Evolution

L.O. To describe and discuss the different theories of evolution

Homework sheet due Tues 7th

Who is this?

Who is this?

Scientific Theories of Evolution

Lamarck vs Darwin

Scientific Theories of Evolution• Jean Baptise Lamarck

thought that giraffes grew longer necks because…

• However we know this cannot be true because..

• Charles Darwin thought that giraffes grew longer necks because…

• We know this is more likely because..

Words to use: acquired characteristics, genes, inherited, mutation, natural selection

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/why-does-the-giraffe-have-a-long-neck/6244.html

Natural Selection- Battle of the Beaks

Who will be the winner? Nature decides!

Natural Selection- Battle of the Beaks

Who will be the winner? Nature decides!

Instructions:• Each person has a different beak (spoon etc) to

pick up as many individual pieces of food

• Swap food, but keep the same beak and repeat until sampled all food types

• Tabulate your results… who has won the battle of the beaks?

An Alternative View…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cDfqrfjLkM

Tree of Life

You will often have to interpret ‘trees’ in your exam, showing the evolutionary relationship between organisms.

Here’s the theory behind the tree of life…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6IrUUDboZo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faRlFsYmkeY

Tree of Life

You will often have to interpret ‘trees’ in your exam, showing the evolutionary relationship between organisms.

Examiners Comments• E1.          In part (a)(i) a majority of candidates gave acceptable answers in the

range 40-42, but several gave answers in the 30s.•           It was surprising how many candidates failed to copy the name of the

period correctly in part (a)(ii). It was often difficult to decide whether the candidate was referring to Palaeocene or to Pliocene. Several candidates hedged their bets by giving a range of periods.

•           In part (a)(iii) whilst most candidates correctly deduced the relationship, there were many who gave answers which did not come from the drawing, pandas being a popular choice.

•           In part (b) nearly all candidates gave answers that attempted to address the question. The most common correct responses where that Darwin was unable to prove his ideas and that people had contradictory religious beliefs. Very few candidates gave answers relating to the mechanism of heredity not being known. The most common errors were suggestions that humans and primates were different. For example, primates looked too different or behaved differently. Some candidates simply suggested that people did not believe Darwin. Better candidates would support this with suggestions that it was a new idea, or that only Darwin thought he was right, or that people did not want to believe that they were related to primates. A significant proportion of candidates incorrectly suggested Darwin had no evidence; however insufficient evidence gained a mark.

Examiners CommentsE2. (a)     This was correctly answered by most candidates.(b)     This question revealed that a large percentage of

candidates had misread the timescale on the diagram. They believed that the top of the diagram represented the furthest back in time, coming towards the present day as you moved down the page. This led to many of them stating that Ornitholestes had evolved from Tyrannosaurus rather than from Eoraptor.

(c)     Some candidates guessed at differences that might have existed, rather than stating the differences that could be seen in the diagram.

(d)     In part (i) most candidates usually answered correctly, though part (ii) again revealed those candidates who had the time scale going in the wrong direction, as they stated that the mass of the dinosaurs decreased during evolution.

(e)     Most candidates were able to make some reference to the bones or hard parts of the animal.

(f)      This was generally well answered.

(28 May 2004, Italy) Fabio, 28, left the family ostrich business for a new job as a truck driver. But his interests were more eclectic than the average ostrich-farming truck driver. Relaxing one evening with friends at a pub in Cursi, Fabio shifted the conversation to his new interest in spy gadgets. He pulled an ordinary-looking pen out of his pocket and explained that it was actually a single-shot pistol. To demonstrate, he pointed it at his head and clicked the button. The cleverly disguised gadget worked perfectly, sending a .22-caliber bullet into Fabio's left occipital lobe.

(2000, England) This tale proves that crime does pay, if you're fishing for elective surgery to go along with your stolen goods. A 24-year-old supermarket shoplifter stuffed a pair of live lobsters in his pants and sprinted for the door, but he never had a chance. The violated crustaceans brought the thief to his knees in front of startled cashiers when they fastened their powerful claws around his delicate parts. Doctors were able to remove the animals with pliers. They say the thief will fully recover -- except for one small detail. "It was a do-it-yourself vasectomy." This man's daring supermarket exploits make him one of the few Darwin Award winners to live to tell the tale. The supermarket manager declined to press charges, saying the culprit has already "gone through enough pain (to) learn his lesson."

(March 2000) The Grand Canyon in Arizona is cordoned off by a fence around the more treacherous overlooks, to prevent unsteady sightseers from tottering into the depths. Some of these overlooks have small towering plateaus a short distance from the fence. Tourists toss coins onto the plateaus, like dry wishing wells. Quite a few coins pile up on the surfaces, while others fall to the valley floor far below. One entrepreneur climbed over the fence with a bag, and leapt to one of the precarious, coin-covered perches. He filled the bag with booty, then tried to leap back to the fence with the coins. But the heavy bag stunted his jump, and several tourist were treated to a view of his plunge to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. He did not survive to harvest the piles of coins that had suffered his same fate.

Wolfsberg, Austria The manager of an apartment house was surprised to find the legs of a corpse sticking out an apartment window. Police entered the apartment and found the deceased man's head soaking in a sink full of hot water. Apparently the out-of-work Austrian had returned home after a night of drinking and drugs. He decided to slip in through the kitchen window. The window was fixed at the base and tilted out, giving him just enough room to squeeze his head through as far as the sink before he got stuck. While flailing around trying to escape, he turned on the hot water tap. Police were not sure why he had not turned off the water, pulled the plug, or--perhaps most important--entered through the front door, since they found the keys in his pants pocket.

(2003, Australia) Parents often warn that firecrackers can blow your hand off, but as a 26-year-old Australian learned, they can also remove your gonads from the gene pool. An ambulance rushed to an Illawarra park after receiving reports that a man was hemorrhaging from his behind. The mercifully unidentified man had placed a lit firecracker between the cheeks of his buttocks, stumbled, and fell upon it. "We do caution people against these acts," said Acting Senior Sergeant John Klepczarek of the local police. Emergency surgeon Dr. McCurdie said the resulting wound looked like "a war injury." The explosion was forced upward, "blasted a great hole in the pelvis, ruptured the urethra, and injured muscles," rendering the man incontinent as well as sexually dysfunctional. He survived to tell the tale, making him eligible for the dubious honor of a Living Darwin Award.