The Butterfly Effect: The Phylogenetic Tree

We use fossils to compare and contrast how and organism has evolved over a long period of time and how it has adapted to new changes.

Over the last several years, evolution has been playing an increasingly important role in determining how various species are evolving. This is because ecology will have an impact on how quickly a particular organism is able to adapt (with: the unique challenges for a particular environment). To determine the effect that this is having requires carefully examining different species over the course of many years. This will be accomplished by comparing these changes on Darwin and Wallace Islands. Once this occurs, is when specific insights will be provided that are highlighting the underlying challenges affecting the development of organisms. This is the point that these transformations will be evident among the various life forms. (Fasolo, 2011, pp. 53 68)

Evolution and the process of natural selection happen over a long period of time. In order to explore the evolution of species adapting to the their environment, in this case, the species being beetles, the purpose of this lab was to investigate evolution of beetles as they adapt to their different colored environments and to see how favorable traits are passed off to offspring in relation to the survival rate of the beetle’s species.

The results indicated the light coloured lichen covered tree environment favours the light coloured body allele in moths, with 64% light coloured moths making up the moth population and 36% dark coloured moths making up the moth population in the fifth year. The results for the dark coloured soot covered tree environment showed that the environment favours dark coloured body allele in moths; 60% dark coloured moths and 40% light coloured moths made up the moth population. The results are supported by Darwin’s theory of natural selection; the genes that are best suited to the environment are favoured, the advantageous heritable genes will continue to be passed on for generations, and there will be a gradual increase in the population of the more favourable gene. In this

The four main categories of evidence for evolution in accordance to the BAT tutorials are: fossil records, chemical and anatomical similarities, geographic distribution of related species, and genetic changes over generations. Fossil records allow researchers to examine evolution through past species. One example is the Archaeopteryx, a million year old fossil found in southern Germany that had characteristics of both dinosaurs and birds. This fossil finding resulted as the discovery that birds had evolved from reptilian ancestors. Also, the similarities between body structures in vertebrates make for a distinct link leading to the conclusion that they must share a common ancestor or a similarity in how they came to be. Additionally, the geographic location of certain species determines their evolution patterns. In certain areas of the world, there are animals that are native to that land and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Lastly, a species genetic alter over time in order to survive. In the case of a drastic environmental change that results in death, those that survive do so because they possess traits that allow them to survive. These are the only ones that will be likely to reproduce. Selective breeding in dogs is an example genetic changes over evolution. In these cases, dog breeders mate different breeds of dogs together in order to achieve the desired traits they want in a new breed of dog.

The advantages of the phylogenetic species concept is it doesn’t focus on present characteristics of the organism and applies to all kinds of organisms, including extinct, sexual and asexual organisms (Wheeler, 1999). The disadvantages is that it is hard to construct a tree with a full certainty of the evolutionary past (Aldhebani, 2017). The phylogenetic species concept is the basis for a new method of species identification called DNA barcoding.

One of the evidences of evolution is fossil records, with fossil records being the remains of plants and animals that scientist have found in sedimentary rocks. Fossil records have given us irrefutable evidence of evolution in the past, over a course of a long period of time, proving there is significant variation amongst living things. Evolution is a continuum; all the minor changes over a period of time add up to a major change. On the continuum, fossils are the points that displaying what the organism had become after evolving at that stage in time.

The objections to evolution by many non-scientists are mostly made without any previous research or investigations. It is argued that Darwin’s theory of evolution by common descent with modification does not support all living things. However, this theory is supported by many observations. Through geographic distribution, fossil records, morphology, embryology, and genomic analysis, evolution can be traced back to a common ancestry of living things. The development of phylogenies, relationships among species, and homologies, structural similarities between species, provide even more evidence to support common ancestry.

One form of evidence is known as the fossil record; this is the documentation of one species that has transitioned into another form. A prime example of the fossil record is the evolution of birds. These flying creatures are often considered direct descendants of dinosaurs; Thomas Henry Huxley constructed this notion in the 1860s. Evidence of this theory came about in 1861 when the first, complete skeleton was discovered; the skeleton was of the Archaeopteryx lithographica. There was no mistaking that Archaeopteryx lithographica was a dinosaur because of features it adorned, including a bony tail, teeth, and claws on the wings. The troubling detail of this ancient creature was a new feature that had been discovered: feathers. This ignited the on-going search for dinosaurian skeletons, providing clear evidence in support of Darwin’s theory. In addition, direct observation has provided an enormous amount of evidence to prove a major component of Darwin’s theory of evolution: natural selection. The first piece of evidence is the infamous peppered moths. The peppered moths are also known as Biston betularia; they are commonly found in Britain. The moths often fly during the night but they rest on trees during the day; this is a clever way to camouflage themselves from predators. There are two very common types of these moths: the typicall and carbonaria. The typicall can be described as a pale, speckled moth that is hidden

As it was mentioned previously, the phylogenetic clade-based perspective only recognizes monophyletic taxa, which are those taxa derived from a common ancestor not shared with any other group. There is another argument being made that paraphyletic groups should not be included as units of study within a zoology course. Paraphyletic and monophyletic units of study both have their benefits and drawbacks however I believe that

The primary objective of this lab is to illustrate evolutionary processes using live organisms. In this experiment we used Drosophila melanogaster commonly known as fruit flies to understand which evolutionary forces have a greater

Phylogenetic trees are what are used to visually express the evolutionary relatedness. They show the ancestral descendant relationships among populations or species (Dynamic Books, 2011). These trees are constructed based off data from morphology, genetic characteristics, or even both (Losos,

In this paper Carroll explores current applications of evolutionary biology on the real world, and continuese4 to look in to future prospective applications of evolutionary biology in the real world. Evolutionary biology is being used to look at the effects of modern environments on adaptations in organisms. There are many changes to modern environments that are just recently being studied. Carrol examines management approaches in ecosystems that are designed to improve adaptations or make certain once wanted adaptations obsolete. One of the common applications of evolutionary biology ideas is the preservation of habitats. Theses habitats are preserved to maintain their historical biology. While this is a great practice for preserving

Homologous structures are anatomically and functionally similar structures in different species, which act as evidence that they have descended from a common ancestor. An example of homologous structures in the brain between different taxa are the palaeostriatum primitivum of the avian brain and the globus pallidum of the mammalian brain13. These structures show that is an evolutionary relationship between birds and mammals. In addition to looking at homologous structures, it is possible to look at the adaptive radiation of species which have been evolved independently and find examples of convergent evolution. Convergent evolution refers to when a trait evolves in different species independently of each other. Evidence of convergent evolution in turn proves the natural selection mechanism of evolution since it demonstrates that certain traits provide fitness, allowing the trait to survive in succeeding populations. There is evidence to show that certain aspects of brain anatomy in insects have evolved independently of each other in species such as butterflies and bees. The name of the specific piece of anatomy that exists in both organisms are is the corpula pedunculata or “mushroom bodies” (MB) which are responsible for navigation and spatial learning14. Both organisms had the necessity for an organ responsible

Edward Osborne Wilson, or E.O Wilson for short, is an American Biologist. He is well known for various important works in the Biology field. He also endures many nicknames such as “Father of Social Biology” (the social behavior in animals), “Father of Biodiversity” (variety of life in a habitat), but E.O Wilson is mainly known for his work in myrmecology, the study of ants. Before Wilson’s studies, the world knew substantially less about sociobiology, Biodiversity, how ants communicated, and many other theorems that Wilson experimented with.