Organisms and Evolution

What you'll learn

• Define evolution as change in the heritable characteristics of populations, trace the history of evolutionary thought from Linnaeus and Lamarck to Darwin, Wallace and the modern synthesis, and evaluate the independent lines of evidence for common descent.
• Explain the logic of natural selection, calculate relative fitness and selection coefficients, model the spread of an advantageous allele, distinguish directional, stabilizing and disruptive selection, and describe documented examples and the limits of adaptation.
• Calculate allele and genotype frequencies under Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, test for departures with a chi-square test, and explain how mutation, gene flow, genetic drift and non-random mating change populations, including bottlenecks and founder effects.
• Compare species concepts, classify prezygotic and postzygotic reproductive barriers, explain allopatric and sympatric speciation including polyploidy, calculate F_ST, and interpret hybrid zones, rates of speciation and adaptive radiations.
• Use superposition and radiometric half-lives to date rocks and fossils, outline the major events in the history of life from its origin to the present, and explain the causes and evolutionary consequences of the five mass extinctions.
• Read phylogenetic trees correctly, distinguish monophyletic, paraphyletic and polyphyletic groups and homologous from analogous traits, build trees by UPGMA and parsimony, and estimate divergence times with a molecular clock.
• Compare the three domains of life, explain why prokaryotes evolve rapidly, including horizontal gene transfer, describe the diversity and ecological roles of bacteria and archaea, and explain viral structure, life cycles and evolution.
• Explain the endosymbiotic origin of eukaryotes and chloroplasts, describe the major eukaryotic lineages and why protists are not a natural group, and describe the ecological, medical and economic importance of protists and fungi.
• Trace plant evolution from charophyte algae through bryophytes, seedless vascular plants, gymnosperms and angiosperms, explain alternation of generations, seeds, flowers and coevolution, and calculate growing degree days.
• Describe the features of animals and of animal body plans, classify major invertebrate phyla, explain the success and size limits of arthropods, and identify invertebrates with a dichotomous key.
• Describe the chordate features and the key innovations in vertebrate evolution, apply Kleiber’s law to animal metabolism, and summarize the fossil and genetic evidence for human evolution, including interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
• Apply exponential, logistic and predator–prey models, describe species interactions and energy flow, calculate diversity indices, mark–recapture estimates and species–area predictions, and explain how species at risk are protected by law and how Indigenous knowledge contributes to conservation.