EVOLUTION AND

SPECIATION

Chapter 15, 17
 Evolution
• Macroevolution- large scale evolutionary change
• Involves the evolution of new species
• Species have an isolated gene pool and can only reproduce with one another
• Microevolution- smaller evolutionary changes, or changes in gene frequency between
populations of a species over time
Population Genetics

• A population is all the members of a single species

occupying a particular area at the same time.
• Diversity exists among members of a population.

• Population genetics is the study of this diversity in

terms of allele differences.

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Microevolution
In the, 1930s population geneticists began to
describe variations in a population in terms of
alleles
Microevolution pertains to evolutionary changes
within a population.
 Various alleles at all the gene loci in all individuals make up the gene pool of the
population.
 The gene pool of a population can be described in terms of:
 Genotype frequencies
 Allele frequencies

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Natural selection
• Selective forces DO favor one phenotype or genotype over another
Natural Selection
• Adaptation of a population to the biotic and abiotic environment
• Requires:
• Variation - Members of a population differ from one another
• Inheritance - Many differences are heritable genetic differences
• Differential Adaptiveness - Some differences affect survivability
• Differential Reproduction – Some differences affect the likelihood of successful
reproduction

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Types of Selection
• Three types of selection occur :
◦ (1) Stabilizing Selection occurs when an intermediate phenotype can improve the adaptation of
the population to those aspects of the environment that remain constant. With stabilizing
selection, extreme phenotypes are selected against and the intermediate phenotype is favored.
 Example - human babies with low or high birth weight are less likely to survive

◦ (2) Directional Selection occurs when an extreme phenotype is selected and the distribution
curve shifts in that direction

 The curve shifts in one direction, Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics

◦ (3) Disruptive Selection- two or more extreme phenotypes are favored over intermediate
phenotypes
 Example –Cepaea snails vary because a wide geographic range causes selection to vary

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Disruptive selection leading to
Subspecies and subpopulations
The environment plays a role in maintaining
diversity

• Disruptive selection due to environmental differences promotes polymorphisms

in a population
– If a population occupies a wide range, it may have several subpopulations designated
as subspecies

– The environment includes selecting agents that help maintain these subspecies and
subpopulations, and therefore promote diversity

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Sustaining Diversity:
subspecies of snakes in the USA Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.

Pantheropsis obsoleta obsoleta

Pantheropsis obsoleta quadrivittata

Pantheropsis obsoleta lindheimeri Pantheropsis obsoleta rossalleni Pantheropsis obsoleta spiloides

(E.o. lindheimeri, E.o. quadrivittata): © Zig Leszczynski/Animals Animals/Earth Scenes; (E.o. spiloides): © Joseph Collins/Photo Researchers, Inc.;
(E.o. rossalleni): © Dale Jackson/Visuals Unlimited; (E.o. obsoleta): © William Weber/Visuals Unlimited.
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Sustaining Diversity:
Importance of heterozygosity
• Recessive alleles:
◦ Heterozygotes shelter recessive alleles from selection
◦ Heterozygotes allow even lethal alleles to remain in the population at low
frequencies virtually forever
◦ Sometimes recessive alleles confer an advantage to heterozygotes
 The sickle-cell anemia allele is detrimental in homozygote
 Heterozygotes for sickle-cell anemia are more likely to survive malaria
 Therefore, the sickle-cell allele occurs at a higher frequency among populations living in
malaria-prone geographical areas

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Sickle Cell Disease
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.

malaria
sickle-cell
overlap of both

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Heterozygote Advantage

• A sickle cell anemia heterozygote individual would not die from sickle-cell
disease, and would not die from malaria.
• Similarly, the gene for Cystic Fibrosis may also be protective against certain
diseases like cholera, typhoid and tuberculosis.

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 In series A the red blood cell becomes sickled after interaction with the malarial merozoite, which then
begins to multiply in the cell (schizont). Due to the heterozygous nature of the cell, and the
hemoglobin inside it causing sickling, likely as a result of the lowering of the pH and deoxygenation,
the cell can be targeted and eliminated by macrophages before the infection can reproduce, lowering
the overall amount of infected cells in comparison to normal red blood cells. In series B the normal
red blood cell becomes infected by the merozoite, which multiplies inside the cell, eventually causing
hemolysis of the cell, and the offspring go on to infect other cells .

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Sickle_Cell_Anemia_and_its_Protection_Against_Malaria.svg/512px-
Sickle_Cell_Anemia_and_its_Protection_Against_Malaria.svg.png
Macroevolution
• Requires the origin of species, or speciation.
• Speciation is the final result of changes in gene pool allelic and genotypic
frequencies
What is a species
• A group of similarly constructed organisms capable of interbreeding and
producing fertile offspring;
• Organisms that share a common gene pool
• The taxon at the lowest level of classification (most exclusive)
Evolutionary species concept
• Each species has its own evolutionary history, at least part of which is in the
fossil record
• Relies on identification of certain structural (diagnostic) traits to distinguish
one species from another
Biological species concept
• Relies primarily on reproductive isolation rather than
trait differences to define a species
• Cannot be applied to asexually reproducing organisms,
organisms known only by fossil record or species that
could possibly interbreed if they lived near ach other.
• The benefit of this concept is that it can designate
species when trait differences are difficult to find.
Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms
• Reproductive isolating mechanisms inhibit gene
flow between species
• Two general types:
• (1) Prezygotic Mechanisms – prevent mating attempts or make it unlikely that
fertilization will be successful
• (2) Postzygotic Mechanisms - Prevent hybrid offspring from developing or breeding

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Temporal Isolation

Late Winter Late Summer

Prezygotic Mechanisms:
Habitat Isolation
• Same geographic area
• Different habitats
Prezygotic Mechanisms:
Behavioral Isolation
• Different
courtship rituals
• Blue-Footed Booby Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M
PfTzXEZdY
• Photo Credit: Richard001, 2007, Wikimedia Commons
Prezygotic Mx
• Mechanical Isolation - incompatible animal genitalia or plant floral structures
• Gamete Isolation - gametes that meet do not fuse to become a zygote
Postzygotic Mx
• Zygote Mortality - hybrid zygote is not viable

• Hybrid Sterility - hybrid zygote develops into a sterile adult

• Reduced F2 Fitness - offspring of hybrids are unable to reproduce

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Postzygotic Mechanisms

• Prevents hybrid
zygotes from
developing into
viable, fertile adults
• Photo Credit of Zeedonk: Ondrejk, 2004,
Wikimedia Commons
Postzygotic Mechanism:
Reduced Hybrid Viability

• If Sheep and
goats mate 
Hybrid zygotes
• Die before birth.
• Photo Credit: Missouri NRCS Photo
Gallery
Postzygotic Mechanism:
Reduced Hybrid Fertility
• Male donkey x
Female horse
Mule
• Mules:
• Healthy (viable)
• Sterile.
https://cdn.britannica.com/07/215707-050-46A4E77F/lions-tigers-ligers-tigons-
mammals.jpg
Postzygotic Mechanism:
Hybrid Breakdown
• First generation
hybrids are viable
and fertile.
• Offspring of hybrids
are feeble or sterile.
Speciation
• Process of species formation
• Two main mechanisms:

• Allopatric speciation
• Sympatric speciation
 Allopatric Speciation

Geographic separation
 Genetic exchange
Populations become
genetically different
Reproductive isolation
Sympatric Speciation

• Populations not
geographically
separated
• Can be due to
rapid genetic
changes:
• Alter morphology
• Alter behavior
• Alter habitat preferences
Principles of Macroevolution
• Macroevolution
• Some paleontologists support the punctuated equilibrium model
• Species can appear quite suddenly
• Species then remain essentially unchanged phenotypically during a period of stasis (sameness) until
they undergo extinction.
• The punctuated equilibrium model states that periods of equilibrium are punctuated by speciation

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Gradualistic and Punctuated
Equilibrium Models
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.

new new
species 1 species 1

ancestral ancestral
species species

transitional link stasis

ancestral new new

species species 2 species 2

Time Time
a. Gradualistic model b. Punctuated equilibrium

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