test 2: evidence for evolution Flashcards
(39 cards)
convergent evolution
different ancestor, same solution to a problem (not true homology)
- ancestors are not related, similar morphology or lifestyle (often same habitat)
how does convergent evolution occur?
- similar environmental pressure = similar adaptation
- ex: birds and bats
- ex: marsupials vs placentals
divergent evolution
same ancestor, different morphologies based on habitat (true homology)
- common ancestor, different morphology or lifestyle (different habitats)
how does divergent evolution occur?
- changing environment of different area
- also called adaptative radiation
- ex: pentadactyl limbs (snakes, birds, lizards)
microevolution
how adaptations evolve in a particular gene pool/population (ex: particular bird on a particular island)
macroevolution
how adaptations evolve above the species level (ex: feathers in birds from dinosaurs)
methods for examining evolution
1- fossil record
2- comparitive anatomy
3- molecular biology
fossil record
- 99% of species are extinct
- hard parts fossilized (ex: bone)
- parts of organisms are protected from bacterial decay
- certain periods have more fossils than others
- carbon dating
radiometric dating (fossils)
rate of decay expressed by half-life of parent isotopes
half-life
time required for 50% of parent isotope to decay
- unique for each isotope
- not affected by environmental factor
half-life of Carbon14
5730 years (+- 4000 years)
oldest known fossils
- 5 billion year old stromatolites:
- rocklike structures composed of layers of bacteria and sediment
biogeography
studying the distribution of organisms (species on one island hopping to another and evolving)
continental drift
- ancestral groups found only in africa
- new world vertebrates didn’t migrate (spread to SA, when two continents were connected)
- movement of continents caused mountain building, drainage changes, changes in the shallows = big effect on evolution
- organism distribution, fossil magnetism, coastline shape, present movements
islands
- often inhabited by endemic species
- nearest relatives on mainland
- idea of a bird getting blown off course, landing on an island and adapting (galapagos finches)
radiative adaptation
australia never had the same type of competition between placentals and marsupials, so marsupials under went radiative adaption (ex: 5 species to 25 species)
niche
ecological role of an organism, how it fits into it’s habitat and resource partitioning
- for biogeography and radiative adaption: selective pressure of environment dictates a particular solution
how do two species survive in same area?
different niche, avoid conflict (don’t overlap niches)
comparative anatomy
- compare one structure in a number of organisms
- many limbs have minimal modifications
- had they evolved separately, they would have been better suited
therefore, must have common ancestor
ex: pentadactyl limb
pentadactyl limb
humerus, radius, ulna, carpals, metacarpals, phalanges
ex of comparative anatomy
- pentadactyl limb
- all extant vertebrates have 4 limbs
- all vertebrates have pharyngeal pouches at some point
therefore, must have evolved from ancestor with gill pouches and 4 limbs
comparative embryology
“ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”
- development of embryo follows steps during evolution of a species (evolutionary development follows evolution of your species)
- process itself is evolving and provides clues to phylogeny
vestigial structure
remnants of structures in ancestors not important now (ex: tailbone)
molecular biology
- DNA/proteins of different species comparared
- closely related varies less than distantly related
- lots of variation, short amount of time
- rate of evolution for these proteins found can estimate time since common ancestor
- difference between 2 species depends on length of time since their common ancestor