Evidences of

Evolution
What are the evidences for evolution?

• Fossils

• Anatomic evidence

• Molecular evidence

Evolution II 2
 Evidence of Evolution

1. Biogeography:
Geographical distribution of
species.
Eastern Long Necked
Turtle
 Evidence of Evolution
2. Taxonomy:
Classification of life forms.

3. Homologous structures:
Structures that are similar because
of common ancestry (comparative
anatomy)
Anatomical evidence
What type of evidence does
anatomy reveal?
Derived traits have similar anatomy
“homologous structures”

Traits can evolve independently

Will have very different anatomy
“analogous structures”

Called “Convergent evolution’

What causes convergent evolution?

Distinguishing homologous and

analogous traits is not always easy

A platypus has fur, a bill,

webbed feet, and lays eggs

Evolution II 6
Anatomical Evidence, con’t.

What does this mean:

“Ontogeny reciprocates Phylogeny”?

Ernst Haekel’s original data

See Fig 41.2 in text
is somewhat flawed

What are vestigial structures?

See Wikipedia for other cool examples

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestigial

Human coccyx

Evolution II 7
 Evidence of Evolution
4. Comparative embryology:
Study of structures that appear
during embryonic development.
 Evidence of Evolution
5. Molecular biology:
DNA and proteins (amino
acids)Slide 10
Molecular evidence
Comparing protein
-- amino acid sequence

Comparing DNA
-- base (ATGC) sequence

‘Molecular Clocks’
-- if you know the rate of
mutation
-- can be used to
calculate when two
species diverged

Evolution II 10
 Evidence of Evolution
6. Fossil Record:
Fossils and the order in which
they appear in layers of
sedimentary rock (strongest
evidence).
Paleontology
What does the fossil record show?
Extinct life forms

Structural relationships with existing species

Sequential appearance of
derived characteristics

Transitional forms

What are some limitations of the fossil record?

Preservation depends upon habitat

Geologic disruption of record

Soft-bodied organisms

What is ‘Biogeography’?

Evolution II 12
 Fossils
• are the preserved remains
or traces of animals, plants,
and other organisms from the
remote past.
• considered as the most
direct evidences of evolution
 Ammonites Priscacara
stromatolites

Trilobites
gastropod bivalve

Araucaria sp. Microfossil amber

Earth’s oldest fossils are the
stromatolites consisting of rock
built from layer upon layer of
sediment and other precipitants.
Ammonites are extinct group of marine
animals of the subclass Ammonoidea in
the class Cephalopoda, phylum Mollusca.
Ammonites' closest living relative is
probably not the modern Nautilus (which
they outwardly resemble), but rather the
subclass Coleoidea (octopus, squid, and
cuttlefish).
Priscacara is an extinct genus
of perch from the Eocene. It is
commonly found in the Green
River Formation in Wyoming.
Trilobites ("three-lobes") are a well-known fossil group
of extinct marine arthropods that form the class
Trilobita. Trilobites first appear in the fossil record
during the Early Cambrian period (540 million years
ago) and flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic era
before beginning a drawn-out decline to extinction
when, during the Devonian, all trilobite orders, with the
sole exception of Proetida, died out. Trilobites finally
disappeared in the mass extinction at the end of the
Permian about 250 million years ago.
External mold of a bivalve
from the Logan Formation,
Lower Carboniferous, Ohio.
A fossil gastropod from the
Pliocene of Cyprus where
a serpulid worm is
attached
Petrified cone of Araucaria
sp. from Patagonia,
Argentina dating from the
Jurassic Period (approx. 210
Ma)
'Microfossil'is a descriptive term applied to
fossilized plants and animals whose size is just at
or below the level at which the fossil can be
analyzed by the naked eye. Microfossils may
either be complete (or near-complete) organisms
in themselves (such as the marine plankters
foraminifera and coccolithophores) or component
parts (such as small teeth or spores) of larger
animals or plants.
A mosquito and a fly in Baltic amber
that is between 40 and 60 million
years old