ANT208H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Coevolution, Microevolution, Adaptationism
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Medical Anthropology: Lecture 2: Evolutionary Biology.
Evolution
Relation between the terms that follow:
- Genotype
- Phenotype
- Inheritance
Evolution: Natural Selection
- Idea that all living organisms have changed over time.
- The most widely tested and accepted theory to explain the natural world –
would be the theory of natural selection.
- Evolution: Change in the average phenotype(s) over time. Change in the way
members of population(s) appear.
- Adaptation - Fits to the environment.
- Natural Selection – Differentiation in fitness.
- Fitness – Survival and reproduction (whether direct or indirect). Measures
how well one group does against another group.
- Change in the relative frequency of genes within the gene pool.
- Some changes are non-adaptive- geno-typically and/or phenotypically.
- Transmission typically occurs through direct means like reproduction.
Species
- … change over time.
- Length of time ensued is typically measured through:
Fossil record
Comparative anatomy
Direct Observation – “microevolution”
- All have a similar origin
Unity through diversity.
- Some differences are adaptations:
Adaptive radiation
Convergent Design – Artificial Design.
- The lack of genetic mutation would result in the lack of natural selection.
Macroevolution
- Creation of new species.
- Graphical diagram.
- Cladistics diagram.
Human Examples
- Lactase Persistence: Milk Drinking
- Vitamin D: Skin Pigmentation
- Iodine Deficiency: Cognitive Impairment
All of the above involve tradeoffs and constraints.