Introduction

• The process of organismal change and diversification through generational time from shared common ancestry.

• Important aspects:

  • Change

  • temporal aspect

  • ancestry

  • transgenerational

• Evolutionary change without multiplication of forms

• Splitting of species

• Irreducible complexity

  • e.g. Eye (how would this develop step by step)

• Solution:

  • Microevolution of submodules

• evolution

• natural selection

• adaptation

• Homology

  • similar features accross species

• vestigial characters

  • ear, appendix, goose bumps

• Suboptimal design

  • can only work with what ancestor provides

• geographic distributions

  • species in geographic proximity are more similar

• A Scale that attributes values to different species and objects

• ladder of life

• Great Chain of Being

• Thomas Aquinas:

  • natural theology

  • everything stems from devine design

• Ancestors adpat themselves to their envrionment during their life time

• Ancestors pass on their actively gained adaptations

• Could explain the mystery of mysteries

  • How do well adapted new species originate from a single ancestor

• Heritable variation in the trait (some trait that can be inherited)

• Over reproduction, but fixed resources lead to selection

• Variation in lifetime reproductive success is linked to the trait

• Variational evolution (Darwin):

  • certain individuals are favored by natural selection

• Transformational evolution (Lamarkian):

  • all indiviudals are chagned through time

• Mendelists: Mutations are main driver of evolution (strong imediate chagnes)

• Biometricians: polygenic mutations are the driver that bring advantages

By adding more loci both theories can be merged

• Theory that most evolutionary changes are not caused by Darwinian selection but due to random drift

• Even slightly disadvantageous mutations are allowed