Evolution 1

Evolution 1

Students will be able to understand that evolution is the result of small changes over time.

What is evolution?

the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations and relies on the process of natural selection.

Multiple Choice

How is information passed from one generation to another generation?

• Mitosis of body cells

• Reproduction

• Genetic variation

• Mutations

Multiple Choice

What are the characteristics expressed by an individual?

• Chromosomes

• Inheritance

• Mutations

• Traits

Multiple Choice

What type of reproduction will provide greater genetic variation?

• Abiotic

• Asexual Reproduction

• Sexual reproduction

• biotic

Evolution of organisms is like the evolution of language

• Each generation changes slightly

• Big changes happen slowly over time

• Words that are no longer useful are dropped

• The transfer of language happens between different populations creating mutations and variation

Multiple Select

What are some common ancestors to the English we speak today (discussed in video)?

• German

• Latin

• Japanese

• Hindi

Open Ended

If you had to classify animals, what are some traits you would group them by?

Aristotle

• 350BC

• First classification system for animals

• 2 main groups - With blood / without blood

• Thought that humans were at the top of the hierarchy of animals

• Gave organisms 2 names (binomial nomenclature)

Carl Linnaeus

• 1735

• Created a simplified and uniformed naming system for animals and plants (Taxonomy)

• Used Latin to name oranisms (common language)

• by 1758 4400 animals and 7700 plants were classified

How would you classify this animal? It lays eggs, has a beak, is warm-blooded, and has mammary glands

Poll

How would you classify this animal?

• Mammal

• Fish

• Bird

• Amphibian

Platypus

An egg laying mammal that nurses it's young through mammary glands.

 “Of all the Mammalia yet know, it seems the most extraordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped.” George Shaw in 1799

Platypus fun facts

• They are only found in Australia

• Have a cloacas more commonly found in birds, reptiles, and amphbians

• Their chromosomes resemble that of a birds instead of a mammal

• Have a skeletal build like a reptile

• Have venom like reptiles

Open Ended

What are some ways we could look at the evolution of this animal?

Evidence for Evolution

• Molecular Evolution - Looking at the DNA

• Common ancestry - Looking at organisms that have similar features

• Fossil records

• Comparative anatomy - structures

• Developmental Evidence - how does it grow?

Using Molecular DNA to look back in time

• Changes in DNA can help us understand how organisms changed over time.

• The more DNA 2 organisms share, the closer related they are to each other

• The ancestor of monotremes branched off from the rest of the mammals between 160 and 210 million years ago according to molecular studies.

Fossil Records

• Bones or tracks left behind by extinct organisms

• Can help us trace organisms through time and find common ancestors

• In 1992 a fossil of a cousin of the platypus was found in Argentina (paleocene period 60million years ago)