Essays on Macroevolution

Chapter 1 What Is Evolution?

In Coyne’s Why Evolution Is True (2009), the debate between the theories of creationism and evolution is introduced. The two theories take vastly different approaches to explain how and why the world is full of the many variations of plants, animals, insects, reptiles, and human beings. The theory of creationism explains these things by intelligent design. This is where divine intervention takes place and an almighty, omnipotent god creates all beings, all of a sudden, with all of the variations needed to survive in the environment that they currently live. There is no macroevolution, only slight adaptations of ...

Abstract

Theory of evolution as proposed by Darwin has for long hinged on the fossil records to prove the process of evolution. However, the prevalent gaps in the fossils led way to the development of the punctuated equilibrium theory that was proposed by Eldredge and Gould as an alternative to Darwin’s phyletic gradualism theory. The punctuated equilibrium postulated that speciation occurs in an isolated peripheral subsect of population as a rapid change after a period of stasis. Unlike the anagenetic speciation of phyletic gradualism, punctuated equilibrium promotes the concept of cladogenetic speciation. However, punctuated equilibrium does consider rapid anagenetic speciation as a ...

1) Vaccines typically prevent specific viral or bacterial illness (e.g. mumps; measles;chickenpox; tetanus; rabies), but many people who get annual flu shots still get the flu why? The reason why people still get the flu despite having annual flu shots is because no vaccine is 100% effective. Some flu vaccines do not protect a person from the other viruses that circulate. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the flu shot depends on the age and health status of the individual who get the vaccine. Vaccines are more effective among young, healthy adults and older children. After vaccination some people with ...

Introduction

Evolution is a very interesting concept in anthropology. It refers to the biological populations’ alteration of the inherited characteristics over successive generations. The processes in evolution bring diversity at each biological organization level including, individual organisms, molecules like proteins and DNA, and species. According to what we know, life on this universe actually originated and afterwards evolved from universal common ancestor. Perhaps this is what makes the subject of evolution appear more interesting since through it we get well informed about where we originated from and about our evolution. The concept of evolution is basically categorized under both micro ...

Different species on earth have a common ancestry despite their variations. The process through which species on earth acquire different characteristics over successive generations is referred to as evolution. It is the gradual change of inherited characteristics from one generation to another over a given period of time (Havilland et al 24). Evolutionary scientists presume that all life on earth can trace their origin from one common source but then acquired different characteristics through various evolutionary mechanisms. Evolution is described in two broad perspectives, micro and macroevolution. Macro evolution refers to changes that occur at the species level. Macroevolution occurs ...

Evolution is the progressive alteration in the inherited features of a biological population. The progressive change, gives rise to diversity at the various stages of biological organization, these stages are namely molecules, species and individual organisms. A biological population is a group of organisms that share a common gene pool, hence they can interbreed between each other, and they live in the same geographical area (Karleskint et al. 25). A gene pool is sum total genetic information on any population of a specific species while, species is a group of organisms that can interbreed to produce a fertile offspring (Brock 13). Macroevolution is the ...

Microevolution is the way in which individual traits change overtime within a certain population. For a population to revolutionize, some things must just be assumed to be true. In simple terms, there must be some processes involved that in the long run will cause microevolution. Microevolution mainly occurs due to the presence variations. Variations among individuals normally take place in what is referred to as the gene pool of the population. Genetic pool is the compilation of the genetic information of all individuals within a certain population. No two individuals in a population have the similar blend of genes, some genes may be ...

Physical Anthropology is described as one of the branches of anthropology that specifically deals with the aspect of evolutionary biology, genetics, physical variation, classification and human development .

1. PALEOANTHROPOLOGY - is one of the subjects under physical anthropology that focuses on the study of fossil records to unlock the secrets of the puzzle that is human evolution.

2. NEUROANTHROPOLOGY - is a subject in physical anthropology that talks about the evolutionary process and transformation of the brain and how it influences human evolutionary behavior. It’s also known as the link between anthropology and neuroscience that tackles the subject of ...