Biology - Evolution

1. Kingdom

2. Phylum

3. Class & Order

4. Family

5. Genus

6. Species

Class:Mammalia

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Species represents a descriptionof the organism.

E.g. humans belong to the Sapien species’ meaning “wise”

Earth’s age is approximately 4.6Billion years old. Life is thought to have evolved 3.9 billion years ago.

The monsoonal rain that used toflow from SE Asia into Africa each summer was blocked by the land mass of India,forming the Himilayas when it collided with Asia. This caused the climate inNorthern Africa to significantly dry out, forming the Sahara Desert eventually.

LUCA-Last Universal CommonAncestor

Panspermia, Thermal Black Smokers, Shallow Tidal Pools

Simple bacteria life was“seeded” on an in-coming meteorite. This simple life then evolved into what wehave today.

Underwater sea ventsrelease heat and sulfur compounds. These factors led to the formation of simpleorganic substance, which in turn, gave rise to the first life forms to evolve.

Conditions such as simpleinorganic molecules such as water and salts, as well as energy from the sun andpossibly lightning, produced the first simple organic molecules. Theseeventually gave rise to the first life forms

South Easterly prevailing windscarry moist air, from evaporated water, from the ocean. This moist air coolswhen it is forced to rise over mountain ranges. This cooling causes the moistair to condense) into water droplets which eventually fall as precipitation.The windward side of the mountain receives more rain than the leeward side asthe air on the leeward side is relatively dry.

Thisis the circulation of surface salt water in the oceans from the equator towardsthe poles. Near the poles the salt water cools then sinks. Slowly the coldwater makes its way back along the bottom of the oceanic floor to the equator.This sets up a continuous cycle.

E.g. if the Gulf stream off the western coast ofGreat Britain was to halt, Great Britain could potentially experience a miniice age.

Incomingsolar radiation loses some of its energy when it hits the ground turninginto heat (IR radiation). This heat is trapped by greenhouse gases such ascarbon dioxide. This heats up the Earth

Gradualincreases in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide gas produced by human activity.

Thesescientists independently developed the theory of evolution due to naturalselection. Evolution is the gradual change in an organism's characteristics through time inresponse to a gradual change in the environment.

This describes the multitude ofdifferent life forms with vast variation found on Earth. With reducedbiodiversity, organisms have less chance to evolve. Organisms with more variation have morechance of having the traits needed to survive in a changing environment, theythus have more chance to evolve and survive.

Sexual reproduction and mutations(that can have a positive effect in terms of enabling survival).

As the bushland environment beganto dry out, more pressure was placed on eating vegetation contained within thetrees. Naturally longer necked gazelles had an advantage in reaching thesetrees. They tended to survive and pass on their “long-necked “trait to theiroffspring. Through time the giraffes evolved.

Lamarck based his theory on the use anddisuse of body parts to explain how giraffes with longer necks survived VS. Darwin’s theory that used genetic difference to explain their evolution

Afossil is an impression, cast, original material or track of any animal orplant that is preserved in rock after the original organic material istransformed or removed.

Theseshow the gradual change in organism’s characteristics through time.

It's a molecular biology technique that measures the degree of genetic similarity between pools of DNA sequences.

Thisanalysis shows that related species (E.g. Chimp and Human) share largepercentages of DNA in common. This shows they have diverged from a commonancestor relatively recently.

Thisshows that related species have similar immunological responses to a specificdisease.

Relatedspecies share common proteins.

E.g. Chimps and humans have exactly the sameproteins.

Relatedspecies are often found in similar geographical areas. (If the areas are vastlyspread out, Continental Drift may be the cause. E.g. Southern Beech tree inGondwana land masses)

Relatedspecies share common physical characteristics.

E.g. the fore limbs of manyvertebrates such as bats, dogs, seal, whale, bird and human have a pentadactyl (5digit) limb

Theseare organs which are no longer in use, but use to be used in our ancestors.These organs show that we have evolved from a slightly different organism. Egappendix in humans.

The seed gathering finch migratedfrom Chile to the Galapagos Islands. It found itself in slightly differentenvironments having to adapt to different food sources. This leads to theevolution of different characteristics.

Bacteria have slowly builtup a resistance to the antibiotic being used. Initially the antibiotic killsmost of the bacteria, but some, the resistant ones, survive. These resistantbacteria breed and tend to pass on their resistant trait to their offspring.Eventually a resistant strain of bacteria is found. This is an example ofevolution

Pre-industrial revolution thetree bark was light in colour. This enabled the lightly coloured peppered mothsto survive as they were better camouflaged against bird predators. Then duringthe industrial revolution, the tree bark darkened due to the accumulation ofsoot on it. This suited the darker forms of the peppered moth as they were nowcamouflaged. Thus the proportions switched and now the darker forms became moreprevalent. This is a modern example of Evolution.

Evidence of a supercontinent that separated,like a jigsaw, pieces are linked through similar rock structures found acrosscontinents as well as plant and animal species, including Mesosaurus.

A fossil is the remains of organisms that havebeen preserved (Body Fossils, Trace Fossils). Archeopteryx gives evidence to link to birds