Introduction to evolution

Year 10 Science
Introduction to Evolution

 We are going to have a little pre-test (not
assessed!) to find out what you already know
 There are 25 questions
 Answer each of the following questions True or
False.
 Your answers should reflect what you
understand that biologists think, not your
personal opinion

 1. Evolution is as much a fact as the fact that
planets go around the Sun.
 2. Evolution is something a person should
either believe in, or not believe in.
 3. Evolution is a process that includes the
origin of life.
 4. Evolution is primarily concerned with the
origin of humans.
 5. According to evolution, people came from
monkeys a long time ago.

 6. Evolution was first proposed and explained
by Charles Darwin.
 7. Evolution is also known as "Natural
Selection".
 8. Evolution is something that happened only
in the past; it is not happening now.
 9. Evolution is something that happens to
individual organisms.
 10. Evolution is a totally random process, a
series of accidents.

 11. Evolution was developed as an idea to
destroy or undermine religion.
 12. In order to accept evolution as a real
process, you cannot believe in God.
 13. Most major religions have officially
declared that they have NO conflict with
evolution.
 14. Evolution simply means "change."
 15. Evolution is only a theory.

 16. Evolution is like a chain, with each group of
organisms evolving into the next "link" in the
chain.
 17. There are many transitional fossils, with traits
intermediate between different groups, as
expected if evolution happened.
 18. Fossils reveal many problems that evolution
cannot explain.
 19. Biological, medical and agricultural research
increasingly assumes that evolution occurs.
 20. Evolution has been tested and challenged many
times, but has always been supported by the
results.

 21. Big dinosaurs were common during the time of
early humans.
 22. Evolution involves individuals changing in
order to adapt to their environment.
 23. According to evolution, new species usually
result from major mutations in a single generation.
 24. Most of the major groups of animals suddenly
appeared in the "Cambrian Explosion."
 25. The formation of complex structures, like the
eye, can now be easily explained by evolution.

 Biological Evolution..
 1. is NOT a theory...(it is a FACT; it has been
observed directly, and its extension to all life is
supported by more evidence than there is for the
spherical shape of the planets, and there is no
evidence against it.)
 2. is NOT something one should believe in...(it's
based on science, not faith).
 3. Is NOT concerned with the origin of life... (it
deals only with the origin of species).
 4. Is NOT just concerned with the origin of
humans...(no more than any other species).

 5. was NOT discovered or first explained by
Charles Darwin... (there were others)
 6. is NOT the same thing as natural
selection...(which is the how of evolution, the real
"Theory of Evolution ...by Natural Selection", also
deeply confirmed).
 7. is NOT something that happened only in the
past... (it's still going on).
 8. is NOT something that happens to
individuals...(it happens to populations).

 9. is NOT an accidental or random process...(there are
built-in limited options and selective aspects; even
mutations are influenced by environmental factors). Its
complex patterns are just as natural as the randomly
generated and diverse patterns of snowflakes and
crystals.
 10. does NOT have any evidence against it... (all
observations support it).
 11. was NOT contrived to undermine
religion...(rather, our awareness of it grew as we tried to
make sense of many observations of life ithat were not
consistent with traditional explanations.

 12. does NOT deny the existence of God...(It is
neutral; God is neither required nor eliminated; for
all we know, evolution could be part of God's
creation, or it might not, but science cannot
determine that).
 13. does NOT conflict with any religion...(It
can't, since it is only another way of trying to make
sense of the natural world, based on scientific
observation and critical analysis. Most religions
have no problem with evolution, and those that do
typically base their objections on an inaccurate
view of science and evolution).

 Biological Evolution is essentially the process
whereby new species arise from earlier
species by accumulated changes. This is often
referred to as "descent with modification." At
the species level, this speciation process is
sometimes called microevolution.

 By extension, as this process of speciation
proceeds with time, increasing numbers of
species appear, becoming increasingly different.
 The pattern of this, over time, looks like a
branching tree; all the species we see today are
like the growing tips of that tree, except that each
tip has become somewhat different from the
others (unlike a real tree).
 Close clusters of tips are most similar, and have
most recently branched (evolved); more distant
tips are more different, and can be traced to much
lower (earlier) branchings in the tree.

 The recognition of this pattern of change of life-forms
over time was developed from many observations.
 It has even been directly observed in some species, and
inferred in many others from clear independent evidence
mainly in
 comparative anatomy
 Embryology
 Paleontology
 Geology
 Biogeography
 molecular biology.
 Although there are some curious examples of
evolution, there are no empirical observations of
life, living or extinct, that evolution cannot explain, and
there is no evidence against evolution.

 The mechanism for how evolution happens has been
largely explained by natural selection.
 In 1859, Charles Darwin published his best known
book (out of some 25 books he wrote): On the Origin
of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
 In it, he presented the results of some 20 years of
work pulling together massive amounts of evidence
showing how natural selection must be the primary
working mechanism for evolution.
 Natural selection is observed constantly, and its role
as the main driving force of evolution has been
observed, tested and challenged many times and in
many ways, and has survived fully intact.

 In short, evolution as a real phenomenon is
scientifically solid; it is a scientifically
demonstrated fact; and the scientific theory for
how evolution happens is so well documented by
the evidence that this explanation is as close to a
scientific fact as any explanation can be.
 Remember: scientific facts refer to observed or
demonstrated natural phenomena, e.g., evolution;
scientific theories are the best explanations we
have for how those phenomena occur, e.g., the
theory of natural selection.

Introduction to evolution

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Introduction to evolution