Unit 1
Animal Evolution
Evolution (Chapters 4 & 5)
(10 Days)
Enduring Understanding:
The scientific theory of evolution by means of natural selection is a fundamental concept underlying all of biology. All organisms change over
time because they are locked in a struggle for existence whereby those organisms better adapted to their immediate environment are more
likely to survive and leave more offspring.
Essential Questions
State Benchmark from Course Description
SC.912.L.15.13
Describe the conditions required for natural selection, including: overproduction of
offspring, inherited variation, and the struggle to survive, which result in differential
reproductive success.
 Students will understand that organic evolution is the change of a population
over time.
 What is the theory
 Students will understand that adaptive radiation is the formation of new
of evolution by
forms from an ancestral species in response to differing habitats, by
natural selection?
investigating Darwin’s discovery of the Galapagos Finches.
(3 days)
 Students will compare natural selection to artificial selection and understand
that both deal with traits being favored within environmentally limited
populations.
 Students will understand the significance of adaptation in the process of
evolutionary change and investigate this using the example of the Arctic
Hare (Lepus articus).
Honors Extension:
 Students will compare and contrast the work of Darwin and Lamarack noting
that Lamarck thought that changes were acquired during the life of a parent
organism and then transmitted to their offspring while Darwin deducted that
changes were already present in the parent organisms, and that the best
adapted to that situation survived to breed, which meant that those genetic
changes become common in the following generations.
Enduring Understanding: Microevolution is defined as the change of allele frequencies within a population. Macroevolution is defined as
evolutionary change at the species level or higher, that is, the formation of new species. Evidence that macroevolution occurs include fossils,
biochemical molecules, anatomical structures, and developmental processes.
Essential Questions
State Benchmark from Course Description
Honors Extension(s)
SC.912.L.15.3
Describe how biological diversity is increased by the origin of new  Bulleted Student Learning Goals (written
species and how it is decreased by the natural process of
from the perspective of the student)
extinction.
 Students will know that microevolution involves change in
allelic frequency in populations over time and
 How does
macroevolution involves large-scale changes that result in
Microevolution differ
extinction and formation of new species.
from Macroevolution?
 Students will understand the various evidence of
(0.5 days)
macroevolutionary change (Biogeography, Paleontology, and
Analogy & Homology – Comparative Anatomy {vestigial
 What evidence is there
structures, ancestral patterns of vertebrate forelimbs},
for Macroevolution?
Molecular Biology, and Developmental patterns) and use this
(2.5 days)
to analyze the Big-Cat phylogeny.
Honors Extension:
 Students will understand that Molecular Clock is a
technique in molecular evolution that uses fossil
constraints and rates of molecular change to deduce the
time in geologic history when two species or other taxa
diverged.
 Students will define Homeotic Genes.
Enduring Understanding: Individuals do not evolve, populations evolve. Changes occur at the level of the genes. When sufficient beneficial
changes have occurred, new species are produced.
Essential Questions
State Benchmark from Course Description
Honors Extension(s)
SC.912.L.15.14
Discuss mechanisms of evolutionary change other than natural selection such
 Bulleted Student
as genetic drift and gene flow.
Learning Goals (written
 Students will define population as a group of organisms of the same
from the perspective of
species usually found in a clearly defined geographical area.
the student)
 Students will define gene pool as the total variety of genes and alleles
How does Genetic Drift and
present in a sexually reproducing population.
Gene Flow contribute to
 Students will recognize that a population whose gene pool shows
evolutionary change? ( 2 days)
consistent change from generation to generation is undergoing
evolutionary change.
 Students understand that population size, genetic drift and neutral
evolution are all mechanisms of evolution.
 Students recognize that genetic drift refers to the fact that variation in
gene frequencies within populations can occur by chance rather than by
natural selection which can lead to a loss in genetic diversity.
 Students will describe the founder effect as a phenomenon which occurs
when a small population becomes split off from the parent population, it is
not truly representative of the parent population since some alleles may
be absent in the small population.
 Students will use the example of the northern elephant seal (Mirounga
angustirostris) to describe the bottleneck effect.
 Students will define gene flow as changes in relative allelic frequency from
the migration of individuals and how a lack of this has led to the African
elephants being separated into two distinct species.
Honors Extension:
 Students will investigate The Hardy-Weinberg Theorem and note that
if these conditions are not met, then microevolution DOES NOT occur.
Enduring Understanding: Mutations and selection are necessary for evolutionary change. There are different types of selection which can propel
this change. Significant changes can lead to the formation of new species. Speciation is caused when genes are limited from flowing between
populations. Speciation can occur in three different ways.
Essential Questions
State Benchmark from Course Description
Honors Extension(s)
SC.912.L.15.15
Describe how mutation and genetic recombination increase genetic
 Bulleted Student Learning Goals
variation.
(written from the perspective of
 Students understand that mutations are the source of new
the student)
genetic material for populations and that the tendency for gene
How do mutations and
frequencies to change as a result of mutation is called mutation
selection affect changes in a
pressure.
population? (0.5 days)
 Students will define selection pressure as a means of increasing
or decreasing the spread of an allele within the gene pool which
What are the different modes
can propel evolutionary change.
of selection and why are each
 Students will recognize the different modes of selection –
advantageous to certain
Directional, Disruptive and Stabilizing.
organisms? (1 day)
 Students will use the Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) to define
and explain Directional Selection.
How does speciation occur? (
 Students will use the plainfin midshipman ( Porichthys notatus)
1.5 days)
to define and explain Disruptive Selection.
 Students will use the horseshoe crab (Limulus) to define and
explain Stabilizing Selection.
 Students will define species as a group of populations in which
genes are exchanged through interbreeding.
 Students will understand that speciation is when a new species
forms and that reproductive isolation prevents speciation from
occurring.
 Students will understand the differences between Allopatric,
Parapatric and Sympatric Speciation.
Honors Extension:
 Students will compare Punctuated Equilibrium with Phyletic
Gradualism.