evolutionary ecology. species numbers - 2012 what’s missing?
Post on 21-Dec-2015
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Evolution
• Evolution simply means change and biological evolution can be defined as changes in any attribute of a population over time
• Evolutionary changes that lead to adaptation must involve a change in the frequency of individual genes in a population from generation to generation
Adaptation – process which leads to survival and reproduction of characteristics beneficial to an organism in a particular environment
Parus caeruleus
Evolution by Natural Selection
1. Individuals in a population of a species are not identical.2. At least some of this variation is heritable.3. All populations have very high reproductive potential, but
they seldom achieve it. Mortality and less than maximum reproductive rate keeps them from taking over the earth - e.g. oysters
4. Different individuals leave different numbers of descendents. - this is where idea of fitness comes in
5. The number of descendents an individual has, depends on the interaction between the characteristics of the individual and its environment.
Two major points about natural selection
1. Variation among individuals arises due to chance mutations.
2. Individuals survive in today's environment because it is similar to their ancestors environment - adaptation is not planned or purposeful
Distribution of Peppered Moths in BritainLeft map shows distribution in 1956, right map shows distribution in 1996; Dark part of circle shows proportion of dark form, light part of circle shows proportion of light form
Coat Color Mutation in Florida Beach Mouse – Peromyscus polionotus
Normal, dark mainland mouse on right; lightermutated island beach mouse on left; mutation due
to a change in a single nucleotide