Evolution Smart Sparrow PDF

Preview

Summary

Professor couch...

Description

1 Evolution Smart Sparrow Charles Darwin   



Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. Evolution is a change in the genetic makeup in a population over time. Equivocation:  1. deliberate evasiveness in wording : the use of ambiguous or equivocal language  2. an ambiguous or deliberately evasive statement Equivocal:  1A. subject to two or more interpretations and usually used to mislead or confuse  1B. uncertain as an indication or sign  2A. of uncertain nature or classification  2B. of uncertain disposition toward a person or thing : UNDECIDED  2C. of doubtful advantage, genuineness, or moral rectitude

The everyday, or colloquial, use of the term theory equates to an untested guess, however scientific theories are much more than that. In the natural sciences, a theory builds upon and ties together, many facts and laws. Scientific theories are thoroughly and continuously tested. They are broad, predictive, and explanatory.

Watch this video to explore the difference between colloquial and scientific theory. Drag the terms to the appropriate column. Colloquial Theory Uncertain Guess Untested Descriptive

Scientific Theory Explanatory Predictive Tested Broad

Watch this video to explore the equivocation fallacy. Identify the different meanings used in the following argument. Identify the different meanings used in the following argument. Argument: Premise 1- The Declaration of Independence states that, “All men are created equal” Premise 2- Women are not men Conclusion - Women are not created equal 1. “Men” in premise 1 refers to → Human 2. “Men” in premise 2 refers to → Gender

2 Evolution Smart Sparrow hypothesis is more of a prediction based on known information that can be tested. Most hypotheses fail, yet those that survive disproof can live on to see another day.

Watch this video on theories and laws, and use that information to fill in the blanks below. A law serves to describe a relationship in the universe under specific parameters. A theory is an overarching explanation that explains the “how” and “why” of science.

Practical Applications of Evolution 







Sexually Transmitted Infections: Many STI’s were once easily treated with antibiotics. However, several strains of bacteria linked to STI’s are evolving to become resistant to antibiotics. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that gonorrhea has become so drug resistant that it may one day become untreatable. (https://www.cdc.gov/std/gonorrhea/arg/default.htm ) Produce: Humans have been using artificial selection for centuries in the agriculture industry. Now many crops are resistant to pests and can withstand more extreme growing conditions. Much of this has been done using selective breeding. (https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/selection/corn/ ) Antibiotic Resistant Staph Infections are becoming more common. While Staph Infections were once mild and infrequent, they are now more debilitating and infecting portions of the population that were once seldom infected, particularly athletes. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGgobi91LOA%22 ) Pets: Dogs are descendants of wolves. After centuries of selective breeding for particular traits, there are now a variety of different dog breeds with different physical appearances. However, due to restricted breeding, many purebred animals also have many genetic conditions. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGgobi91LOA%22 )

Those Who Studied Evolution Before Darwin 



 

Anaximander (610-546 BC): Even during the time of the Ancient Greeks, evolution was debated. Anaximander proposed that the ancient ancestors of humans must have been fish at some point in history. Augustine of Hippo (345-430): In addition to being a bishop of the Catholic Church, Augustine of Hippo was also a theological philosopher. He thought that current life may have formed from a “decomposition’ of earlier life forms. George-Louis Leclerc (1707-1788): Leclerc was a well-respected, French naturalist. He viewed the concept of “species” as well-marked varieties that had been modified by their environments. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802): Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus, published a book called Zoonomia which suggested that life began with a single living filament.

3 Evolution Smart Sparrow 

Jean-Baptists Lamarck (1744-1829): While evolution had been observed for centuries, Lamarck was the first person to propose a mechanism (or a theory) that drove evolution. His theory was eventually outcompeted by Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

Evolution works through a mechanism called natural selection. There are three major parts of natural selection. Variation, heredity, and fitness. Click here to play a game and see natural selection in action. What colors were the insects in the game? Variation: Variation explains why members of the same species may look different, act different, smell different. Variation is any way in which members of the same species differs. Variations include things like blood types, vision, hearing, allergies, and so much more. What causes variations? In one word: mutations. Mutations are changes to an organism’s DNA. For humans, every generation accumulates about 100-200 DNA mutations. It’s not much for one person, but those mutations can accumulate in the population over time. The second major part of natural selection: heredity. You inherit your genes (mutations and all) from your biological parents. We inherit many qualities, called traits, from our biological parents. When a trait helps an organism survive in its environment, that trait is called an adaptation.

Organisms within the same species may have different attributes (e.g. coat color, beak shape, blood type). This difference is a component of natural selection called variation . At the genetic level, the different forms originally arise from mutations. Another component of natural selection is heredity where specific attributes, via DNA (including mutations), are passed from parent to offspring. Those inherited attributes are called traits. If the inherited attribute is beneficial, and helps an organism survive in its environment, it is called an adaptation.

Watch this short video to see a long-billed curlew searching for food. The long-billed curlew has a very distinctive trait , a long narrow beak. It uses this beak to search for food in the sand, and because its beak helps the bird survive in its environment, it can be considered an adaptation . Some curlews have shorter beaks, and some have longer beaks, so it appears there is variation among this trait. Curlews with longer beaks tend to have offspring with long beaks as well, a component of evolution called hereditary. While variation and heredity are very important for natural selection, they mean nothing without the third component: fitness. For our purposes, fitness means the ability to survive and reproduce.

4 Evolution Smart Sparrow

Place the following people in order of biological fitness. Use “first” for the most fit and “third” for the least fit. 1. Yvonne tries her hardest, but she can’t seem to lower her cholesterol. Being a single parent of two, it’s difficult for her to find time to go to the gym. Good thing her job keeps her moving all day! Second 2. Miguel lives a very active lifestyle. He exercises regularly, eats plenty of greens, and gets regular doctor check-ups. He’s happily married. He and his spouse don’t plan on having children. Third (Least Fit) 3. Hercules is a heavy smoker and rarely exercises, but he does love his five children very much. His health took a toll on him before he could meet his twelve grandchildren. First (Most Fit)

Match the terms to their definitions.      

Trait: A characteristic of an organism Fitness: The ability to survive and reproduce. Variation: Distinct versions of a trait. Heredity: The ability for a trait to be passed from parent to offspring. Mutation: Random changes to an organism’s DNA. Adaptation: A trait that helps an organism to survive in its environment.

If you want to learn more about aging and the effects on our DNA, check out this video.

Take a look at this video to learn more about evolution of populations. The salamanders in the video were once a single species, but evolved into multiple species over time. Why do you think this occurred? The beneficial trait for survival was different for the population on the coast of California and the population in the interior.

A population includes all the organisms that belong to the same species, which live in a particular area. A distribution map is just a way of visualizing where we can find different things around the world.

5 Evolution Smart Sparrow

Read this article and answer the question below. What do you think is the cause for certain rattlesnakes losing their rattles while other rattlesnakes keep them? Only rattlesnakes without rattles survive and reproduce. Natural selection drives populations of organisms to adapt to their specific environment. It’s not about becoming better, but about certain individuals of the population having a trait that helps those individuals to survive. An adaptation to one environment does not mean that the trait is ideal for ALL environments 1. Evolution can’t predict the future. Adaptations that are beneficial now may not be later on. 2. Then as the environment changes, the organism does too? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. If there is a drastic environmental change, the population may disappear from the Earth completely (go extinct). 3.

Vestigiality Vestigiality is the retention during the process of sexual reproduction of genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of their ancestral function in a given species.[1] Assessment of the vestigiality must generally rely on comparison with homologous features in related species. The emergence of vestigiality occurs by normal evolutionary processes, typically by loss of function of a feature that is no longer subject to positive selection pressures when it loses its value in a changing environment. The feature may be selected against more urgently when its function becomes definitively harmful, but if the lack of the feature provides no advantage, and its presence provides no disadvantage, the feature may not be phased out by natural selection and persist across species. Examples of vestigial structures are the loss of functional wings in island-dwelling birds; the humans appendix and vomeronasal organ; and the hindlimbs of the snake and whale. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestigiality )

10 Vestigial Traits You Didn’t Know You Had: https://io9.gizmodo.com/10-vestigial-traits-youdidnt-know-you-had-5829687 1. For the orange trees, if the climate were to change drastically, wouldn’t the environment cause the trees to change and adapt? 2. This is another common misconception. Strictly speaking, the environment can’t force an organism to change. But, the environment may be more suitable for some individuals. 3. So, let me think of an everyday example. A bird can’t just change its beak shape to eat a different food, right? 4. That’s right. Individuals with the beneficial trait reproduce and pass those traits to the next generation. Individuals without the trait are less likely to survive and pass on their genes.

If the environment doesn’t cause an organism to change, then what does? Mutations

6 Evolution Smart Sparrow

1. Oh that’s right, mutations cause a population to change over time. That must mean that mutations give an organism what it needs to survive. 2. Another misconception! Mutations can be helpful in some cases, but they occur randomly. Evolution (and mutations) can’t predict the future, and it can’t know what an organism needs. 3. Now I remember, you told me that not all traits are good. That means not all mutations are good either. 4.

Can organisms intentionally mutate and direct evolution? No

Read the following scenarios and determine if the mutation will benefit the organism in its environment. 1.

2.

3.

A family of rabbits has white fur which helps them to blend into their snowy environment. One day, a rabbit is born with a mutation for orange fur. This rabbit cannot camouflage with its environment and is easily seen by predators. Not Beneficial A group of flowers has an adaptation that makes it taste bad, so it won’t be eaten by other creatures. One of those flowers has a mutation that makes it taste delicious, so there’s a chance an animal will want to eat it. Not Beneficial One species of caterpillar only eats the leaves of an endangered plant. As the plant becomes rarer, the caterpillars lose their food source. One caterpillar is born with a mutation that allows it to eat other plants. Beneficial

Evolution is a slow process. Thanks to mutations, change first occurs on the individual, microscopic level. Then after many generations there may be changes in the population. Sometimes, it can take millions of years for populations to accumulate enough mutations to be considered a new species.

Watch this video to learn more about how fast evolution occurs, and then answer the following question. Which form of evolution usually occurs when there are periods of stasis followed by periods of rapid evolution? Punctuated Equilibrium: A long period with no change, and then a shorter period with lots of changes. Sometimes these sudden changes are initiated by a catastrophic event. Hence the name catastrophism. Gradualism: Evolution as a slow process. It takes many generations to occur, and throughout those generations, many mutations may accumulate. Because it takes so long, it isn’t always possible to observe evolution over the course of your lifetime. --- Gradualism, from the Latin gradus ("step"), is a hypothesis, a theory or a tenet assuming that change comes about gradually or that variation is gradual in nature and happens over time as opposed to in large steps.

7 Evolution Smart Sparrow Uniformitarianism, incrementalism, and reformism are similar concepts. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradualism) [1]

What kind of catastrophic events could cause rapid evolutionary changes? 1. Volcanic eruptions 2. Climate Changes 3. Asteroid Impacts

1. 2. 3. 4.

I didn’t realize evolution can occur so quickly. That’s pretty amazing! As amazing a process as evolution is, it can definitely cause concerns. Concerns? Yes, concerns. Check out this article I found on the evolution of bacteria and antibiotic resistance. 5. Wow! Evolution causes bacteria to become a big problem for people in a relatively short time. 6. But scientists can improve our medicine and vaccines by understanding the evolution of bacteria. By understanding the evolution of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that cause illnesses, scientists have created new and improved treatments.

1. If we can observe evolution in organisms that reproduce quickly, like bacteria, then why is evolution considered a theory, and not a fact?

2. Actually, it’s both!

What is the difference between a theory and a fact? A theory is an overarching explanation, and a fact is an observation.

Explore one or two of the following observations with , and other organisms. bacteria, viruses

Evolution as a Theory: An overarching explanation that explains the mechanisms that drive evolution. Evolution as a Fact: The real-world observations that serve as empirical evidence for evolution.

Evidence of Evolution  Direct Observation: Scientists are able to observe the evolution of organisms with short generation times, like bacteria and viruses. This allows researchers to learn how bacterial mutations affect antibiotic resistance. Researchers also use direct observation to study the evolution of viruses like AIDs, Ebola, and influenza.

8 Evolution Smart Sparrow









Fossil Record: Numerous transitional forms (or “missing links”) have been found in the fossil record. Those missing links often show how one species transitioned into another. Fossils like Tiktaalik and Acanthostega, pictured below, are missing links between fish and four legged animals. Homology: Similar structures, like the bones of the hand, are found in different species of animals. Those similar structures are call homologous structures. Evolution is the most parsimonious explanations as to why we see such similar structures in different creatures. DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid): For all organisms, there is some overlap in DNA. Humans and chimpanzees share 96% of the same DNA. Humans and slugs share 70%, and humans and bananas share 50%. The more closely related two organisms are, the more DNA they have in common. DNA is too complicated for these similarities to occur by chance. Biogeography: The distribution of many animals today is best explained by how they evolved in the past. For example, marsupials (like kangaroos) evolved and diversified in Australia since it is isolated from the rest of the world. Placental mammals have diversified and evolved across the rest of the globe. Fossil Record

Homology

Lesson Goals: You have – Demonstrated the difference between a hypothesis, fact, law, and theory. Identified the mechanism that drives evolution (natural selection). Observed how the concept of evolution has changed over time. Assessed common misconceptions that people commonly have about evolution. 







9 Evolution Smart Sparrow

10 Evolution Smart Sparrow

11 Evolution Smart Sparrow...