Complete summary of the course Evolutionary Developmental Biology (AB_1141) from the 1st year of biomedical sciences, VU Amsterdam. This summary contains all the information needed for partial exam 1, 2 and 3, and includes all the material from the lectures and the book that was required for this c...
,Lecture 1 | EDB introduction 3
Lecture 2 | The story of our ancestors 3
Lecture 3 | Migrations & hybridizations 6
Lecture 4+5 | Phylogenetic reconstruction 10
Lecture 6 | Genetics 12
Lecture 7 | Partner choice & sexuality 14
Lecture 8 | Model organisms 17
Lecture 9+10 | Genetic variation and selection 19
Lecture 11+12 | Neutral evolution and genetic distance 23
Lecture 13+14 | Cleavage patterns, germ layers & body axes 25
Lecture 15 | Molecular evolution of body plans 29
Lecture 16 | Bipedalism 32
Lecture 17 | Gill arches 33
Lecture 18 | The heart 35
Lecture 19 | Kidney and lung 36
Lecture 20 | Heterochrony 38
Lecture 21 | Developmental plasticity 40
Lecture 22 | Aging and life history evolution 42
Lecture 23 | Journal club: Sex di erence in pathology of the aging gut
mediates the greater response of female lifespan to dietary restriction 45
Lecture 24 | Evolution of the brain 46
Lecture 25 | Language and cognition 49
Lecture 26+27 | Defenses & pathogen evolution 50
Lecture 28 | Evolution of sociality 55
Lecture 29 | Cultural evolution 57
Lecture 30+31 | Evolutionary mismatches & modern society 60
2
ff
,Lecture 1 | EDB introduction
- Charles Darwin (1859), On the Origin of Species
- Evolution: change in heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive
generations
- Natural selection:
1. Variation in reproductive success
2. Variation in trait of interest
3. Correlation between trait and reproductive success
4. Trait is heritable
- Survival of the ttest
- ~1920-1950: modern evolutionary synthesis
> Merging natural selection with genetics
- Darwinism + modern synthesis (Neo-Darwinism) + extended synthesis
- Since early 1990s: Darwinian/evolutionary medicine
- Types of thinking:
- Typological — ‘normal’/average condition is most important aspect to consider
- Population — understanding variation in a population
> Patterns of variation in space+time
> See evolution ‘live’ in action (e.g. covid-19 or antibiotic resistance)
> Heritable traits with standing genetic variation and possibly subject to selection
in humans
> Behavior, physiology, morphology, life-cycle traits
> Not everything is adaptive
> When is something adaptive?
1. Observing natural selection (experimental evolution in microorganisms/
nematodes/insects)
2. Perturbing the trait (move trait away from its optimum)
3. Trait is produced only when it serves a function (e.g. spine development
in Daphnia when predators are present)
> Most of these are not possible in humans -> model organisms +
association studies / phylogenetic analyses
- Tree thinking — understanding the position of a species/trait in phylogenetic tree
> Expresses relationship among organisms and their evolutionary history
Lecture 2 | The story of our ancestors
- Homo sapiens (‘knowledgeable man’)
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Subphylum: Vertebrata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Primates
- Family: Hominidae (human, chimpanzee, gorilla)
- Subfamily: Homininae (~7 Mya)
> Bipedalism, brain size, family structure and sexuality
> Homo sapiens is only species alive
- Genus: Homo
- ~4100 Mya — Origin of life
- ~18 Mya — Hominidae (great apes)
- Primates are our ‘extended family’; Hominidae-speci c characteristics are: no tail, remarkably
long periods of nursing and adolescence, sexual dimorphism
3
fi fi
, - Homininae are our closest relatives
> Many splits and dead ends (cladogenesis; new species emerge from side branches,
while main branch continues/dies out)
> Anagenesis: gradual evolution of a species; main branch evolves in straight line
into a new species, without splitting; only 1 species is alive at a time
> Precise phylogeny still debated
- All old fossil hominins are found in Africa (mostly East Africa, Great Rift Valley)
- Ecological context of hominin evolution:
- African rain forest gave way to savannah 10 Mya -> novel ecological niche (terrestrial
instead of arboreal lifestyle demanded adaptation)
- Important hominin species:
- Australopithecus afarensis
- Lived in Africa, ~3.5 Mya
- Ancestor of all Homo species
- Mosaic of ancestral and derived traits
- Homo erectus
- Lived in Africa and Asia, ~1.5 Mya
- African H. erectus ancestor of H. sapiens
- Homo neanderthalensis
- Lived in Europe and Asia, 600-30 kya
- Similarities to H. sapiens; extinct sister clade
- From early hominins to Australopithecus (road towards bipedalism):
- Ardipithecus ramidus (‘Ardi’) (5.8-5.2 Mya) was bipedal, but still with primitive traits:
most notably, foot with large hallux abduction
- In Australopithecus, bipedalism was accomplished
> Step-wise re-organization of entire skeleton
> Basis for evolution of other ‘human’ adaptations
- Bipedalism freed the hands (allowing availability for taking food to home base),
enhances overview of surroundings (predators more easily spotted), e cient way of
moving forward without proceeding too fast, straight-up posture reduces quantity of
absorbed solar radiation while upper body is able to cool o by using air ow (better
heat regulation in hot climate)
- Lucy (A. Afarensis, 3.2 Mya, excavated 1974 in Ethiopia) was most complete Australopithecus
fossil at that time
- First to display characteristics of bipedalism AND small brain -> settled ‘brain rst’ vs
‘bipedalism rst’ debate
- Mosaic evolution in Australopithecus:
- Not all humanlike traits evolved at same time
- Apomorphic (derived, newly evolved) vs plesiomorphic (ancestral)
- Skull shape and brain volume largely plesiomorphic
- Dental arcade changed from U-shaped to parabolic and became shorter
- Reduction in canine teeth size in Australopithecus, but still signi cant sexual
dimorphism
> Teeth di erence ~ diet
> Robust (herbivore) vs gracile (omnivore) species could exist
simultaneously; robust all became extinct
- A. Afarensis had a strong sexual dimorphism in body size
> Sexual dimorphism due to living in harems (single dominant male with several females ->
competition among males -> dimorphism due to intra-sexual selection)
> Baboons are polygynous (living in harem groups), very dimorphic
> Gibbons are monogamous, not dimorphic
> Dimorphism gradually disappeared
4
fi ff ff fi ffi fl fi
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller SummaryLin. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $11.12. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
