EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION

• Morphological evidences, definition and differences between homologous and analogous

organs (two examples each from plants and animals), vestigial organs.

• Embryological evidences – theory of recapitulation, definition and differences between

ontogeny and phylogeny.

• Palaeontological evidence – definition of fossils. Geological time scale (with reference to

dominant flora and fauna)

• Biogeographical evidence – definition of biogeography, Darwin's finches (adaptive

radiation).

• Molecular (genetic) evidences -for example genome similarity, universal genetic code;

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 INTRODUCTION
Evolution is a concept that embraces theories and hypothesis. Various evidences have
demonstrated and verified the occurrence of evolution. The evidences of evolution of living
organisms on the Earth come from many quarters like palaeontology, comparative morphology
and anatomy, embryology, cell biology, biochemistry, molecular biology and geographical
distribution of organisms.

The evidences of organic evolution derived from many lines of study indicate that present-
day forms have arisen by gradual changes from pre-existing forms, and that more complex
forms have been derived or evolved from simpler forms.
COMPARATIVE ANATOMICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL EVIDENCES

These show the similarities and differences among the organisms of today and those that existed years ago. These
evidences came from the comparative study of external(morphology) and internal(anatomy) structure. These can be
determined by the following types:

Homology:
• It is the relation among the organs of different groups of organisms that show similarity in basic structure and
embryonic development, but differ in function and appearance.

• Homology is based on divergent evolution (i.e. the same structure has developed along different directions due
to adaptations to different needs).

• When due to different needs, some structures develop differently, the condition is called divergent
evolution. This results in the formation of homologous organs.

• The organs with same structural design and origin but different functions are called homologous organs.
Examples of homology are as follows

(i) Forelimbs of some animals like whales, bats and cheetah and humans have similar anatomical
structure, such as humerus, radius, ulna, carpals, metacarpals and phalanges. But, these forelimbs
perform different functions in these animals.

(ii) Legs of insects have modified to perform various functions. (Like grasshopper has simple type of
walking legs (the first and second legs) but the hind legs are modified for jumping; the forelimbs of a
mole cricket are modified for digging; the legs of hair louse are adapted for clinging to hair, and the
legs of a diving beetle are constructed for swimming.

(iii) Thorns in Bougainvillea and tendrils of Cucurbita are examples of homologous structures. In both
plants, thorns and tendrils both arises from the axillary position and are the modifications of the
branch. But they perform different functions as thorns are for protection and tendrils help the
plants in climbing.
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Analogy:
• This aspect is exactly opposite to homology.

• In analogy, the organs are functionally similar, but anatomically different.

• Organs which are anatomically different but functionally similar are called analogous
organs. Analogous organs are formed as a result of convergent evolution.

• Convergent evolution is the evolution in which different structures evolve to perform same
function and hence, have similarity. It can be said that above organisms had different
structures or external appearance but they came in the same environment and evolved to
perform same function.
Examples are as follows

(i) Wings of butterfly and birds. In both organisms, wings perform same function but
they have different origin and structure.

(ii) Eyes of Octopus and mammals.

(iii) Tendrils of vine (Vitis) is of stem nature and tendrils of pea (Pisum) is of leaf nature.

(iv) Sweet potato (root modification) and potato (stem modification) – function: storage of
food.

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Vestigial organs:
Vestigial organs are those organs that are still present in the body but do not perform any
function.

Vestigial organs are those organs which are non-functional in the possessor but were functional
in their ancestors and in related animals. The presence of vestigial organs provides evidence
for organic evolution. These organs were once useful (in ancestors) but now have no function,
and yet linger on in a reduced form.

Examples of vestigial organs:

Examples include splint bones in the feet of the horse, index finger in the bird's wings,
rudimentary pelvis and traces of limbs in some snakes (e.g., python) and rudimentary wings in
kiwi and ostrich.
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Human alone possesses more than a hundred vestigial organs in his body such as

• nictitating membrane in the eye,

• vermiform appendix at the end of the caecum,

• coccyx (tail vertebrae) and tail muscles,

• non-functional muscles of the pinna,

• wisdom teeth (third molars),

• segmental muscles of abdomen, and

• nipples in males.

Scale leaves of Ruscus and those of underground stems (tubers, rhizomes, corms, etc.) are
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Atavism:
Atavism, also known as reversion, is the sudden reappearance of a certain ancestral but not
parental structure which has either completely disappeared or greatly reduced. There are
many examples of atavistic structures in man like the occurrence of a rudimentary tail in
new-borne babies, power of moving pinna, large canines, very long and dense hair and
additional mammae.

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 EMBRYOLOGICAL EVIDENCES
Embryology which is the study of the development of an organism from egg to adult, also
provides evidences for the organic evolution. The study of comparative embryology shows
common patterns of development among different species.

The principles of embryonic development were given by von Baer. Baer's law proposed by Baer
in 1828 states that general characters appear before specialised characters, i.e. the development
proceeds via more general characters →→ Less general characters → Specialised
characters. This law also states that organisms of different groups resemble in their early
embryonic stages.
RECAPITULATION THEORY:

On the basis of the developmental history of animals, Ernst Haeckel (1866) postulated
the famous recapitulation theory or biogenetic law which states that ontogeny
recapitulates phylogeny. This simply means that embryos in their development repeat
the evolutionary history of their ancestors in an abbreviated form.

An individual organism in its development (ontogeny) tends to repeat the stages passed
through by its ancestors (phylogeny), i.e. ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.

Ontogeny is embryonic development, i.e. the origin and development of an organism

from an embryo to an adult. Phylogeny is ancestral history, i.e. the evolutionary
development and history of a species or higher taxonomic groups of organisms.
For example

• The presence of fish-like characters, i.e. gills, gill slits, tail, tailfin, lateral line and sense
organs in tadpole larva of frog. Hence fishes are considered as the ancestors of
amphibians.

• The presence of gill clefts in all vertebrate embryos including human provides a strong
embryological evidence.

• The presence of filamentous green algae like structure, protonema during development of
Funaria (moss).

• Primitive gymnosperms have flagellated sperm and water dependency like pteridophytes.

• Adult frogs excrete urea, whereas tadpoles excrete ammonia as in fishes.

• Birds generally excrete uric acid but, embryos excrete ammonia first and urea later on.
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 PALAEONTOLOGICAL EVIDENCES
• Palaeontology is the study of fossils of animals and plants that lived in past.

• Fossils are the remains or impressions of organisms preserved in rock for

centuries.

• Fossils are defined as the relics of former living life (plants and animals)
embedded in or dug out of superficial deposits in past geological periods.
• According to Replacement Theory, fossilization takes place by the
replacement of the molecules of original substances of the organism one by
one by the molecules of minerals in the soil solution.

• According to Infiltration Theory, fossilization takes place due to

infiltration and precipitation of minerals through the cell membrane. After
burial, the plants and animals body undergoes partial disintegration and the
free carbon released in this process form carbonates by reacting with the
infiltrated calcium, magnesium etc.
• Rocks form sediments and a cross-section of the Earth's crust depicts the
arrangement of these sediments one over the other, during the long history of
Earth. Sediments of different aged rocks contain fossils of different life forms that
lived and died during the formation of a particular segment. Some of them appear
similar to modern organisms. They represent extinct organisms, like dinosaurs.

• The study of fossils in different sedimentary layers indicates the geological period
in which they existed, the life forms varied over time and life forms that are
restricted to certain geological time scale. Hence, new forms of life have evolved
at different times in the history of Earth.

• All this forms palaeontological evidence.

• Importance of Palaentology:

 Paleontology helps to reconstruct the phylogeny (evolutionary history of the

organism).

 It helps to study the forms and structure of the extinct species.

 It also helps to study the habits and behaviour of extinct species.

 It also indicates the intermediate forms/links between two groups of

organisms. For e.g Archaeopteryx is considered a link between reptiles and
birds.
The Geological Time Scale:

• It depicts the history of evolution of the Earth and also the evolution of plants and animals in
the chronological sequence.

• Fossils were the basis for all these studies which were found in sedimentary rocks. The age of
the rock is calculated by Radioactive dating technique.

• By studying fossils occurring in different strata of rocks and determining the age , geologists
were able to construct the geological time scale and course of evolutionary change.

• The time scale has been divided into a number of major divisions called eras (6).

• The eras are subdivided into periods.

• The modern periods are further divided into epochs.

Eras:

1. Azoic Era (Era of no life):

2. Archaezoic Era (Era of Dawn of life):

3. Proterozoic Era (Pre-Cambrian Period) – ( Era of Early life)

4. Palaezoic Era (Period – Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian)

5. Mesozoic Era (Period – Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous)

6. Coenozoic Era (Period - Tertiary, Quaternary)

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Missing link refers to fossil/extinct organisms, which had the characteristics of two different groups of
organisms, e.g. Archaeopteryx (Reptiles and Aves).

On the other hand, the living organisms which possess characters of two different groups of organisms are
referred to as connecting links, e.g.

 Euglena (Plant and animal) ,

 Neopilina (Annelids and Molluscs)

 Peripatus (Annelids and Arthropods)

 Protopterus /lung fish – ( Fish and Amphibian)

 Tachyglossus/Echidna/Spiny anteater – ( Reptiles and Mammals)

 Ornithorhyncus / Duck-billed Platypus – ( Reptiles and Mammals)

Archaeopteryx is a link between reptiles and birds. Its fossil was obtained by Andreas Wagner in
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1861 from the limestone rocks of Solnhofen in Bavaria.
Some reptilian characters of Archaeopteryx are as follows

• Jaws are provided with homodont teeth.

• Long lizard - like tail with 20 free caudal vertebrae.

• Bones are not pneumatic and cervical vertebrae are fewer.

• Amphicoelous vertebrae.

• Cervical and abdominal ribs are present.

• Sternum is weak or absent.

• Scales are present.

• Carpals and metacarpals are with free pelvic girdle and has an elongated ilium and
backwardly directed pubis.
Some avian characters of Archaeopteryx are given below

• Presence of feathers.

• Forelimbs are modified as wings.

• Rounded braincase.

• Beaks are present.

• Bones in the skull are intimately fused.

• Bones of limb and girdle are bird-like.

• Tibia and fibula are separate.

• V-shaped furcula is present.

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 BIOGEOGRAPHICAL EVIDENCES
Biogeography is the study of distribution of animals and plants on this planet. It suggests that
the species restricted to a region, develop unique features. Also, species present in widely
separated regions show similarity of ancestry.
According to continental drift or plate tectonics theory of Alfred L Wegener (1929),
the following gradual changes in earth pattern took place. These are as follows:

(i) During Carboniferous period (about 375 million years ago), all the present day
continents were in the form of a single, giant landmass called Pangaea.

(ii) Pangaea existed till about 200 million years ago (beginning of Mesozoic era),
which was surrounded by ancestral Panthalassa ocean (Pacific ocean) and
ancestral Tethys sea (Mediterranean sea).

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iii) During the end of Triassic period (about 180 living million years ago), Pangaea had split into two parts:

 Laurasia Northern half land mass consisting of North America, Europe and Asia.

 Gondwana Southern half land mass consisting of South America, Australia, Africa, India and Antarctica.

iv) During Jurassic period (about 135 million years ago), South America separated from Africa and drifted to
Westward.

(v) About 40 million years ago, India separated, moved Northward and rammed into Asia. At the same time,
Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan mountains uplifted as a result of collision.

(vi) North Atlantic and Indian oceans increased in size due to the rotation of land masses.

(vii) During the end of Mesozoic era, North America drifted from Europe and Madagascar isolated from Eastern
Africa.
As the continents moved away, the seas separated them and acted as barriers, which limit the

distribution of animals and plants. Habitat isolation had probably restricted these organisms to a

particular geography on the Earth. This can be explained with the help of following processes

1. Adaptive Radiation:

The process of evolution of different species starting from a point in a geographical area and

finally radiating to other areas of geography (habitats) is called adaptive radiation.

Examples of adaptive radiation are:

Darwin's Finches

Darwin observed an amazing diversity of creatures in Galapagos Islands. There, he saw the
small black birds that amazed him the most, later called as Darwin finches.

He observed that there were many varieties around 20 of finches in the same Island and all the
varieties had evolved on the Island itself from original seed-eating finches. He explained that
after originating from a common ancestral seed-eating stock, the finches must have radiated to
different geographical areas and undergone adaptive changes, especially in the type of beaks.
Therefore, due to the alternation in beaks gradually, some became insectivorous and some
vegetarian. Living in isolation for long, the new kinds of finches emerged that could function
and survive in the new habitat.
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Marsupials Of Australia

These are another examples of adaptive radiation. A variety of marsupials (pouched

mammals) each different from the other, evolved from an ancestral stock, but all within the
Australian Island continent.

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2. Adaptive Convergence/Convergent Evolution

When more than one adaptive radiation appeared to have occurred in an

isolated geographical area (representing different habitats) and two or
more groups of unrelated animals come to resemble each other for
similar mode of life or habitat, it is called adaptive convergence or
convergent evolution.

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3. Adaptive Convergence in Mammals

Australian marsupials and placental mammals in North America provide

another example of convergent evolution. Despite the temporal and
geographical separation, marsupials in Australia and placental mammals in
North America have produced varieties of species living in similar habitat
with similar ways of living. They are not related, but resemble each other
because they fill similar niches in each continent.

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 MOLECULAR (GENETIC) EVIDENCES
The most convincing evidence of common ancestry comes from the basic similarities seen at
molecular level in chemical composition, genome, genetic code, etc.

(i) DNA and rarely RNA is the genetic material of all organisms, which show common
ancestry and origin of all organisms.

(ii) The universal genetic code having triplet codons which code for same amino acids is
found from viruses to man, i.e. in all living organisms.

(iii) Molecular structure of some important biochemicals show similarity, e.g. structure of
actin and tubulin is similar in all organisms.
(iv) Anabolic reactions like photosynthesis in all photosynthetic organisms and catabolic
reactions like respiration occur in all living beings.

(v) Energy in all living beings is released by biological oxidation and is stored in the form of
ATP.

(vi) Nitrogenous waste in all living organisms is produced in the form of ammonia.

(vii) Man has blood groups A, B, AB and O whereas, apes has only A and B and monkeys do
not have such blood groups. This indicates that men are more closely related to apes than
monkeys.