EVIDENCE OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE ORGANIC WORLD

comparative anatomical;
embryological;
paleontological;
biogeographical.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMICAL EVIDENCE

All organisms have cellular structure(the discovery of the cellular structure of living organisms is one of the strong proofs of the unity of the organic world).

general plan of the building indicates the relationship of one or another large group of living organisms; for example, vertebrates are characterized by bilateral symmetry of the body, a body cavity, a spine, two pairs of limbs, a skull, a brain and a spinal cord, the forelimbs of a single plan have a shoulder, forearm and hand, a thigh, a lower leg and a foot, etc.;
presence of homologous organs(corresponding to each other in structure and origin, regardless of the functions they perform): human hand, forelimb of a frog, lizard; pea tendrils, pea leaf blades; barberry needles, hawthorn needles; tulip leaf and flower leaf, etc.; similar organs (performing similar functions, but not having a similar structure and common origin) are not evidence of kinship; such organs include the wing of a bird and the wing of an insect;
the presence of rudiments and atavisms; rudiments: eyes in a mole, right ovary in birds, tailbone in humans; atavisms: multiple nipples in humans, facial hairiness in humans;
presence of transitional forms(green euglena, wild-toothed lizard, foreigner, etc.).

EMBRYOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Similarity of embryos(body contours, similarity of head shape in vertebrates, gill pouches on the sides of the head, etc.).

discovery of the biogenetic law(Haeckel, Müller, second half of the 19th century), who argued that ontogeny is a brief repetition of phylogeny (the transformation of a tadpole into a frog; the transition of bud scales into leaves in maple, elderberry, raspberry; the transition of leaves into sepals in hydrangea); Subsequently, clarifications were made to it: in ontogenesis, the embryonic stages of the development of ancestors (and not adult forms) are repeated; A. N. Severtsov showed that in ontogenesis not only some stages of the development of ancestors fall out, but also changes arise that were not present in the embryos of ancestors.

PALEONTOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Traces of ancient plants and animals were found in sedimentary rocks of the earth's crust: petrified tree trunks, pollen, fossilized bones, imprints of shells, skeletons.

transitional forms were discovered: wild-toothed lizards, archeopteryx: from fossil remains it was possible to decipher (restore) the evolution of some animals, for example horses (V.O. Kovalevsky);
paleontology confirms that the entire organic world developed from simple to complex.

BIOGEOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

Biogeography studies the patterns of distribution of animals and plants on Earth.

5 biogeographical regions were identified: Holarctic, Indo-Malayan, Ethiopian, Neotropical, Australian;
similarities between the fauna of Eurasia and North America were discovered (in the recent past they were connected by land, which was in place of the Bering Strait), the originality of the animal world of Australia (the continent was separated from other continents, and evolution proceeded independently of the fauna of other continents

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANIC WORLD ON EARTH

ERA (DURATION IN MILLION YEARS)	BEGINNING (MILLION YEARS AGO)	GLOBAL CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES	VEGETABLE WORLD	ANIMAL WORLD
Cenozoic (era of new life), 66+3	1.5-2 (Anthropogen)	Changes of warming and cooling. Large glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the North. hemispheres.	The emergence and development of man. Modern animal world.	Formation of existing plant communities.
	25±2 (Neogene)	Establishment of a uniform warm climate.	The seas have a wide variety of corals and mollusks. Wide distribution of bony fish. Extinction of many cephalopods. Many orders of mammals appear, incl. primates. Wide divergence of birds. Insect bloom.	The dominance of angiosperms. The composition of the flora is close to modern. Taiga and tundra appear.
	66±3 (Paleogene)	Intensive mountain building.
Mesozoic (middle life era), 165	136±5 (Cretaceous)	In many areas of the Earth the climate is cooling.	The appearance of true birds, placental and marsupial mammals. The seas are dominated by bony fish. Extinction of large reptiles. Insect bloom.	A sharp decline in the number of ferns and gymnosperms. The appearance of the first angiosperms.
	190-195±5 (Jurassic)	The climate is initially humid, then becomes arid at the equator. Movement of continents. Formation of the Atlantic Ocean.	In the ocean - the emergence of new groups of mollusks, incl. cephalopods. Dominance of reptiles. The appearance of the first birds.	Wide distribution of ferns and gymnosperms.
	230±10 (Triassic period)	Weakening of climatic zonality, smoothing out temperature differences. The beginning of continental movement.	The beginning of the age of dinosaurs, the appearance of turtles, crocodiles, the first mammals, real bony fish.	Fern-like, horsetail-like, and lycophytes are common. Extinction of seed ferns.
Paleozoic (era of ancient life), 340±10	280±10 (Permian period)	Sharp climate zonation. The retreat of the seas, the appearance of semi-enclosed bodies of water.	The rapid development of reptiles, the emergence of animal-like lizards. Extinction of trilobites, reduction in the number of orders of invertebrates and a number of vertebrates.	Extinction of tree ferns, horsetails and mosses. Distribution of conifers in the Northern Hemisphere.
	345±10 (Carboniferous period)	Worldwide distribution of forest swamps. Warm humid climate. Extensive glaciation of the southern continents at the end of the period. Active mountain building.	Widespread distribution of foraminifera, corals, mollusks, flourishing of amphibians, appearance of the first reptiles and flying insects.	The predominance of spore plants, the appearance of the first conifers. In swamps and coastal areas of the seas, a large amount of plant residues accumulated, forming coal.
	400±10 (Devonian period)	Change of dry and rainy seasons. Glaciation on the territory of modern South. America and South Africa.	Appearance of fish of all major systematic groups. Development of land by spiders, ticks and other arthropods, the first vertebrate stegocephals.	Development and then extinction of psilophytes. The appearance of planiform, horsetail, fern-like, and the first seed ferns. The emergence of mushrooms.
	435±10 (Silurian period)	At first the climate is dry, then humid with gradual warming. Intensive mountain building.	Variety of corals and trilobites. The appearance of the first ancient fish, the first land animals breathing atmospheric air - scorpions. Extinction of some groups of corals.	The emergence of plants onto land means the appearance of psilophytes.
	490±10 (Ordovician period)	Uniformly temperate humid climate with a gradual increase in average temperature. At first, most of the land is occupied by the sea.	The appearance of the first vertebrates - jawless fish. Dominance of trilobites, echinoderms.	Variety of algae.
	570±20 (Cambrian period)	Glaciation gives way to a moderately humid and then a dry, warm climate.	The flourishing of marine invertebrates, the appearance of organisms with a mineralized skeleton.	The emergence of multicellular algae.
Proterozoic (era of early life), 2000	2600±100	The surface of the planet is bare desert. The climate is cold, with frequent glaciations. At the end of the era, the atmosphere contained up to 1% free oxygen.	The emergence of all types of invertebrate animals.	Mostly unicellular green algae.
Archean (era of the origin of life), 900	3500	Volcanic eruptions. Most of the land is a shallow sea. Development of an oxygen-containing atmosphere.	The emergence of life on Earth.	Remains of anaerobic precursors of blue-green algae, green unicellular algae, and bacteria were discovered.

Tasks and tests on the topic "Topic 16. "Evidence of evolution. Development of the organic world."

Development of life on Earth - Stages of evolution of the biosphere and man General biological patterns (grades 9–11)
Lessons: 6 Assignments: 9 Tests: 2
Diversity of species as a result of evolution - Development of the animal world Animals (grade 7)
Lessons: 2 Assignments: 35 Tests: 2
9 Tests: 1

Having worked through these topics, you should be able to:

Formulate in your own words the definitions: evolution, natural selection, struggle for existence, adaptation, rudiment, atavism, idioadaptation, biological progress and regression.
Briefly describe how a particular adaptation is preserved by selection. What role do genes play in this, genetic variability, gene frequency, natural selection.
Explain why selection does not produce a population of identical, perfectly adapted organisms.
Formulate what genetic drift is; give an example of a situation in which it plays an important role, and explain why its role is especially important in small populations.
Describe two ways species arise.
Compare natural and artificial selection.
Briefly list aromorphoses in the evolution of plants and vertebrates, idioadaptations in the evolution of birds and mammals, angiosperms.
Name the biological and social factors of anthropogenesis.
Compare the effectiveness of consuming plant and animal foods.
Briefly describe the features of the most ancient, ancient, fossil man, modern man.
Indicate the developmental features and similarities of human races.

Ivanova T.V., Kalinova G.S., Myagkova A.N. "General Biology". Moscow, "Enlightenment", 2000

Topic 14. "Evolutionary teaching." §38, §41-43 pp. 105-108, pp.115-122
Topic 15. "Adaptability of organisms. Speciation." §44-48 pp. 123-131
Topic 16. "Evidence of evolution. Development of the organic world." §39-40 pp. 109-115, §49-55 pp. 135-160
Topic 17. "The Origin of Man." §49-59 pp. 160-172

Topic: Evidence of evolution (paleontological and embryological evidence) of the Animal World.

The purpose of the lesson: find out the significance for science of fossil transitional forms as paleontological evidence.

Reveal the scientific significance of discovering traces of the distant history of systematic groups in the development of embryos;

Assess the biogenetic law of F. Muller and E. Haeckel as embryological evidence;

Continued development of the skills to conduct a dialogue, find and highlight the main thing, correctly and clearly answer questions posed

Equipment: tests, Drawings depicting fossil animals.

I. Org. Moment.

II.Knowledge test

Testing.

III. Introduction to the topic.

Attempts to understand how plants and animals arose on Earth and why they are so diverse began with people in ancient times. For a long time, religious views on nature dominated, according to which all types of plants and animals were allegedly created by God and have not changed since then

Has the animal world always been like this? No, not always, at first the animal world developed in water, and then, when reservoirs became smaller, animals appeared on land and gave rise to new classes of animals, warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals appeared. The modern animal world was formed gradually over many millions of years.

Evolution is the process of historical development of the animal world from simple to complex. The evolution of the animal world is associated with changes in conditions (climate, relief, vegetation) that occurred on earth. Evolution is an irreversible historical process of development of living nature from lower to higher, from simple to complex. Evolution is irreversible. It is aimed towards complexity. As long as there is life, there is also its evolution. In the process, the organization of animals became more complicated. Is it possible to observe evolution? Human life is short, so it is impossible to observe it. Evolution takes several million years, and human existence is limited to millennia. One may get the impression that there is no evolution, nothing changes in nature. But there are sciences that have been able to provide evidence in favor of evolution. . Evidence of the evolution of the animal world is paleontological finds, comparative anatomical studies and the embryonic development of animals - embryology.

We will study this evidence today.

2. Learning new material

1. Paleontological evidence

Paleontology (from the Greek paleo - ancient; ontos - being; logos - teaching) is the science of animals and plants of past geological eras, studied by fossil remains and traces of life activity. Founders of paleontology: J. Cuvier, J.-B. Lamarck, A. Brongniart. The term "paleontology" was proposed in 1822 by A. Blainville. The foundations of modern evolutionary paleontology were laid by V. O. Kovalevsky.

Paleontology is the science of ancient organisms of past geological eras. She studies the fossil remains of those who lived on Earth tens and hundreds of millions of years ago. Fossil remains are fossilized shells of mollusks, teeth and scales of fish, egg shells, skeletons and other solid parts of organisms, prints and traces of their vital activity, preserved in soft silt, clay, and sandstone. These rocks once hardened and were preserved in a petrified state in various layers of the Earth.

Using fossilized finds, casts, and bone remains, paleontologists recreate the animal world of past eras. The study of paleontological samples that have reached us from the deepest layers of the Earth convincingly shows that the animal world of ancient times was significantly different from the modern one.

Paleontology solves the following problems:

identifying the early stages of the evolution of life;

identifying the isolation of the trunks of the organic world;

identification of the main stages of development of the organic world;

identification of events at the boundaries of the main divisions of the history of the Earth.

Paleontology methods:

paleontological, which consists in dismembering sedimentary strata, determining their relative age and establishing similarities between layers of different regions based on the fossil remains preserved in them;

radioactive, based on the study of the natural decay of radioactive elements contained in rocks; allows you to calculate the absolute age of rocks and fossil remains.

Paleontology provides the following evidence in favor of evolution:

1. Information about fossil transitional forms - these are organisms that combine the characteristics of two classes. Examples of fossil transitional forms are:

ancient lobe-finned fish,

beast-toothed lizard,

Archeopteryx and others.

Origin of amphibians

The close connection of amphibians with water, the structure and lifestyle of the larvae, and the similarity with fish in the early stages of development indicate the origin of amphibians from ancient fish. Ancient amphibians were very similar to ancient lobe-finned fish. Both of them maintained a notochord throughout their lives, there was an unpaired parietal opening in the skull, and the skin had scales. Comparison of the skeleton of the fins of extinct lobe fins with the skeleton of the limbs of amphibians indicates their great similarity. There are suggestions that ancient amphibians descended from ancient lobe-finned fish about 300 million years ago. At that time, the Earth had a hot, humid climate. Many reservoirs became shallow, the water in them warmed up greatly, and became poor in oxygen. In such conditions, those lobe-finned fish that could leave the water and breathe atmospheric air were more often preserved from generation to generation. The drying up of some reservoirs forced the ancestors of amphibians to move to others. Some of them lingered on land. Here they found enough food for themselves and had no competitors. These were the first land vertebrates on Earth. Ancient amphibians gave rise to modern groups of animals of this class.

Origin of reptiles

The first reptiles appeared on Earth about 285 million years ago.

At that time, a warm, dry climate established on Earth. Only those amphibians survived that could hide from the dry air in swamps, or those that had drier skin, better developed lung sacs, and could lay eggs in a dense shell with a large supply of nutrients.

The development of the embryo lengthened, but what emerged was not a helpless larva, but a formed animal, adapted to living conditions on land. From such ancient amphibians reptiles with thick, keratinized skin that prevented evaporation could have originated. The lungs had a cellular structure, ribs appeared, and a chest was formed. A septum appeared in the ventricle of the heart, but the blood was still partially mixed. The cervical region of the skeleton has lengthened and the head has become more mobile. The sense organs have improved, the cerebellum, which is responsible for the coordination of movements, has enlarged.

Origin of birds

The idea of the origin of birds from ancient reptiles is confirmed by the finds of prints of ancient birds. Such prints were found in Europe in 1861 and 1877 (Germany) on slate with features inherent in both reptiles and birds. The scientific name is Archeopteryx (first bird). They were the size of a pigeon. Magpies, covered with feathers, were distinguished by real wings, an elongated tarsus, and a finger arrangement of 3 fingers forward and one back, like modern birds. An elongated tail, a heavy skeleton, small teeth in the jaws, and bones not filled with air indicated a resemblance to reptiles.

The structure of the wing, a small sternum without a keel, a tail, and tail feathers on each vertebra, allowed us to assume that the first birds were poor fliers and led an arboreal lifestyle. Scientists believe that about 180 million. years ago, the first birds evolved from small reptiles that lived in trees and could jump from branch to branch.

.Origin of mammals

The similarity of modern mammals with reptiles, especially in the early stages of development, indicates the close relationship of these groups of animals, suggesting that mammals descended from ancient reptiles. This is confirmed by the finds of skeletons of extinct wild-toothed lizards, which had even more signs of similarity with mammals. Currently, there are mammals that are very close in structure to reptiles. These are primal beasts or oviparous ones.

Scientists have established that mammals, like birds, descended from reptiles. The main characteristics of mammals - viviparity, feeding their young with milk - are developed unequally in modern animals of this class. In this regard, mammals are divided into proto-beasts (egg-laying) like reptiles, but the young are fed with milk like mammals.

Animals (marsupials and placentals). Many animals that lived before have no analogues in the modern animal world - they are extinct. Today paleontologists are trying to unravel the reasons why they disappeared. According to assumptions, the extinction occurred due to climate change. As air temperatures on Earth dropped, giant reptiles became less viable. The eggs they laid did not always produce offspring. The onset of cooling caused a change in the vegetation on which the herbivorous lizards fed. At low temperatures, they could not compete with some species of warm-blooded animals and birds that lived at that time. The largest extinct animals were dinosaurs.

2. Embryological evidence

Embryology is the science of the embryonic development of organisms, the individual development of organisms.

(According to the figure in the Textbook, compare chordate embryos. Find similarities. Draw a conclusion).

A comparison of the characteristics of embryonic development of representatives of various groups of vertebrates, for example fish, newt, turtle, bird, rabbit, pig and human, showed that all embryos in the early stages of development are very similar to each other. The early stages of development of embryos of all classes, including mammals, are similar to fish embryos: there are gill slits, a tail, 1 circle of blood circulation)

Thus, the study of the embryonic development of various groups of vertebrate animals shows the relationship of the organisms being compared, clarifies the path of their historical development and serves as evidence in favor of the existence of the evolution of living organisms.

Fastening:

Answers on questions.

Homework: paragraph 49.

Evidence of evolution

How to prove evolutionary theory? Confirm experimentally? Such an experiment will last for millions of years, because that’s exactly how long it took nature to form modern species... There is no 100% evidence of evolution.

Morphological evidence of evolution

Morphology studies the external structure of organisms. The structure is compared. The similarity in the structure of homologous organs is justified by a common ancestor.

Additional evidence for evolution is provided by the logical conclusion that an organism that has a vestigial or atavistic organ received it from an ancestor.

Any vestigial organ of an organism was fully developed in its ancestors. This means that each discovered rudiment must correspond to the evolutionary tree, otherwise the foundations of the theory of evolution would have to be revised.

Embryological evidence for evolution

Many organisms have a striking similarity in the structure of their embryos.

Take the frog tadpole, for example. Well, it's almost a fish! This, of course, is not quite an embryo, but the trend is obvious.

When embryos develop, they seem to pass successively through the basic structural features of previous forms.

In 1928 Karl Baer clearly formulated this feature as “ law of germinal resemblance": the earlier stages of individual development are studied, the more similarities are found between different organisms."

Ernst Haeckel, an outstanding scientist of the early 20th century, clarified and slightly reformulated this law:

During the process of embryonic development, many structural features of ancestral forms are repeated - in the early stages the characteristics of more distant ancestors are repeated, and in the later stages - of close ancestors (more related modern forms).

Paleontological evidence of evolution

How the animal and even plant world changed can be judged from fossils - paleontological evidence of evolution.

Usually the layers are superimposed on each other in chronological order, so the age of a particular find can be determined. Although this method also has its rather significant drawbacks - the layers often shift, this is the first thing, and the second - not all living organisms were able to leave their fossilized trace.

Another huge disadvantage is that a “whole” cast is very rarely found, and scientists have to literally put together puzzles from what was found.

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Every day we walk past, and sometimes right over, fossilized shells and imprints of living creatures that lived on Earth millions of years before our appearance. Moreover, these creatures are not microscopic at all, some of them reach 50-70 centimeters in diameter.

At least 20 metro stations can rightfully be considered the halls of a free paleontological museum. These are mainly old stations of the Red, Blue and Circle lines, built in the 50-70s of the 20th century. Then the stations were finished with natural stone, mainly marble of various colors and shades, in which fossils are clearly visible. Since the 70s, they began to use tiles and concrete - these stations are empty in terms of fossils.

But recently the tradition of cladding the metro with natural stone has been renewed - Victory Park, the last open station of the Moscow metro to date, is lined with orange marble with a huge number of ammonite and belemnite shells.

The age of fossils is tens, or even hundreds of millions of years. The youngest fossils are about 70 million years old, the oldest are about 500 million years old.

Station " Victory Park"— ammonites ranging in size from 10 to 70 cm in length;

Dobryninskaya and station “ Ilyich Square” - “evidence” about the fossil cephalopod - the nautilus and about;

station "Elektrozavodskaya"— there is a whole coral reef in the wall;

The walls are lined with red marble with shells of brachiopods, nautiluses, sponges and whole spines;

At the stations " Mayakovskaya" And " Red Gate» there are archaeocyaths;

At the station Lenin's Library"near the transition to " Borovitskaya» It is very easy to notice the rather large shells of gastropods and brachiopods.

The age of the shells is about 300 million years, this is the Carboniferous period. Similar fauna is found on " Komsomolskaya-radial" and to " Park of Culture". There are bivalves, stone borers, and sea lilies.

At the station Revolution square“, famous for its sculptures, many shells can be seen on the columns. These are rudist mollusks, famous for their external resemblance to solitary corals. Like corals, they could form reefs. You can also see real large colonial corals there.

And this is not a complete list of stations where there are fossilized inhabitants of the seas from the distant past.

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Biochemical evidence for evolution

All biochemists know that there are 4 types of organic compounds -, and.

The division of the living world into kingdoms is based precisely on the biochemical composition of organisms.

All cells of all living things, whether prokaryotes (bacteria) or eukaryotes (unicellular organisms, fungi, plants and animals) are composed of the same classes of organic compounds - nucleotides, lipids, proteins and carbohydrates.

That's not all.

Similar energy processes— all living organisms obtain energy through the breakdown of high-molecular compounds.

Well main proof- structure DNA molecules.

Biogeographic evidence for evolution

Usually, the habitats of closely related species are also not too distant.

It is known that geographical isolation always leads to the formation of a new species.

The most striking example is the nature of Madagascar - once this island (at that time it was not yet an island) was part of the continent of Gondwana - Africa + South America + Australia and Antarctica.

Most typical African animals are absent here - there are no antelopes, giraffes, rhinoceroses, elephants. There is not a single poisonous snake on the large island, and there are no freshwater fish in the streams. Lemurs, prosimians now found only in Madagascar, became the emblematic species. Even more surprising is that the island is home to an iguana, the closest relative of which lives 10,000 kilometers away, in South America.

It turns out that animals remained on the island, the fossil remains of which are found on the continents.

Evidence of evolution lead to the conclusion that all living species are branches of one huge evolutionary tree, which has one source.

But no one can say with 100% accuracy what source this is. Science still has many unsolved mysteries and unfinished puzzles.

A hypothesis becomes a theory when there is evidence. And the evolutionary theory has a lot of such evidence.

Interpretation of these facts is a completely different matter; here scientists still have a lot of work to do...

The very first evidence scientists encountered was paleontological.

Paleontology deals with remains - bones, prints, etc.

How do we know that there were no mammals before and that dinosaurs roamed the planet millions of years ago? Based on found bones, less often - based on entire skeletons.

How did humanity learn about ancient invertebrates or plants of that period? From prints, tissue fragments, fossils, etc.

Morphological evidence of evolution

Firstly, this homologous And similar organs.

Homologous organs have a common origin.
Similar - different, but outwardly similar.

Before we look at the criteria for these organs and examples, let's look at two paths along which evolution took place.

Path number 1 - divergence.

Translated, this word means “divergence”, “deviation”.

Let's imagine that once there was one species of some animal. Then some group of individuals of this species decided to develop a new territory. There were new conditions in this territory and under their influence the species changed, evolved, and acquired new characteristics. As a result, his organs were slightly modified.

This is how they appeared homologous organs.

Path number 2 - convergence

In translation - “rapprochement”, “unification”.

Let's imagine that there are two different types of animals. But their living conditions are the same (for example, water or air). Accordingly, they develop, evolve, produce
adaptations to a given environment. These devices (organs) will be very similar, but their origins will still be different.

We get similar organs.

Sign	Homologues	Analogs
Origin	General	Various
Functions	May vary	Are common
Evolutionary path	Divergence	Convergence
Examples:	Limbs of deer, whale, bat Modifications of leaves in plants	bird wings and arthropod wings, in plants - spines on the stem and spines - leaves

Secondly, these are atavisms and rudiments.

There is a lot of information about this, here we will analyze the essence of their differences:

Characteristics	Atavisms	Rudiments
Functions	no, they are superfluous, not considered the norm for the majority of people living today	some can perform some functions, others are not used, all representatives of the species have them.
Evolutionarily	were developed and functioned in very distant ancestors, were preserved in DNA and are occasionally manifested today	were developed and functioned both in ancestors and in their closest relatives
Examples	in humans: tail, in animals: extra toes on a horse's foot	in humans: ear muscles, wisdom teeth in animals: whale pelvic bones

Embryological evidence

If you look at the development of the embryos of some mammals, then in the early stages you can see similarities that are simply surprising. Studying these similarities allowed scientists to draw certain conclusions.

One of these scientists was the German scientist Karl Baer.

The irony of the situation is that the scientist himself rejected Darwin’s theory, but now his works are used to prove the theory of evolution :)

“At the early stages of development, a striking similarity is revealed in the structure of the embryos of animals belonging to different classes (in this case, the embryo of the highest form is similar not to the adult animal form, but to its embryo...” K. Baer

This conclusion was later reformulated by Ernst Haeckel:

Ontogenesis (individual development) of a living organism repeats its phylogenetic (historical) development.

Biogeographical evidence

The geographic distribution of animals and plants corresponds to their evolutionary history.

For example, the species composition of many islands was determined by geographic isolation.
In Australia, for example, you can meet animals that are not found on the continent - endemics.
There are even paleoendemics - “living fossils” - in other places they became extinct, but remained in isolated places.

Biochemical evidence for evolution

The DNA molecule stores information about the phylogeny of an organism; it records both heredity and variability.
general chemical (organic and inorganic) composition,
The genetic code is common to all living things: both prokaryotes - bacteria, and eukaryotic organisms.
the process of glycolysis is the same for all eukaryotic systems and the ATP molecule is a common “energy supplier” for all living things

Embryological evidence of evolution

All multicellular animals go through the blastula and gastrula stages during individual development. The similarity of embryonic stages within individual species and classes is particularly clear. For example, in all terrestrial vertebrates, as well as in fish, the formation of gill arches is found, although these formations have no functional significance in adult organisms. This similarity of embryonic embryonic stages is explained by the unity of origin of all living organisms.

Morphological evidence of evolution

The existence of forms combining the characteristics of several systematic units indicates that in previous geological eras there lived organisms that were the ancestors of several systematic groups. Based on Kovalevsky’s research, the entire group of animals was added to the vertebrates and this type was given the name chordate. The connection between different classes of animals also well illustrates their common origin. The structure of the forelimbs of some vertebrates, despite the performance of completely different functions by these organs, is generally similar. Some bones in the skeleton of the limbs may be absent, others may be fused, but their homology is quite obvious. Organs that develop from the same embryonic rudiments in a similar way are called homologous. Some organs do not function in adult animals and are redundant - these are rudiments. The presence of rudiments as well as homologous organs is evidence of a common origin

Paleontological features

Paleontological data indicate a change in animals and plants over time. Paleontology also points to the causes of evolutionary transformations. The richest paleontological material is one of the most convincing evidence of the evolutionary process.

Biogeographic evidence for evolution

A clear indication of the evolutionary changes that have occurred and are ongoing is the distribution of various animals and plants throughout the planet. A. Wallace managed to compile the biogeography of the regions:

1) Palearctic

2) Neoarctic

3) Indo-Malayan

4) Ethiopian

5) Neotropical

6) Australian.

Comparison of the animal and plant worlds between zones provides rich material for evidence of the evolutionary process. The distribution of animal and plant species over the surface of the planet and their grouping into biogeographic zones reflects the process of the historical development of the Earth and the evolution of animals

Island flora and fauna.

To understand the evolutionary process, the fauna and flora of the islands are of interest. The composition of their F and F depends entirely on the origin of these islands. Islands can be of continental origin or oceanic. Mainland islands are characterized by flora and fauna similar in composition to that of the mainland. The older the island and the more significant the water barrier, the more differences are found. When examining oceanic islands, it was found that their species composition is very poor. There are no land mammals or amphibians. The entire fauna of oceanic islands is the result of accidental settlement. A huge number of various factors indicate that the characteristics of the distribution of living beings on the planet are closely related to the transformation of the earth's crust and the evolutionary change of species.