Genetic Evolution vs. Cultural Evolution

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Genetic Evolution vs. Cultural Evolution

• Christopher Lynch

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Introduction

• Since the time of civilization, amongst humans,
  culture has been an ever evolving factor
• The same can be said for genetics as well
• In this presentation, genetic evolution will be
  compared and contrasted with cultural evolution
• Cultural and genetic evolution will also be
  observed and discussed amongst other fellow
  mammals that inhabit this great planet

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What are we talking about?

• Before we can begin to analyze the differences
  and similarities between genetic and cultural
  evolution, we must first understand what exactly
  the two are
• Genetic Evolution refers to the change in gene
  frequency, which is the frequency of alleles in a
  breeding population from generation to generation
• Cultural Evolution refers to the significance of
  cultural inheritance and the various ways of
  learning from others within a population

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How do these factors relate to one another?

• Evidence of Genetic Evolution can be observed
  when analyzing the genetic changes a population
  expresses over many generations
• Genetic evolution is not something that can be
  seen overnight, atleast not amongst mammals
• Information is passed from one individual to
  another through procreation and thus is a much
  longer process

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How do these factors relate to one another?

• Cultural evolution is a factor that can be seen
  occurring at a much faster rate
• Passing along information from one individual to
  another, through word of mouth
• Evolution of culture can occur multiple times in
  a day

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How do these factors relate to one another?

• The commonality amongst these two factors, is
  that information is being passed from one
  individual to another within a given population
• The rates at which results can be observed are
  drastically different, yet the concept of
  information exchange is exactly the same
• We will now further investigate the ways in which
  these two factors have evolved or changed over
  time

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Genetic Evolution

• To further this evidence of genetic evolution, we
  can take a look at another mammal, the dolphin
• Dolphins, whose ancestors were once land dwelling
  mammals, have evolved to be incredibly agile and
  supremely suitable for a marine environment

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Environmental factors resulted in the transition
of habitat from land to the ocean.

• Possible environmental factors
• Climate degradation
• Increased competition amongst other predators

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The above picture shows further evidence of
genetic evolution

• Although the dolphin has no hind limbs, it
  retains a pelvis which supports the idea that the
  dolphin evolved from a land dwelling mammal.
  Genetic evolution has found no need to completely
  remove the pelvis. It does not hinder or benefit
  the individual

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Cultural Evolution

• Some species of dolphin express and amazing trait
  that is passed along amongst the population by
  cultural evolution
• The Common Bottle-Nose Dolphin (Tursiops
  truncatus) has been observed forcing schools of
  fish onto the shore by creating a bow wave and
  then feeding on the land-stranded fish.
• The largest in the dolphin family, the killer
  whale (Orcinus Orca) practices a very similar
  learned behavior on the shores of Patagonia
• This is a risky behavior for dolphins, some have
  been known to beach and become unable to return
  to the water and then die

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Killer Whale/Orca (Orcinus orca)

• Orca feeding on young seals that are attempting
  to understand the concept of swimming

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Depiction of Human Genetic Evolution

• The scale on the left extends in increments of
  millions of years

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Power of Word of Mouth

• The following graph shows several different
  techniques used to promote a companys new
  product. The strength of word of mouth can be
  observed

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Analysis

• Information can be passed from one individual to
  another, within a population, through genes as
  well as word of mouth
• Genetic and cultural evolution are constantly
  changing and allowing individuals to become
  better equipped to survive as well as thrive
  within their population
• The scales of time in which these two factors
  occur are drastically different yet they produce
  a similar desired outcome, to better equip the
  individual in life