Transcript Evolution: Final Thoughts

Evolution
Final Thoughts
Thought Experiment
• Think about blue-skinned and 6 fingered humans! Is
evolution usually observable in one human lifetime?????
Dillon, 2006
Final Point #1:
Do individual organisms evolve??
• Evolution refers to a change in a population
over time.
• (The characteristics of a population can change over time. A
population evolves, a population “adapts”, a population
changes.)
• An individual either “survives” or “dies”.
• An individual organism cannot “adapt”; it cannot
change the genes (therefore the traits) it inherits.
• A population “evolves”, when certain individual
organisms have perished while others have
survived & reproduced.
Final Point #2: Why sex?
• Q: Sex requires more energy, special organs, etc,
So why bother?
• A: Genetic Diversity allows for greater survival
chance of population.
• Does genetic diversity benefit individual
organism or population?
Dillon, 2006
#4: Mutations: Good or Bad?
• Mutations are ultimate source of genetic
diversity. Sex merely creates new combinations
of the alleles (gene forms) which already exist.
• Mutations (changes in DNA) generate new
alleles. (gene forms)
• Are mutations beneficial or detrimental to the
species? To the individual organism?
“Origin Debates”
• True – False:
The Theory of Evolution is science’s attempt to explain
how life originated on Earth.
Dillon, 2006
Final Final Point!
• What did Francis of Assisi believe?