determined by internal factors which occur
in pairs. Only one of a pair of such factors can be represented in a single gamete.
We now know that these factors determined characteristics, such as flower
position, are regions of the chromosome known as genes.
The experimental procedure described above which was carried out by Mendel in
the investigation of the inheritance of a single pair of constrated characteristics is
an example of monohybrid cross. This may be represented in term of symbols and
placed in a modern context of gamete formation and fertilization. By convention
the initial letter of the dominant characteristics is used as the symbol for the gene
and its capital from (eg T) represent the dominant from gene of (the dominant
allete) while the lower case (e.g t) represents the recessive allete.
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The diagram below show the correct way to describe a monohybrid cross or arrive
at the solution to a genetics problems involving the inheritance of a single pair of
contrasting characteristics.
Let:

F1 generation (2n)
F1 phenotypes all heterozygous axial flower (the allels T and t remain distinct in
spite of the dominance of T)
The F1 generation were self-pollinated.
F1 phenotypes axial flower axial flower
Parental genotypes (2n)
Meiosis
Gametes (n)
Random fertilization
F1 generation (2n)

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EVOLUTION

THE PUZZLE OF LIFE’S DIVERSITY

Nature presents scientist with a puzzles human share the earth with millions of
other kinds of organisms of every imaginable shape, size and habitat. This variety
of living things is called biological diversity, how did all these different organism
arise? How are related? These questions makeup the puzzle of life’s diversity.

What scientific explanation can account for the diversity of life? The answer
is a collection of scientific facts, observations, and hypothesis known as
evolutionary theory.

Evolution or change overtime, is the process by which moden organisms have

descended from ancient organisms.

A scientific theory is a well-supported testable explanation of phenomena that have

occurred in the natural world.

VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE

The individual who contributed more to our understanding of evolution that

anyone was Charles Darwin.

Darwin was born in England on February 12, 1809 the same day as Abraham
Lincoln. Shortly after completing his college studies, Darwin joined the crew of
the H.M.S beagle, in 1831; he set sail from England for a voyage around the world.
His rout------H.M.S Beagle-----New Zealand-----Australia------Indian ocean-----
Africa

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Although no one knew it at that time, this was to be one of the most important
voyages in the history of science.

During his travels, Darwin made numerous observations and collected evidence
that led him to propose a revolutionary hypothesis about the way life changes
overtime. That hypothesis, now supported by a hug body of evidence, has become
the theory of evolution.

When ever the ship anchored, Darwin went ashore to collect plant and
animal specimens that he added to an ever growing collection. At sea, he studied
his specimens, read the latest scientific books, and filled many notebooks with his
observations and thoughts. Darwin was well educated and had a strong interest in
natural history. His curiosity and analytical nature was ultimately the key to his
success as a scientist. During his travels, Darwin came to view every new finding

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as a piece in an extraordinary puzzles; a scientific explanation for the diversity of
life on this planet.

DARWIN’S OBSERVATIONS

Darwin knew a great deal about the plants and animals of his native country, but he
saw for more diversity during his travels. For example, during a single day in a
Brazilian forest, Darwin collected 68 different beetle species, despite the fact that
he was not even searching for beetle! He began to realize that an enormous number
of species inhibit the earth.

PATTERNS OF DIVERSITY

Darwin was intrigued by the fact that so many plants and animals seemed
remarkably well suited to whatever environment they inhabited. He was impressed
by the many ways in which organisms survived and produced offspring. He
wondered if there was some process that led to such variety of ways of
reproducing.

Darwin was also puzzled by where different species live and did not live. He
visited Argentina and Australia, for example, which had similar grassland
ecosystems. Yet, those grasslands were inhabited by very different animals. Also
neither Argentina nor Australia was home to the sorts of animals that live in
European grassland. For Darwin, these patterns posed challenging questions. Why
were there no rabbits in Australia, despite the presence of habitats that seemed
perfect for them? Similarly, why were there no kangaroos in England?

LIVING ORGANISMS AND FOSSILS

Darwin soon realized that living animals represented just part of the puzzle posed
by the natural world. In many places during his voyage, Darwin collected the
preserved remains of ancient organisms that were still alive. Others looked
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completely unlike any creature he had overseen. As Darwin studied fossils, new
questions arose. Why had so many of these species disappeared? How were they
related to living species?

THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

The Galapagos Islands of all the beagles’ pout of call, the one that influenced
Darwin the most was a group of small islands located 1000km west of south
America. These are the Galapagos Islands. Darwin noted that although they were
close together, the islands had very different climates. The smallest, lowest islands
were hot, dry, and nearly barren. Hood Island, for example, had spare vegetation.
The higher islands had greater rainfall and a different and assortment of plants and
animals. Isabella Island had rich vegetation.

Darwin was fascinated in particular by the land tortoises and marine iguanas in the
Galapagos. He learned that he giant tortoises varied in predictable ways from one

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island to another, the shape of tortoises shell could be used to identify which island
a particular tortoises inhabited.

Darwin later admitted in his notes that he “did not for some time pay sufficient
attention to this statement”.

Darwin also saw several types of small, ordinary looking brown birds hopping
around, looking for seeds, however. He did not find them particularly unusual or
important. As Darwin examined the birds, he noted that they had differently
shaped beaks. He though that some of the birds were wrens, some were warblers,
and some were blackbirds. But he comes to no other conclusions at first.

THE JOURNEY HOME

While heading home, Darwin spent a great deal of time thinking about his findings.
Examining different mocking birds from the Galapagos, Darwin noticed that
individual birds collected from the island of floreana looked different from those
collected on Jame Island. They also looked different from individuals collected on
other islands. Darwin also remembered that the tortoises differed from island to
island.

Although Darwin did not immediately understand the reason for these patterns of
diversity, he had stumbled across an important finding.

Darwin observed that the characteristics of many animals and plants varied
noticeably among the different islands of the Galapagos. After returning to
England, Darwin began to wonder if animals living on different islands had once
been members of the same species.

According to this hypothesis, these separate species would have evolved from
original South American ancestors species after becoming isolated from one

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another. Was this possible? If so, it would turn people’s view of the natural world
upside down.

IDEAS THAT SHAPED DARWIN’S THINKING

If Darwin had lived a century earlier, he might have done little more than think
about the questions raised during his travels. But Darwin’s voyage came during
one of the most exciting periods in the history of western science. Explorers were
travelling the globe, and great thinkers were beginning to challenge establishes
views about the natural world. Darwin web powerfully influenced by the work of
these scientists, especially those who were studying the history of earth. In turn, he
himself greatly changed the thinking of many scientists and non-scientists. Some
people, however, found Darwin’s idea too shocking to accept. To understand how
radical Darwin’s thoughts appeared, you must understand a few things about the
world in which he lived. Most Europeans in Darwin’s day believed that the earth
and all its forms of life had been created only a few thousand years ago. Since that
original creation, they conclude, neither the plant nor its living species had change.
A robin, for example, has always looked and behaved as robins had in the past.
Rocks and major geological features were thought to have been produced suddenly
by catastrophic events that humans rarely, if ever witnessed.

By the time Darwin set sail, numerous discoveries had turned up important pieces
of evidence. A rich fossil record was challenging that traditional view of life. In
high of such evidence, some scientists even adjusted their beliefs to include notion
but several periods of creation. Earth of these periods they contended, was
preceded by a catastrophic event that killed off many forms of life. At first, Darwin
may have accepted these beliefs, but he began to realize that much of what he had
observed did not fit neatly in to this view of unchanging life. Slowly, after studying

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many scientific theories of his time, Darwin began to change his thinking
dramatically.

POPULATION GROWTH

Another important influence on Darwin comes from the English economist

Thomas Malthus. In 1798, Malthus published a book in which he noted that babies
were being born faster that people were dying. Malthus reasoned that if the human
population continued to grow unchecked, sooner or later there would be
insufficient living space and food for everyone. The only forces he observed that
worked against this growth were war, famine and disease. Conditions in certain
parts of nineteenth century England reinforced Malthus’s somewhat pessimistic
view of the human condition.

When Darwin read Malthus’s work, he realized that this reasoning applied even
more strongly to plants and animals than it did to humans why? Because humans
produce far fewer offspring than most other species do. A mature maple tree can
produce thousands of seeds in a single summer, and once oyster can produce
millions of eggs each year. If all the offspring of almost any species survived for
several generations, they would overrun the world.

Obviously, this has not happened, because continents are not covered with maple
trees, and oceans are not filled with oysters. The overwhelming majority of a
species’ offspring die. Further, only a few of those offspring that survive succeed
in reproducing. What causes the death of so many individuals? What factor or
factors determine which ones survive and reproduce, and which do not?

Answer to these questions became central to Darwin’s explanation of evolutionary

change.

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DARWIN PRESENTS HIS CASE

When Darwin returned to England in 1836, he brought back specimens from

around the world. Subsequent findings about these specimens soon had the
scientific community a buzz.

Darwin learned that his Galapagos mockingbirds actually belong to three separated
species found nowhere else in the world! Even more surprising, the brown birds
that Darwin had thought to be wrens, warblers, and blackbirds were all finches.
They too, were found nowhere else. The same was true of the Galapagos tortoises,
the marine iguanas, and many plants that Darwin had collected on the islands. Each
island species looked a great deal like a similar species on the South American
main land. Yet, the island species were clearly different from the mainland species
and from one another.

PUBLICATION OF ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

Darwin began filling notebooks with his ideas about species diversity and the
process that would later be called evolution. However, he did not rush out to
publish his thoughts. Recall that Darwin’s ideas challenged fundamental scientific
beliefs of his day. Darwin was not only stunned by his discoveries, he was
disturbed by them. Years later, he wrote, “it was evident that such facts as
these_____ could be explained on the supposition that species gradually became
modified and the subject haunted me”. Although he discussed his work with
friends, he shelved his manuscript for years and told his wife to publish it in case
he died.

In 1858, Darwin received a short essay from Alfred russel Wallace, a fellow
naturalist who had been doing field work in Malaysia. That essay summarized the
thoughts on evolutionary change that Darwin had been mulling over almost

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25years! Suddenly, Darwin had an incentive to publish his own work. At a
scientific meeting later that year, Wallace’s essay was presented together with
some of Darwin’s work.

Eighteen months later, in 1859, Darwin published the results of his work, on the
origin of species. In his book, he proposed mechanism for evolution that he called
natural selection. He then presented evidence that evolution has been taking place
for millions of years and continues in all living things. Darwin’s work caused a
sensation. Many people considered his arguments to be brilliant, while others
strongly opposed his message.

INHERITED VARIATION AND ARTFICIAL SELECTION

One of Darwin’s most important insights was that members of each species vary
from one another in important ways.

Observations during his travels and considerations with plant and animal breeders
convinced him that variation existed both in nature and on farms. For example
some cows give more milk than others. From breeders, Darwin learned that some
of this was heritable variation differences that are passed from parents to offspring.
Darwin had no idea of how heredity worked. Today we know that heritable
variation in organisms is caused by variations in their genes. We also know that
genetic variation is found in wild species as well as in domesticated plants and
animals.

Darwin argued that this variation mattered. This was a revolutionary idea, because
in Darwin’s day, variations were thought to be unimportant, minor defects. But
Darwin noted that plant and animal breeders used heritable variation-what we now
call genetic variation to improve crops and livestock. They would select for

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breeding only the largest hogs, the fastest horses, or the cows that produced the
most milk. Darwin termed this process artificial selection.

In artificial selection, nature provided the variation, and humans selected those
variations that they found useful. Artificial selection has produced many diverse
domestic animals and crop plants by selectively breeding for different traits.

EVOLUTION BY NATURAL SELECTION

Darwin’s next insight was to compare processes in nature to artificial selection by

doing so; he developed a scientific hypothesis to explain how evolution occurs.
This is where Darwin made his greatest contribution and his strongest break with
the past.

THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTANCE

Darwin was convinced that a process like artificial selection worked in nature, but
how? He recalled Malthus’s work on populations’ growth. Darwin realized that
high birth rates and a shortage of life’s basic needs would eventually force
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organisms in to a competition for resources. The struggle for existence means that
members of each species complete regularly to obtain food, living space and other
necessities of life. In this struggle the predators that are faster or have a particular
way of ensnaring other organisms can catch more prey. Those preys that are faster,
better camouflaged, or better protected such as the porcupine, can avoid being
caught. This struggle for existence was central to Darwin’s theory of evolution.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

A key factor in the struggle for existence, Darwin observed, was how well suited
on organism is to its environment. Darwin called the ability of an individual to
survive and reproduce in its specific environment fitness. Darwin proposed that
fitness is the results of adoptions. An adaptation is any inherited characteristics that
increase an organism’s chance of survival. Successful adaptations, Darwin
concluded, enable organism to become better suited to their environment and thus
better able to survive and reproduce. Adaptation can be anatomical, or structural,
characteristics, such as a porcupine’s sharp quills. Adaptations also include an

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organism’s physiological processes or functions, such as they way in which a plant
performs photosynthesis more complex features, such as behavior in which some
animals live and hunt in groups, can also be adaptations.

DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION

Darwin proposed that over long periods, natural selection produces organism that
have different structures, establish different niches, or occupy different habitats. As
a result, species today look different from their ancestors. Each living species has
descended, with modification.

Descent with modification also implies that all living organisms are related
to one another. Look back in time, and chastens. Look farther back and you will
find ancestors that these felines share with horses, dogs and bats. Farther back still
are the common ancestors of mammals, birds, alligators, and fishes. If we look far
enough back, the logic concludes, we could find the common ancestors of all living
things. This is the principle known as common descent according to this principle;
all species living and extinct were derived from common ancestors. Therefore, a
single “tree of life” links all living things.

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LAMARCK’S EVALUTION AND HYPHOTHERS

The French naturalist jean-baptiste Larmack was among the first scientists to
recognize that living things have changed overtime and that all species were
descended from other species. He also realized that organism were somehow
adapted to their environments. In 1809, the year that Darwin was born, larmack
published his hypotheses.

Larmack proposed that by selective use or disuse of organs, organisms

acquired or lost certain traits during their lifetime. These traits could then be
passed on to their offspring. Over time this process led to change in a species.

TENDENCY TOWARD PERPECTON

Larmack proposed that all organisms have an innate tendency toward complexity
and perfection. As a result, they are continually changing and acquiring features
that help them live more successfully in their environments, in Larmack’s view, for
instance, the ancestors of birds acquired an urge to fly. Over many generations

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birds kept trying to fly, and their wings increased in size and became more suited
to flying.

USE AND DISUSE

Because of this tendency toward perfection, Lamarck proposed that organisms

could alter the size or shape of particular organs by using their bodies in new ways.
For example, by trying to use their front limbs for flying. Birds could eventually
transform those limbs in to wings. Conversely, if a winged animal did not use its
limbs in to wings. an example of disuse the wings would decrease in size over
generations and finally disappear.

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INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED TRAITS

Like many biologist of this time, Lamarck thought that acquired characteristics
could be inherited. For example if during its lifetime an animal somehow altered a
body structure, leading to longer legs or fluffier feathers, it would pass that change
on to its offspring by this reasoning if you spent much of your life lifting weights
to build muscles, your children would inherit big muscles too.

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EVALUATING LAMARCK’S HYPOTHESIS

Lamarck’s hypothesis of evolution, Lamarck proposed that the selective use

or disuse of an organ led to a change in that organ that was then passed on to
offspring. This proposed mechanism is shown here applied to fiddler crabs.

1) The male crab uses its small front claw to attract mates and ward off
predators.
2) Because the front claw has been used repeatedly, it becomes larger.
3) The acquired characteristics a larger claws, is then passed on to the crab’s
offspring.

Lamarck’s explanation, proposed in 1809, was found to be incorrect in several

ways. Lamarck like Darwin did not know how traits are inherited. He did not know
that an organism’s behavior has no effect on its heritable characteristics. However
Larmack’s was one of the first to develop a scientific hypothesis of evolution and
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to realize that organisms are adapted to their environments. He paved way for the
work of later biologists.

EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION

With this unified, dynamic theory of life, Darwin could finally explain many of the
observations he had made during his travels abroad the beagles. Darwin argued
that living things have been evolving on earth for millions of years, evidence for
this process could be found in the fossil record, the geographical distribution of
living species, homologous structures of living organisms and similarities in early
development, or embryology.

THE FOSSIL RECORD

By Darwin’s time, scientists knew that fossils where the remains of ancient life,
and that different layers of rock had been formed at different times during earth’s
history. Darwin saw fossils as a record of the history of life on earth. Darwin like
Lyell proposed that earth was many millions rather than thousands of years old.
During this long time, and then vanished. By comparing fossils from older rock
layers with fossils from younger layers scientists could document the fact that the
life on earth has changed over time.

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Since Darwin’s time, the number of known fossil forms has grown enormously.
Researchers have discovered many hundreds of transitional fossils that document
various intermediate stages in the evolution of modern species from organisms that
are now extinct. Caps remain of course, in the fossil record of many species,
although a lot of them shrink each year as new fossils are discovered. These gaps
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do not indicate weakness in theory of evolution itself. Rather, they point out
uncertainties in our understanding of exactly how some species evolved.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF LIVING SPECIES

Remember that many parts of the biological puzzle that Darwin’s saw on his
beagle voyage involved living organisms. After Darwin discovered that those little
brown birds he collected in the Galapagos were all finches, he began to wonder
how they came to be similar, yet distinctly different from one another; each species
was slightly from every other species. There were also slightly different from the
most similar species on the mainland of South America.

Could the island birds have changed over time, as populations in different places
adapted to different local environment? Darwin struggled with this question for a
long time. He finally decided that all these birds could have descended with
modification from a common mainland ancestor.

There were other parts of the living puzzle as well. Recall that Darwin found
entirely different species of animals on the continents of South America and
Australia. Yet, when he looked at similar environments on those continents, he
sometimes saw different animals that had similar anatomies and behaviors.
Darwin’s theory of descent with modification made scientific sense of this part of
the puzzles as well. Species now living on different continent, had each descended
from different ancestors. However, because some animals on each continent were
living under similar ecological conditions, they were exposed to similar pressures
of natural selection. Because of those similar selection pressures, different animals
ended up evolving certain striking features in common.

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HOMOLOGOUS BODY STRUCTURE

Further evidence of evolution can be found in living animals. By Darwin’s time,

researchers had notice striking anatomical similarities among the body parts of
animals with backbones, for example, the limbs of reptiles, birds and mammals’
arms, wings, legs and flippers vary greatly in form and function. Yet, they
constructed from the same basic bones.

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Each of these has adapted in ways that enable organism to survive in different
environments. Despite this different function, however, these limb bones all
develop from the same clumps of cells in embryos. Structures that have different
mature forms but develop from the same embryonic tissues are called homologous
structures provide strong evidence that all four-limbed vertebrates have descended,
with modifications, from common ancestors.

There is still more information to be gathered from homologous structures.

If we compare the front limbs, we can see that all birds wing are more similar to
one another than any of them are to bat wings. Other bones in bird’s skeletons
most closely resemble the homologous bones of certain reptiles including
crocodiles and extinct reptiles such as dinosaurs. The bones that support the wings
of bats, by contrast, are more similar to the front limbs of humans, whales and

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other mammals than they are to those of birds. These similarities and differences
help biologist group animals according to how recently they last shared a common
ancestor.

Note all homologous structures serve important functions. The organs of

many animals are so reduced in size that they are just vestiges, or traces of
homologous organs in other species. These vestigial organs may resemble
miniature legs, tails, or other structures. The legs of the skinks are an example of
vestigial organs. Why would an organisms process organs with organ may not
affect organisms ability to survive and reproduce. In that case, natural selection
would not cause the elimination of that organ.

Homologous also appear in other aspects of plant and animal anatomy and
physiology. Certain groups of plants and algae, for example, share homologous
variations in stem, leaf, root and flower structures, and in the way they carry out
photosynthesis. Mammals share many homologies that distinguish them from other
vertebrates. Dolphins may look something like fishes but homologies show that
they are mammals. For example, like other mammals, they have lungs rather than
gills and obtain oxygen from air rather than water.

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

Scientific advances in many fields of biology, along with ecology and physics,
have confirmed and expanded most of Darwin’s hypothesis. Today evolutionary
theory offers vital insights to all biological and biomedical sciences from infectious
disease research to ecology. In fact, evolution is often called the grand unifying
theory of the life sciences.

Like any scientific theory, evolutionary theory continuous to change as new

data are gathered and new ways of thinking arise. As you will see shortly,

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researchers still debates such important questions as precisely how new species
arise and why species become extinct. There is also uncertainly about life began.

REFERENCES

- Oklahoma Prentice hall biology by miller Levine

- Biological sciences third edition by DJ Tailor, NPO Green, GW stout, R
Soper.
- Modern biology by: Sarojini T.
- Comprehensive Biology

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