Download Evolutionary Evidences

EVOLUTIONARY
EVIDENCES
JRMG
Bio1 2009
 Fossil
Record and Geology

Morphology

Embryology

Biochemistry

Biogeography/ Geographical Distribution

Fossils in layers of rocks


gradual change over time
Succession is compatible
with other evidences of
the major branches of
descent in the tree of life

Mummy Juanita is a frozen Inca mummy of a
teenage girl who died more than 500 years ago and
was discovered in Peru in 1995 by anthropologist
Johan Reinhard and his Peruvian climbing partner
Miguel Zarate. Also known as Momia Juanita
(original Spanish), the Ice Maiden, the Lady of
Ampato and the Frozen Lady, this mummy is
unfortunately going through quite a difficult modern
life and not doing so well. In 2006 daily newspaper
El Comercio published that an expert from the U.S.
Smithsonian Institution who was vacationing in the
southern Andean city of Arequipa detected
dampness inside the mummy's glass-enclosed
refrigeration compartment. Shown above: Mummy
Juanita when found on Mount Ampato in Peru in
1995.


Otzi the Iceman is a well-preserved natural
mummy of a man from about 3300 BC, found
as shown in the above astonishing
photographs by two German tourists, Helmut
and Erika Simonby in 1991 in a glacier of the
Otztal Alps in Italy, near its border with
Austria. Otzi rivals the Egyptian "Ginger" as
the oldest known human mummy, and has
offered an unprecedented view on the habits
of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans.
peat bog is a type of wetland whose soft, spongy ground is composed largely of
living and decaying Sphagnum moss. Decayed, compacted moss is known as
peat, which can be harvested to use for fuel or as a soil additive
PROCESS OF FOSSIL FORMATION
Sedimentary Rocks
Rain, Heat, Cold
Sand, Silt, Clay
Dead
animals/plants
Settles down at the
bottom
Of these bodies of
water
Streams
Rivers
Seas
Are embedded into
these
Sediment layers
PROBLEMS IN ASSEMBLING THE PUZZLE
Many organism die and vanish without leaving
a trace
 SR: only in certain bodies of water

 Organisms
that live on mountains and deserts*
 When exposed to weathering reveals fossils
 Fossil reconstruction

Radioactive dating
 Potassium
40- old fossils
 Carbon 14- new fossils
WHAT FOSSIL RECORDS TELL US


Similarities in Body Structure
Homologous structures
meet differential needs but developed from the same body parts
 different mature forms but developed from the same embryonic
tissue


Vestigial Organs
Reduced in size or traces of homologous organs in other species
 No or little function
 Doesn’t affect an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce

TRANSFORMATION TO VESTIGIAL ORGANS

new adaptations that
make some organs
unnecessary

Serves as a clue to an
animal’s evolutionary
ancestry
EMBRYOLOGY
Study of organisms at
an early stages of
development
BIOCHEMISTRY

Species differ through their distribution

Islands have many species of plants and animals that are
endemic but closely related to the nearest mainland.
•
Islands with similar environmental conditions but in different
parts of the world are not populated by closely related
species.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF LIVING SPECIES

Examples:
 Darwin’s
Finches
 Armadillos in South America
 Australia’s pouched mammals