Download Grade 11 University Biology – Unit 3 Evolution

Grade 11 University Biology – Unit 3 Evolution
What Darwin never knew
Nova 2001 Movie - Classic Video 109753
Earth teems with a staggering variety of animals: about 9,000 kinds of birds, 28,000 types of fish and
more than 350,000 species of beetles. What explains this explosion of living creatures -- 1.4 million
different species discovered so far -- with perhaps millions still undiscovered to go?
The source of life's endless forms was a profound mystery until Charles Darwin consolidated and
expanded upon ideas of natural selection. Yet, Darwin's theories raised as many questions as they
answered.
 What actually drives evolution and turns one species into another?
 To what degree do different animals rely on the same genetic toolkit? And how did we evolve?
It also begs the question: Are humans still evolving?
About 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens replaced (…out completed, drove to extinction) Neanderthals in
Europe. From a cultural evolutionary viewpoint , there was a great leap forward in our species. We began
making cave paintings, jewelry, sculpture, markedly better tools and weapons. According to Stephen Jay
Gould, our evolution was purely cultural. Gould said,"There has been no biological change in humans in
40,000 or 50,000 years. Everything we call culture and civilization we've built with the same body and
brain." Yet, hominids have been evolving for millions of years. Why would that suddenly stopped? Are
not Homo sapiens subject to the same forces of Darwinian natural selection as all other species? Could
you and I be exactly the same as our ancestors who first spread out from the African continent with their
simple stone tools and hunter-gatherer lifestyles?
What Darwin never knew explores a world hidden to Darwin: genes.
Do the ideas presented confirm Darwin's insights while revealing clues to life's breathtaking diversity?
Use this information to help you address the “in-class essay” regarding faith, Creationism and
evolution.
FYI -Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist and
evolutionary biologist…and one of the most influential writers of science of his generation. His 1972
theory of Punctuated Equilibrium proposed that most evolution is marked by long periods of evolutionary
stability punctuated by rare instances of branching evolution. HIs theory contrasted the more popular idea
that evolutionary change is marked by a pattern of smooth and continuous change in the fossil record.
Gould campaigned against creationism, and he suggested that science and religion should be considered
two distinct fields that did not overlap.