Macro-evolution
How It Works
How We Know It Has occurred
possible mechanisms
People involved
Any Extra Fun Info
- changing from one species to another
- AKA Speciation
- making of new species
- population of organisms that are able to breed and produce offspring
How We Know It Has occurred
- Populations Are Made Of Many Variations Of Genes
- Those Who Contribute The Most Will Have Their Genes Represent The Most In Next Generation
- Genes That Are Most Represented Depends On Who Was Fittest In Previous Generation
- If No Evolution Is Occurring In A Population, Then Variations Should Remain Same From Generation To Generation
- However If We See Changes From Generation To Generation, We Will Then Know That The Population Must Be Evolving
- occurs in two or more populations
possible mechanisms
- 2 types of speciation: divergent and convergent
- divergent - occurs when small fragments of populations inhabit new areas and become isolated
- adapt to their new habitats
- common ancestor
- dNA is similar
- convergent - occurs when two unrelated species with similar characteristics begin to inhabit the same environment
- able to adapt
- no common ancestor
- DNA is not related
People involved
- Eldridge and Gould
- 1972
- proposed "less fit but survivable" members of population would be pushed to either more or less extremes of the species habitat
Any Extra Fun Info
- Origin of the term - Russian entomologist yuri filipchenko first used the terms "macro evolution" and "micro evolution" in 1927 in his German language work, "Variabilität und Variation"