2. Charles Darwin In 1831, Darwin traveled to South America on the ship the HMS Beagle as a naturalist. His job was to collect specimens to be studied. Darwin collected a large number of species from the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador.

3. After returning to England and studying the species that he collected, Darwin noticed that many of the species were similar to those found in other countries, but were different enough to be unique species. He hypothesized that the species from the mainland must have changed after reaching the island.

4. Questions  What observations lead Darwin to develop the theory of evolution by natural selection?

5. Darwin was hesitant to publish his theory because he knew how controversial it was. Alfred Russel Wallace came up with a similar theory at the same time, which encouraged Darwin to publish his work. Darwin was not the first person to consider the theory of evolution, he was the first person to offer a plausible method for it to occur.

6. The Theory of Natural Selection Adaptation – a beneficial trait that allows an individual to survive better than others Adaptations may help individuals to compete for food or other resources or to avoid predators. Those individuals are then also able to have more offspring. If these traits are hereditary, then the offspring would also have these traits. In the next generation, there will be more individuals with the beneficial trait.

7. Natural selection – Individuals with better adaptations have a better chance of survival and are able to produce more offspring, therefore, future generations will have more individuals with that trait.

8. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea video clips (From PBS Evolution series) First 2 sections: On your notes, answer the following questions: 1. What evidence does Darwin give for an old earth? 2. What explanation does he give for the differences in the birds? 3. What explanation does he provide for how life has developed?

9. 4 Principles of Natural Selection 1.Variation: individuals in a population differ from one another. 2.Heritability: individuals pass down their traits to their offspring. If these traits are beneficial and allow an individual to leave more offspring, more offspring in the next generation will have the beneficial trait. 3.Overproduction: more offspring are produced than can survive. 4.Struggle for survival: limited resources, predators and harsh conditions all make survival difficult.

10. Evolution Evolution is the build up of genetic changes in a population of a species over many generations. Scientists believe that natural selection leads to small changes that build up and add up to large changes in species – this is evolution. In other words: natural selection leads to evolution. Do not confuse these two terms, natural selection and evolution ARE NOT the same thing.

11. Microevolution – small changes in a species (attributed to natural selection) Macroevolution – development of a whole new species, typically called evolution People rarely argue that microevolution occurs, we see evidence of this. Macroevolution is where the controversy lies.

12. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea video clips (From PBS Evolution series) On your notes, answer the following questions: 3 rd section: 4. What are the researchers looking at and observing in Ecuador? 4 th section: 5. What idea have they provided evidence for? 6. What have they not provided evidence for?

13. Phylogenetic Trees

14. Phylogeny – evolutionary history, generally drawn in the form of a family tree phylo – race, tribe, kind gen -

15. Organisms that are more closely related are drawn more closely on the phylogenetic tree.

16. Which 2 taxa (groups) are most closely related? A didn’t evolve from B. A and B share a common ancestor. They both evolved from that common ancestor.

17. In the same way, man is not believed to evolve from apes, man and apes are believed to share a common ancestor.