Think of characteristics of the gray wolf; wild, aggressive, strong, intelligent. These characteristics have helped the gray wolf survive some pretty lean years throughout their history. However, even the most ruthless of predators can use help at times. Imagine that one of these wolves, due to natural variations in its DNA, had lower levels of stress hormone produced, allowing it to approach humans. Humans enter into a symbiotic relationship with the wolf in which the wolf provided protection and the wolf gets fed more regularly. This regular feeding allowed the wolf to survive and reproduce pups with genes very similar to its own. Through many generations of selecting for traits they liked from pups like this, people have managed to transform the gray wolf into man's best friend, dogs. Every dog breed from Siberian Huskies to Chihuahuas share the gray wolf as a common ancestor. This whole process only took around 10,000 years. Now, imagine how life could be changed over the course of millions or even billions of years not through the careful selection of humans, but through the brutal selection of nature. This pressure mixed with vast amounts of time have led to all of the amazing diversity of life we see today, including some amazing forms we've lost along the way. Assignments Nature podcast: Milking ItStartalk Radio: Evolution with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, and Jim Gaffigan |
Class Resources
Content & Skills Guide Reading Guides
Chapter 22: Descent with Modification: A Darwinian View of Life Chapter 23: The Evolution of Populations Chapter 24: The Origin of Species Chapter 25: The History of Life on Earth Chapter 26: Phylogeny and the Tree of Life Interact and Questions - Evolution IQ 1.1 - An Introduction to Evolution IQ 1.2 - Evolutionary Forces IQ 1.3 - Quantifying Evolution (Hardy-Weinberg) IQ 1.4 - Speciation and Classification IQ 1.5 - Evidence and a History of Life on Earth Extreme Adaptations in Humans Videos Lactose Intolerance Sickle-Cell Anemia Presentations Extreme Mammals Lab AP Biology Lab #1: Artificial Selection Bottle Growing System Set-Up AP Biology Lab #2: Mathematical Modeling - Hardy-Weinberg BLAST Tutorial NCBI: National Center for Biotechnology Information BLAST: Basic Local Alignment Search Tool Extras Pangolins UC - Berkeley: Natural Selection How Evolution Works Stated Clearly: What is Natural Selection? Casually Explained: Evolution HHMI: Malaria & Sickle Cell Anemia Phylogenetics lecture from UC-Berkeley The Sixth Extinction Stated Clearly: What is the Evidence for Evolution? |