BIOL 123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Population Genetics, Human Height, Phenotypic Plasticity
Document Summary
What are it"s uses in the study of evolution: describe three main modes of selection and their impacts on the frequency and variation in population traits. Phylogenie illustrate relationships among known species - not all species. Combining evidence can lead scientists to new fossils discoveries and insights into why lineages may have evolved. Phylogeny reveals how tetrapod traits evolved over time. Fossils and phylogeny document transition of bones from jaw to ear. There is homology evident in embryonic development. Phylogenetic trees can reveal the patterns of small changed to traits over evolutionary history. Phylogeny can be used to test questions of an ecological nature. If a set of traits coincide independently in the evolutionary record, it suggests that they are ecologically significant/ Only with a phylogeny can we test the number of independent evolutionary transitions to a certain combination of traits. From a purely adaptationist perspective, past and present phenotypes are likely to have occupied similar environments.
