Evolution The quick view (which is

opposite of how evolution works, so it’s kind of ironic

eh?)

Science vs. Religion What is science based on? Science is based on OBSERVABLE

evidence. What is religion based on? Religion is based on FAITH.

– By definition, faith is something that is not observable.

Since they are 2 different “fields,” they aren’t really competing with each other

Religious Scientists?

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind. – Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.– Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), "Science, Philosophy and

Religion: a Symposium", 1941 Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes

throws them where they cannot be seen.– Stephen Hawking

“Evolution is a Theory” True, but to paraphrase Carl Sagan:

– Creationists think that a theory is something that you made up while drunk one night.

Theory Defined: “scientific principle to explain phenomena: a set of facts, propositions, or principles analyzed in their relation to one another and used, especially in science, to explain phenomena”– MSN Encarta, http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/theory.html

Evolution is as much a theory as gravity is

Arguments based on the fossil record as a “problem” for evolution

backfiredThe Fossil Record doesn’t support evolution –

there are too many “missing links”

“So many intermediate forms have been discovered between fish and amphibians, between amphibians and reptiles, between reptiles and mammals, and along the primate lines of descent that it often is difficult to identify categorically when the transition occurs from one to another particular species.”

National Academy of Sciences, 1999

?

???

Missing

Intermediates

Land Mammal

Reconstructions of representative Eocene cetaceans. Clockwise from top: a beached Dorudon (Dorudontidae), Ambulocetus (Ambulocetidae), Pakicetus (Pakicetidae), Kutchicetus (Remingtonocetidae), and Rodhocetus (Protocetidae). These cetaceans are shown together for comparison, but they were not contemporaries and lived in different environments. Artwork by Carl Buell.

Reconstructions of representative Eocene cetaceans. Clockwise from top: a beached Dorudon (Dorudontidae), Ambulocetus (Ambulocetidae), Pakicetus (Pakicetidae), Kutchicetus (Remingtonocetidae), and Rodhocetus (Protocetidae). These cetaceans are shown together for comparison, but they were not contemporaries and lived in different environments. Artwork by Carl Buell.

Comparative Genome Evidence for Human

Evolution is Decisive

Comparative Genome Evidence for Human

Evolution is Decisive

“More than a century ago Darwin and Huxley posited that humans share recent common ancestors with the African great apes. Modern molecular studies have spectacularly confirmed this prediction and have refined the relationships, showing that the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and bonobo (Pan paniscus) are our closest living evolutionary relatives.”

“More than a century ago Darwin and Huxley posited that humans share recent common ancestors with the African great apes. Modern molecular studies have spectacularly confirmed this prediction and have refined the relationships, showing that the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and bonobo (Pan paniscus) are our closest living evolutionary relatives.”

Testing the Evolutionary Hypothesis of Common

Ancestry

Chromosome Numbers in the great apes:

human (Homo) 46chimpanzee (Pan) 48gorilla (Gorilla) 48orangutan (Pogo) 48

Testable prediction: If these organisms share common ancestry, the human genome must contain a fused chromosome.

Testable prediction: If these organisms share common ancestry, the human genome must contain a fused chromosome.

Chromosome Numbers in the great apes (Hominidae):

human (Homo) 46chimpanzee (Pan) 48gorilla (Gorilla) 48orangutan (Pogo) 48

Testable prediction: The marks of that fusion must appear in one of the human chromosomes.

Centromere

Telomere

Ancestral Chromosomes

FusionHomo sapiens

Centromere #1

Telomere sequences

Centromere #2

“Chromosome 2 is unique to the human lineage of evolution, having emerged as a result of head-to-head fusion of two acrocentric chromosomes that remained separate in other primates. The precise fusion site has been located in 2q13–2q14.1 (ref. 2; hg 16:114455823 – 114455838), where our analysis confirmed the presence of multiple subtelomeric duplications to chromosomes 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 19, 21 and 22 (Fig. 3; Supplementary Fig. 3a, region A). During the formation of human chromosome 2, one of the two centromeres became inactivated (2q21, which corresponds to the centromere from chimp chromosome 13) and the centromeric structure quickly deterioriated (42).”

“Chromosome 2 is unique to the human lineage of evolution, having emerged as a result of head-to-head fusion of two acrocentric chromosomes that remained separate in other primates. The precise fusion site has been located in 2q13–2q14.1 (ref. 2; hg 16:114455823 – 114455838), where our analysis confirmed the presence of multiple subtelomeric duplications to chromosomes 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 19, 21 and 22 (Fig. 3; Supplementary Fig. 3a, region A). During the formation of human chromosome 2, one of the two centromeres became inactivated (2q21, which corresponds to the centromere from chimp chromosome 13) and the centromeric structure quickly deterioriated (42).”

Homo sapiens

Inactivated centromere(Pan #13)Telomere

sequences

Hillier et al (2005) “Generation and Annotation of the DNA sequences of human chromosomes 2 and 4,” Nature 434: 724-

731.

Hillier et al (2005) “Generation and Annotation of the DNA sequences of human chromosomes 2 and 4,” Nature 434: 724-

731.

Human Chromosome #2 shows the exact point at which this fusion took place

Human Chromosome #2 shows the exact point at which this fusion took place

Active centromere(Pan #12)

It Means Continuing Controversy. Why?

The question: “What about Evolution” quickly becomes “What about something else…”

What’s behind this is a deliberate strategy to put

science & religion at odds:

What’s behind this is a deliberate strategy to put

science & religion at odds:

“The objective [of the Wedge Strategy] is to convince people that Darwinism is inherently atheistic, thus shifting the debate from creationism vs. evolution to the existence of God vs. the non-existence of God. From there people are introduced to ‘the truth’ of the Bible and then ‘the question of sin’ and finally ‘introduced to Jesus.’”

• Church & State magazine, April 1999 •

“Intelligent design is just the Logos theology of John’s Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory.” — William Dembski, 1999

“My colleagues and I speak of ‘theistic realism’ — or sometimes ‘mere creation’— as the defining concept of our movement. This means that we affirm that God is objectively real as Creator.” — Phillip Johnson 1996

The Colbert Report January 12, 2006

The Science / Faith Conflict is often the First Issue Raised in Opposition

to Evolution

The Colbert Report (click here first)

http://www.brown.edu/Courses/BI0020_Miller/talks/colbert-miller.mov

What about God PBS Movie

In a famous article, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" (Am. Biol. Teach. 35, 125–129; 1973), Dobzhansky described his religious beliefs: "It is wrong to hold creation and evolution as mutually exclusive alternatives. I am a creationist and an evolutionist. Evolution is God's, or Nature's, method of Creation."

In contrast to modern creationists, Dobzhansky accepted macroevolution and the documented age of Earth. He argued that "the Creator has created the living world not by caprice (supernatural fiat) but by evolution propelled by natural selection".

In a famous article, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" (Am. Biol. Teach. 35, 125–129; 1973), Dobzhansky described his religious beliefs: "It is wrong to hold creation and evolution as mutually exclusive alternatives. I am a creationist and an evolutionist. Evolution is God's, or Nature's, method of Creation."

In contrast to modern creationists, Dobzhansky accepted macroevolution and the documented age of Earth. He argued that "the Creator has created the living world not by caprice (supernatural fiat) but by evolution propelled by natural selection".

“Even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, … the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.”

St. Augustine, 411 AD On the Literal Meaning of Genesis, 1:19

Does this mean that the Bible should be read as a scientific

textbook?

63. According to the widely accepted scientific account, the universe erupted 15 billion years ago in an explosion called the “Big Bang” and has been expanding and cooling ever since. Later there gradually emerged the conditions necessary for the formation of atoms, still later the condensation of galaxies and stars, and about 10 billion years later the formation of planets. In our own solar system and on earth (formed about 4.5 billion years ago), the conditions have been favorable to the emergence of life. While there is little consensus among scientists about how the origin of this first microscopic life is to be explained, there is general agreement among them that the first organism dwelt on this planet about 3.5-4 billion years ago. Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related, it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism.

69. The current scientific debate about the mechanisms at work in evolution requires theological comment insofar as it sometimes implies a misunderstanding of the nature of divine causality. Many neo-Darwinian scientists, as well as some of their critics, have concluded that, if evolution is a radically contingent materialistic process driven by natural selection and random genetic variation, then there can be no place in it for divine providential causality. .... But it is important to note that, according to the Catholic understanding of divine causality, true contingency in the created order is not incompatible with a purposeful divine providence. Divine causality and created causality radically differ in kind and not only in degree. Thus, even the outcome of a truly contingent natural process can nonetheless fall within God’s providential plan for creation.

“There is grandeur in this view of life; with its several powers having been originally breathed 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 wonderful and most beautiful have been, and are being evolved.”

- C Darwin

Ken Miller

He told us we could use the previous slides

www.millerandlevine.com Thanks!

A FINAL QUOTE

In the immortal words, of “The Gru:” “Be opinionated, just not ignorant.”

DATING Geologic Record

Hypothetical library of all the known geological processes on Earth

Determined through inference and dating methods Relative Dating (hee hee)

Sediments are constantly being laid down. Over time, many layers form If a fossil is in a layer below a different fossil, it is older

than that fossil

DATING Radiometric Dating

Radioactive isotopes decay and form new isotopes - the rate this happens is called the isotope’s half life

Ex: Potassium-40 decays to argon-40 and has a half life of 1.3 billion years

Half a sample will decay to argon-40 in 1.3 billion years

So if there are equal amounts of potassium-40 and argon-40 in an area, the sample has been in place 1.3 billion years

Carbon 14 has a half life of only 70,000 years for more recent sample dating

REVIEW

1. How does the geologic record help us?

2. What use is relative dating?3. What is radiometric dating?4. Why are different isotopes used in

radiometric dating?

CHARLES DARWIN English naturalist (scientist)

1809-1882 1831, Darwin took a job as a

naturalist on the HMS Beagle Went on a 5-year scientific

journey around the world He collected many biological

and fossil speciments Combined with his previous and

subsequent observations Published On the Origin of

Species by Natural Selection in 1859 These ideas are a basic unifying

theme of biology today Without evolution, biology

doesn’t make as much sense

SELECTION Artificial selection

Breeding organisms with specific traits in order to produce offspring with identical traits

Natural selection A mechanism for change in

populations Occurs when organisms with

favorable traits survive, reproduce and pass their traits on to the next generation

Organisms with these traits are said to be more “fit”

Organisms without these traits are less likely to survive and reproduce Darwin awards

ADAPTATIONS Adaptation

Verb - Evolution of a structure, behavior, or internal process that enables an organism to respond to environmental factors and live to produce offspring

Noun - Can also be the structure itself

Structural adaptations take a long time

Physiological adaptations can happen faster Bacteria strains develop

resistances to antibiotics fairly quickly

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION Fossil Record

A hypothetical “library” of all the fossils collected around the world

Fossils show changes throughout time 99 percent of all

animals are now extinct

Fossil record shows ancestors with similar characteristics

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION Anatomy Homologous Structures are

structural features with a common evolutionary origin Ex: whale forelimb, crocodile

forelimb, bird wing, human forelimb all look the same (p. 401)

Can you think of other examples?

Analogous Structures are body parts or organisms that do not have a common evolutionary origin but are similar in function Bird, bat and butterfly wings Show how organisms adapt to

different ways of life and different conditions

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION Vestigial Structures

are body structures that no longer serve their original purpose, but was probably useful to an ancestor Ex: human appendix,

pelvic bone in baleen whale, “tail” in humans, some human’s ability to wiggle their ears

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION

Embryology – study of embryos of different species

Many species share features in the young embryos Ex: Mammals, reptiles,

birds and fish all have a tail and pharyngeal pouches (develop into different respiratory systems)

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION Biochemistry Nearly all organisms

share DNA, ATP, and many enzymes among their biochemical molecules

Organisms that share more similar enzymes, DNA sequences, etc. are more closely related

HUMAN VS. CHIMP CHROMOSOMES

OTHER HOMINIDS

OTHER FORMS OF EVIDENCE

All primates need to “ingest” vitamin C because we can’t make it like we do Vitamin D

But, we do have 7 the genes to produce vitamin C The 7th one is turned off in all

primates A mutated one was probably

passed on because it provided no disadvantage due to fruit diets

REVIEW 1. How did Darwin come up with his ides for

natural selection?2. Some snakes have vestigial legs. Why is this

considered evidence for evolution?3. Explain how adaptations such as camouflage

help species survive.4. How do homologous structures provide

evidence for evolution?5. Why did birds and bats both get wings?6. A parasite that lives in red blood cells causes

the disease called malaria. In recent years, new strains of the parasite have appeared that are resistant to the drugs used to treat the disease. Explain how this could be an example of natural selection occurring.

POPULATION GENETICS

Populations evolve, not individuals

Natural selection acts on a range of phenotypes in a population Genetic variation video

Evolution is often defined as a change in the frequency of an allele in a population over time

POPULATION GENETICS All of the population’s

genes are in a theoretical “gene pool”

The percentage a specific allele in the gene pool is called the allelic frequency

A population in which the frequency of alleles remains relatively the same over generations is in genetic equilibrium

Any change in this genetic equilibrium results in evolution

HARDY-WEINBERG PRINCIPLE

How to Stop Evolution – must meet all five requirements

1. Population is so large, chance alone cannot change relative frequency (genetic drift doesn’t occur)

2. Mutations do not occur3. All genotypes have equal fitness (no natural

selection)4. No organisms leave or enter a population5. Mating occurs at random

MUTATIONS Mutation provides the raw

material for evolution to act upon Poor mutations are selected

against, good mutations are selected for

Change the frequency of alleles Examples:

Sometimes mutations are a compromise: L4 & L5 in your backbone – poor

design, but needed to stand upright

“A Mutation Story”

GENETIC DRIFT Genetic drift is the

alteration of allelic frequencies by chance events

Genetic drift can greatly affect small populations Ex: The Amish

community carries an allele that results in short arms and legs and extra fingers and toes (1/14 vs. 1/1000)

NATURAL SELECTION Still the most significant

factor that causes changes in established gene pools

Stabilizing Selection Natural selection that favors

average individuals (on a normal curve) in a population

Reduces variation in a population

Ex: With spiders, larger ones are found easier and eaten and small spiders can’t find food as easily

NATURAL SELECTION Directional Selection

Natural selection favors one of the extreme variations of a trait

Can lead to rapid evolution Ex: The food supply in an

area is limited to hard nuts. Birds with short, strong beaks will survive

Disruptive Selection Natural selection favors

individuals with either extreme of a trait’s variation

Can lead to evolution of 2 new species

Ex: A shelled, marine organism called a limpet has white, tan, and dark shells. The white and dark shells blend in on different colored rocks. Tan gets eaten.

SPECIES

A species is a group of organisms that look alike and can interbreed to produce fertile offspring in nature

Speciation is the evolution of new species Occurs when members of

similar populations no longer interbreed to produce fertile offspring within their natural environment

CAUSES OF SPECIATION 95% coincide with

some sort of chromosomal rearrangement

Physical barriers Volcanic eruptions, sea-level

changes, new islands forming

These prevent interbreeding Called geographic isolation

Over time, may have to adapt to new types of environments

CAUSES OF SPECIATION

Reproductive Isolation

Two types One occurs because

of geographical reasons (migrate away)

One occurs because of behavioral reasons

Some mate in fall, some in spring

POLYPLOIDY Individual with a

multiple of a normal set of chromosomes

How does this happen? New zygotes may not

develop the same way as parents due to different number of chromosomes

May result in speciation

GRADUALISM James Hutton & Charles

Lyell Theory that processes

are moving at the same speed today as in the past

Suggests that the Earth is very old – 4.55 billion years

Also suggests that evolution occurs constantly, but slowly

PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM

Niles Eldredge and Steven J. Gould

Theory that speciation occurs relatively, in rapid bursts, with long periods of genetic equilibrium in between

Might occur due to drastic environmental changes resulting in quick adaptations

DIVERGENT EVOLUTION

The pattern of evolution in which species that once were similar to an ancestral species diverge, or become increasingly distinct

Galapagos Finches Similar changes for

finches that ended up on different small islands

ADAPTIVE RADIATION When an ancestral

species evolves into an array of species to fit a number of diverse habitats a type of divergent

evolution Hawaiian Island

honeycreepers Similar in body size and

shape, but different sharply in color and beak shape

Adapted to occupy different niches (what’s a niche)

CONVERGENT EVOLUTION A pattern of evolution

in which distantly related organisms evolve similar traits

Occurs when different organisms occupy similar environments Adapt similar traits

Example: Organ pipe cactus in

N. and S. American vs. Euphorbiaceae in African deserts both look very similar

REVIEW 1. Explain and illustrate why the evolution of

resistance to antibiotics in bacteria is an example of directional natural selection.

2. How can geographic isolation change a population’s gene pool?

3. Why is rapid evolutionary change more likely to occur in small populations?

4. How do gradualism and punctuated equilibrium differ? How are they similar?

5. Hummingbird moths are night-flying insects whose behavior and appearance are similar to those of hummingbirds. Explain how these two organisms demonstrate convergent evolution.

6. What is divergent evolution? How does it compare to adaptive radiation?