Biology WarmUp 15 minutes Please read silently and individually.

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Biology Warm-Up 15 minutesPlease read silently
and individually.

• Read Statement on Teaching Evolution issued by
  the National Association of Biology Teachers.
  Read each of the bulleted assertions carefully.
• Highlight or underline any of the assertions to
  which you are opposed or cannot accept.
• Do you believe the courts, as outlined in the
  last three paragraphs of the article, are correct
  in their judgments?

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Nothing makes sense outside of this
An Introduction to Biologys guiding principle.
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Theodosius Dobzhansky

• Nothing in biology makes sense except in the
  light of evolution

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What is Evolution?

• The word evolution was never used by Darwin in
  On the Origin of Species.
• There is a grandeur in this view of life, with
  its several powers, having been originally
  breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into
  one and that, whilst this planet has gone
  cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity,
  from so simple a beginning endless forms most
  beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are
  being, evolved.

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What is Evolution?

• Evolution is the process of change which life has
  undergone since its origin.

Individual organisms do not evolve. Only
populations of organisms evolve. In the
day-to-day world evolution is the change in a
population over time or, more specifically, the
change in the gene frequencies of a population
over time. Major changes in gene frequency are
most influenced by natural selection.
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Fact or Theory?

• That species evolve is clear to all rationally
  thinking people. Evolution is a fact, not a
  theory.
• How species evolve, the mechanisms of evolution,
  are theories, the most prominent one being
  natural selection. Scientists debate how
  evolution occurs. They DO NOT debate the fact of
  evolution.

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History of Evolution

• Evolution first suggested by French naturalist
  Goerge Louis Leclerc (1707-1778), but he had no
  proof.
• Goerge Cuvier (1769-1832) A vertebrate
  zoologist who used comparative anatomy to
  classify animals. He suggested Catastrophism.
• Jean Baptiste Lamark (1744-1829) another French
  naturalist. He proposed the Theory of Acquired
  Characteristics.

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History of Evolution

• Erasmus Darwin (1769-1802) Grandfather of Charles
  Darwin, he was also a physician and naturalist.
  He suggested the possibility of evolution based
  on his studies of animal development, artificial
  breeding and vestigial organs.
• James Hutton (1726- 1797) - Proposed the
  Uniformation Theory of Geology. According to
  Hutton the earth is not static but subject to
  continuous cycles of erosion and uplifting.
  Weathered materials were deposited in layers
  which became sedimentary rock. This rock often
  contained fossils and would eventually be lifted
  from the sea beds to form land.

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History of Evolution

• Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) - Malthus was an
  English sociologist who wrote an Essay of
  Population in 1798. In his essay he proposed that
  death and famine were inevitable because the
  human population tended to increase faster than
  the supply of food. This essay influenced Darwin
  greatly and was used in his formulation of the
  Theory of Naturan Selection

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History or Evolution

• Charles Darwin (1809-1882) - Proposed the Theory
  of Natural Selection and the Theory of
  Pangenensis. Naturalist on the Voyage of H.M.S.
  Beagle (1831-1836). Wrote "The Voyage of the
  Beagle" and "The Origin of Species by Means of
  Natural Selection" in 1859 (years after the
  Voyage of the Beagle)
• Alfred Wegener 1880-1930) - The German earth
  scientist who proposed the Theory of Continental
  Drift in 1915. Controversial at the time, he
  proposed the continents had undergone large
  movements over the past 300 million years. Today
  the science of Plate Tectonics studies the
  movement of the earth's crust.

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The Voyage of the Beagle

• Charles Darwin set sail on the H.M.S. Beagle two
  days after Christmas in 1831. The Beagle was on
  an exploratory expedition and the young Darwin,
  unsure of what to do with himself, signed on as
  the ships naturalist.

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The Voyage of the Beagle

• Although Darwin was hopelessly seasick whenever
  on board ship, he somehow managed to gather,
  organize, and chronicle an astounding number of
  specimens and kept meticulous records of all of
  his observations.
• Darwins primary attribute was his keen
  observational skills.

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The Voyage of the Beagle

• It was in the Galapagos Islands that Darwin made
  the observations that would most influence his
  studies for the next twenty years. In
  particular, he found the speciation of Galapagos
  finches to be fascinating.

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The Voyage of the Beagle

• Another striking observation Darwin made was of
  the shell openings of the giant tortoises.
  Shells on islands with low lying scrub opened
  down, while shells on islands with high brush
  opened up.

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The Theory of Natural Selection

• Based on his observations at Galapagos and around
  the world, in addition to numerous other
  influences, Darwin developed his Theory of
  Natural Selection.
• It is based on three undeniable facts and one
  unavoidable conclusion from those facts.

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The Theory of Natural Selection

• Facts
• 1. Individual organisms vary
• 2. Variances are passed from parents to
  offspring through heredity.
• 3. More individuals are born than live to
  reproduce.
• Conclusion Organisms with variances that are
  beneficial are more likely to reproduce.

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On the Origin of Species

• Darwin had formulated his theory while onboard
  the Beagle, but for a variety of reasons did not
  write it down until 1856, when Charles Lyell and
  Joseph Hooker persuaded him to set out his
  argument.
• Two years later, in 1858, he had still written
  only 10 chapters.
• Then he received correspondence from a young
  naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace who was
  just formulating the same theory. Darwin was
  about to be scooped!

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On the Origin of Species

• Both Darwins and Wallaces papers were presented
  as a scientific meeting just a few weeks later,
  but received little fan fare.
• On the Origin of Species was finally published in
  1859 and all 1,250 copies sold the first day.

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• Because of his much more substantial evidence,
  Darwin was credited with the theory, although
  most biologist consider he and Wallace as
  co-discoverers.
• On the Origin of Species is certainly among the
  most influential and important books in all
  history. It changed Western thought forever.

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Things have sure been different ever since
Darwin.
Natural Selection is the central concept in the
science of Biology.