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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of

gratitude to my principal RAJESH KUMAR and
my Biology Teacher Mrs. SHEETAL SINGH who
gave me the golden opportunity to do this
wonderful project on the topic EVOLUTION,
which also helped me in doing a lot of research
and I came to know about so many new things I
am really thankful to her. I would also like to
thanks my parents for the continues support
and showing interest towards my project and at
last but not the least I would like to thank my
friends who all appreciated me
for my hard work .
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction

Origin of life

Evidences of evolution

Evidences from embryology

Theories of organic evolution

Biological evolution

Saltation

Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium

Geological time scale

Human evolution
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INTRODUCTION

• The branch of life science for the study of ‘origin of life’ and evolution of
different forms of life on earth was called bio evolution or evolutionary biology
by Mayer (1970).
• The word evolution means to unfold or unroll or to reveal hidden potentialities.
Evolution simply means an orderly change from one condition to another.
• Evolution is a slow but continuous process which never stops.
• The study of the evolution of life forms on Earth is known as evolutionary
biology.
• To comprehend the evolution of flora and fauna on Earth over millions of years,
we must first comprehend the origin of life, which begins with the evolution of
the earth, stars, and the cosmos as a whole.
• The origin of life is thought to be a one-of-a-kind occurrence in the universe's
history.
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ORIGIN OF LIFE

Origin of life is the process by which living organisms developed from inanimate matter
(which is generally thought to have occurred on earth between 3800 – 4200 million
years ago). First life evolved about 38004200 million years back. There are several
theories about the origin of life, like big bang theory, theory of special creation, theory of
eternity, cosmologic theory etc.

Big bang theory

[Link] to this theory, the universe originated about 20 billion

[Link] ago due to a thermonuclear explosion of a dense entity.
[Link] thermonuclear explosion is called Big-bang.
[Link] 4.5 billion years ago, the origin of the solar system took place by the gaseous
clouds formed due to this explosion.
These gaseous clouds collapsed and converted into flat disc-like structure made up of
atoms and small particles due to their own gravitational pull.

[Link] flat-disc like structure is called solar nebula.

[Link] very hot central part of this solar nebula become still hotter and converted into the
sun.
[Link], due to condensation of atoms and dust particle moving around the sun, the
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formation of the other planets took place like, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune.
[Link] solid part of our planet earth was called lithosphere and the gaseous part was known
as atmosphere.
[Link] the earth’s surface cooled down and its temperature decreasedto 100degree C,
water formed on it.

√Theory of special creation

The greatest supporter of this theory was father Suarez. According to the bible, life and
everything was created by God in 6 days. According to Hindu mythology, the world was
created by God Brahma. According to it, life has not changed ever since its origin.
Special creation theory lacks scientific evidence so it is not accepted.

√Cosmic panspermia theory

This is theory was proposed by Richter and supported by enArrhiys. According to
this theory, organisms existed throughout the universe and their spores could freely
travel through space from one star to the other. Protoplasm reached earth in the form of
spores or other simple particles from some unknown part of the universe with comic
dust and they gave rise to various forms of life.
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√Theory of Biogenesis

According to this theory, new organisms can originate on earth only from
preexisting life. This theory rejected the theory of spontaneous generation but
cannot explain origin of life. To prove biogenesis and to disprove abiogenesis,
experiments were performed by the following scientists-

oFrancesco era’s Experiment (Italian 1668_ o Lazaro Spallanzani (Italian

1767)
oLouis Pasteur (French 1862)

√Oparin & Haldane Experiment

The modern hypothesis of origin of life was formulated by

Haeckel. This theory was proposed by Russian scientist [Link] and [Link]
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(England born Indian scientist). According to this theory, life originated by the
composition of chemicals. Oparin’s theory (also known as primary abiogenesis) is
st
based on artificial synthesis. So, also called as artificial synthetic theory. 1 life
originated in the water of oceans. So, water is essential for the origin of life. There is no
life on the moon due to absence of water. Oparin of Russia and Haldane of England
proposed that the first form of life could have come from pre-existing non-living organic
molecules (e.g. RNA, protein, etc.)and that formation of life was proceed by chemical
evolution, i.e., formation of diverse organic molecules from inorganic constituents .The
condition on earth were – high temperature, volcanic storms, reducing atmosphere
containing CH4 , NH3 ,

√Urey & Miller Experiment

An experiment to prove that organic compounds were the basic of life was
performed by Miller. Miller took a flask and filled it with methane, ammonia
and hydrogen in the proportion of 2:1:2 respectively at 0degree C. This
proportion of gases probably existed in the environment at time of origin of
life .This flask was connected with a smaller flask, that was filled with water,
with the help of glass tubes. In the bigger flask, two electrons of tungsten
were fitted. Then a current of 60,000 volts was passed, through gases
containing bigger flask for seven days. At the end of seven days, when the
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vapors condensed, a red substances was found in the U-tube. When this red
substance was analyzed, it was found that it contains amino acids, glycine
and nitrogenous bases which are found in the nucleus of a cell.
The apparatus used by Miller is called spark discharge apparatus. The energy used in
the Miller Urey experiment was electric spark.

EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION

There are many types of evidence which support the process of organic
evolution o Paleontological o Comparative anatomy and morphology o

Physiological & biochemistry o Bio geographical distribution o

Embryological

√Paleontological Evidence

• The study of fossils is known as paleontology.

• Birbal Sahni is famous for Indian paleontology.
• Two branches of paleontology are

o Paleobaotany : Study of plant fossils o

Paleozoology : Study of animal fossils

• Impression of past organism found in rocks is called fossils.

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√Homologous organs
•Examples of homologous organs are o Forelimbs of mammals
o Legs of invertebrates

•In their forelimbs, similar bones are present like- humerus, radius, ulna,
carpals, metacarpals and phalaanges.
•In both cockroach and honey bee, segmented legs are present and
segments are same like coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia and 1-5 jointed
tarsus.
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Analogous organs : Organs which have different origin and dissimilar

fundamental structure but have similar function.
•Wings of bat & birds are analogous to wings of insects. Pelvic fins of
fish, flipper of seal.

√Convergent evolution
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Devoelopment of similar adaptive functional structures in unrelated groups of

organisms is called convergent evolution. For eg., some of marsupials of Australia
resemble equivalent placental mammals that live in similar habitats of other continents.
• When adaptive convergence is found in closely related species, it is called
parallel evolution.
• Analogous organs do not show common ancestry but they show evolution.

√Divergent evolution
Homology found in different animals indicate their evolution from common ancestors.
• The process in which species which have diverged after origin from
common ancestor giving rise to new species adapted to new habitats and
ways of life is called adaptive radiation, exihibit large number of
homologous organs.
• Homology shows divergent evolution. For eg.,Adaptive radiation gave rise to
a variety of marupials in Australia.

EVIDENCE FROM EMBROLOGY

Evidences for embryology are based on the comparative study of the

embryos of various animals.
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According to Baer’s law, anorganism show its ancestral stages in embryonic

development. In embryo stage, general characters appear first then specialised
ccharacters appear.

Recapitulation theory
• Muller firstly initial process ‘Recapitulation theory’.
• According to it, ‘ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny’.
• It means any organism shows its ancestral adult stages during its
embryonic development.
• It shows that all organisms evolved from a common ancestor.

THEORIES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION

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Lamarckism

Theory of inheritance of acquired characters is the first theory of organic

evolution proposed by Jean Baptiste de Lamarck(17441829). Lamarck coined
the terms: invertebrates, annelida. The term biology was given by Lamarck &
Treviranus.
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Darwinism

‘Darwinism’ or ‘The theory of natural salection’ was proposed jointly by Charles Darwin
and [Link]. This theory was explained by Darwin in his book “On the origin of
species by means of natural selection” (1859). It is possible that the work of Thomas
Malthus on populations influenced Darwin. During his journey Darwin went to
Galapagos Island. There he observed an amazing diversity of creatures. Of particular
interest, small black birds later called Darwin’s Finches amazed him. He realised that
there were many varieties of finches in the same island. All the varieties, he conjectured,
evolved on the island itself.
√Adaptive radiation
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From the original seed-eating features, many other forms with altered beaks arose,
enabling them to become insectivorous and vegatarian finches. This process of
evolution of different species in a given geographical area starting from a point and
literal radiation to other areas of geography (habitats) is called adaptive radiation.
Darwin’s finches represent one of the best examples of this phenomenon.

√Mutation
The mutation theory was put forward in 1901 by Huge de Vries. He worked on
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a plant called evening primrose. He believed that it is mutation which causes

evolution and not the minor variations (heritable) that Darwin talked about.
Mutations are discontinuous variation.

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

The essence of Darwinian theory about evolution is natural selection. The rate of
appearance of new forms is linked to the life cycle or the life [Link] that divide
fast have the ability to multiply and become millions of individuals within hours. A
colony of bacteria (say A) growing on a given medium has built-in variation in terms of
ability to utilise a feed component. A change in the medium composition would bring
out only that part of the population (say B) that can survive under the new conditions. In
due course of time this variant population outgrows the others and apperance as new
species. This would happen within days.

For the same thing to happen in a fish or fowl would take million of years as life
spans of these animals are in years. Here we say that fitness of B is better than
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that of A under the new conditions. Nature selects for fitness. There must be a
genetic basis for getting sselected and to evolve. Another way of saying the same
thing is that some organisms are better adapted to survive in na otherwise hostile
environment. Adaptive ability is inherited. It has a genetic basis. Fitness is the
end result of the bility to adapt and get selected ny nature.

SALTATION

According to de Vries, saltation means single step large mutations arising

suddenly in a population causing evolution This mechanism works out to be
a faster alternative to the Darwinian concepts of a gradual process of small
random variations being acted on by natural selection.

Ancon sheep is a short legged variety which appeared suddenly due to single step
large mutation.

Features of Mutation theory

●It forms the raw material for mutation.
●It appears suddenly and produces effect immediately.
●Mutations are markedly different from the parents and there are no intermediate stages
between the two.
●Mutations can appear in all directions (random and dirctionless)
●All mutation have a genetic basis and are therefore, inheritable.
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●A single mutation mayproduce a new species.

HARDY – WEINBERG EQUILIBRIUM

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new genes into a species resulting in a change in gene frequencies.

Hardy – Weinberg equilibrium was proposed by [Link], an english

mathematician, aand Wihelm Weinberg, a german physician, in 1908. They
established a simple mathematical relationship to the study of gene frequencies.
Mutation introduce
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2
The distrinbution of genotypes could be described by the relationship A + 2Aa +
2 2
a . A represents the frequence of the homozygous dominant genotype. 2Aa
2
represents the frequency of the heerozygous genotype. a represents the
frequency of the homozygous recessive genotype.

Founder effect

Genetic drift in a new colony is called founder effect because only a few
founders carrying a small fraction of genetic variability of the parent population
begin the colony.

GEOLOGICAL TIME SCALE

In geological time scale the biggest and the smallest time units are ‘Eras’ and
‘Epochs’.The geological time scale has been divided into 5-eras, Archaeozoic
9most ancient), Proterozoic, Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Coenozoic. Archaeozoic
and proterozoic eras, also known as ‘Pre-Cambrian era’, covered about 4 billion
years. Palaeozoic era consisted of 300 million years. The mesozoic and
coenozoic era covered 180 million years and 65 million years.
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√Mesozoic Era (500 mya)

• Existed 245 mya.
• Age of reptiles
• It is divided into 3 periods. o Triassic period
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o Jurassic period
o Cretaceous period

√Cenozoic Era (500 mya) 65 million years ago.

Cenozoic era is also known as Golden age of insects, birds and
mammals 2 periods :
Tertiary period
Quaternary period

Paleozoic Era (500 mya)

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 HUMAN EVOLUTION

[Link] of man probably took place in central africa.

[Link] evolution states that humans develop from primates or ape like ancestors.
[Link] is the study of human evolution and culture. It deals with the fossils of
prehistoric and living man.
[Link] linnaeus gave the scientific name Homo sapiens to man.
[Link] fossils of pre human and ancestral humn forms are obtained from widely diverse regions
of Africa, Asia and Europe which indicates that humans centre of origin was probably in
Aaia,Africa.
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