Evolution
A Short Biography of Life
a play
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Age of the universe: 13.72 ± 0.12 billion years
Age of solar system: 4.54 ± 0.45 billion years
Age of earth: ~4 billion years
Age of life: ~3.5 billion years
Age of eukaryotes: ~1.8 billion years
Age of multicellulars: ~1.2 billion years
Age of chordates: 500-550 million years
Age of mammals: ~240 million years
Age of placentals: ~130 million years
Age of primates: ~60 million years
Age of apes: ~30 million years
Age of genus Homo: ~2.5 million years
Age of Homo sapiens: ~150,000 years
Written history: ~5,000 years
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23:52 PM
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Antonio Snider-Pellegrini. 1858. La Création
et ses mystères dévoilés ("Creation and its
Mysteries Unveiled")
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Bullard’s fit (by computer)
Edward Bullard
Bullard E, Everett JE, Smith AG. 1965. The fit of the continents
around the Atlantic. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London 258A: 41-51.
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Alfred Lothar Wegener
(1880-1930)
Die Entstehung der
Kontinente und Ozeane
[The origin of continents
and oceans], 1915.
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Continental drift
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Paleontological Evidence
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plants don’t swim!
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slow process
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separartions
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collisions
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94 million years ago to present
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Present to 250 million years into the future
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Do not buy waterfront real estate in Texas!
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Magnetic north pole
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Estimated Numbers of Described Extant Species (Lecointre and Guyader 2001)*
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Taxon
Common Name
Number of described species
Percentage of total (%)
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Bacteria
true bacteria
9021
0.5
Archaea
archaebacteria
259
0.01
Bryophyta
mosses
15000
0.9
Lycopodiophyta
clubmosses
1275
0.07
Filicophyta
ferns
9500
0.5
Coniferophyta
conifers
601
0.03
Magnoliophyta
flowering plants
233885
13.4
Fungi
fungi
100800
5.8
"Porifera"
sponges
10000
0.6
Cnidaria
cnidarians
9000
0.5
Rotifera
rotifers
1800
0.1
Platyhelminthes
flatworms
13780
0.8
Mollusca
mollusks
117495
6.7
Annelida
annelid worms
14360
0.8
Nematoda
nematodes
20000
1.1
Arachnida
arachnids
74445
4.3
Crustacea
crustaceans
38839
2.2
Insecta
insects
827875
47.4
Echinodermata
echinoderms
6000
0.3
Chondrichthyes
cartilaginous fishes
846
0.05
Actinopterygii
ray-finned bony fishes
23712
1.4
Lissamphibia
amphibians
4975
0.3
Mammalia
mammals
4496
0.3
Chelonia
turtles
290
0.02
Squamata
lizards and snakes
6850
0.4
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Aves
birds
9672
0.6
Other
193075
11.0
About right…
Vertebrates
50,841
Flowering Plants 233,885
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Slight underestimates…
Arthropods
941,159
Fungi
100,800
~3,000,000-30,000,000 species
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Huge underestimates…
Bacteria
Archaea
9,021
259
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Total number of described species:
1,747,851
Estimated range of total number of
species in the world:
3,600,000 to 117,700,000
Erwin TL. 1982. Tropical forests: Their richness in Coleoptera and other
arthropod species. The Coleopterist Bulletin 36(1): 74-75.
Lecointre G & Le Guyader H. 2001. Classification phylogenetique du
vivant. Belin: Paris.
Cracraft C. 2002. The seven great questions of systematic biology: an
essential foundation for conservation and the sustainable use of
biodiversity. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 89:127-144.
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“There are known knowns. These are things we know
that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to
say, there are things that we know we don't know. But
there are also unknown unknowns. There are things
we don't know we don't know.” Donald Rumsfeld
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~30% of all animals are beetles
There is a story, possibly apocryphal, of the distinguished British
biologist, J. B. S. Haldane, who found himself in the company of a
group of theologians. On being asked what one could conclude as to
the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation, Haldane is
said to have answered, “An inordinate fondness for beetles.”
Hutchinson, G. E. 1959. Homage to Santa Rosalia or
Why are there so many kinds of animals? Am. Nat.
93:145-159.
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Allocation of money and scientific effort in the study of
eukaryotes
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Background
Extinctions
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Mass
Extinctions
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K/T event
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K/T event
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Per od c ty?
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Controversy:
Do mass extinctions
exhibit a periodicity
of 25-32 million
years?
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GPC-3 = name of a sample sediment core
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Controversy:
Is the cause of mass extinctions
always extraterrestrial?
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Acceleration of extinction rates?
Unit = extinctions per million species per year (E/MSY)
1500-1900
25 E/MSY
1900-2000 50-150 E/MSY
2000-2006 1500 E/MSY
Pimm S, Raven P, Peterson A, Sekercioglu ÇH &
Ehrlich PR. 2006. Human impacts on the rates of
recent, present, and future bird extinctions. Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 10941-10946.
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