Evolution & Inheritance YEAR SIX CYCLE 2 Lesson You will learn: Learning Review Question What do Which types of characteristics species are inherited from parents and inherit from which are environmental their parents? About variation across offspring and a species Examples of cross breeding with dogs Who was That evolution is a change in Charles inherited characteristic Darwin? Life and work of Charles Darwin Evolution Theory Natural Selection and ‘Survival of the fittest’ Animals of the Galapágos What About variation and adaptation happened to across a species the peppered About the advantages and moth? disadvantages of certain characteristics How are How the cactus, penguin and some plants camel survive their extreme and animals habitats adapted to extreme conditions? Can evolution Role of fossils in the be development of evolution evidenced? theory (including the work of Mary Anning) Can the What leads to extinction of a extinction of species species be Protecting endangered animals avoided? and plants Lesson 1: What do species inherit from their parents? Inherited traits Traits are your physical characteristics, like your hair or eye colour. Every living thing has traits that make it unique. Most traits are passed down from parents, however, they can also come from your grandparents or even your great- grandparents. Some traits are also influenced by the environment. To better understand how inherited traits work… let’s break it down! Most traits are passed down from parents. Parents pass their physical characteristics, or traits, to their offspring. Offspring are the children of animal parents (and that includes humans, too). When baby animals are formed, some of the traits from the mother and some of the traits from the father are combined to create a unique baby. Sometimes traits can skip a generation. That’s why you might be the only one in the family with a nose that looks like your grandfather’s nose. Inherited Traits: Different individuals can have different traits. If you have siblings, you might have some of the same traits. However, other traits may be different, like your eye color or height. You cannot have all of your mum’s traits AND all of your dad’s traits! It’s always a mixture. When babies are formed, they get some traits from each parent. It’s kind of like shuffling a deck of playing cards. Each time you shuffle the deck and pass out the cards, the players will have a different set of cards to play with. Animals of the same kind share a common set of physical traits. For example, all giraffes have long necks and all birds lay eggs. Animals also have common behavioural traits. We can expect that all bumblebees will gather nectar and pollen and take it back to their beehive. Passing Down Traits: Variation of traits among individuals may provide advantages in surviving. Some traits are very helpful for animals in the wild. If a newborn deer blends into the grass where it was born, it will have a better chance of staying hidden from predators. Camouflage is a trait that helps animals survive. Other traits, such as fur color, speed, and how well an animal can hear also help it survive. Having the prettiest feathers is a helpful trait for findings mates. Environmental Factors: Some traits are influenced by environment. We are all born with the information that will determine our traits. However, different factors in a living thing’s environment can influence the trait. If a person is born with the potential to grow very tall, but they don’t get proper nutrition, it is unlikely that they will be tall. Poison dart frogs are the most brightly colored, and the most poisonous, frogs in the world. They are another good example of how traits can be influenced by the environment. Scientists think that poison dart frogs get their poison from the insects they eat. It is not simply something they are born with. Answer these questions using the text to help you. 1. What are ‘traits’? ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Where do humans get their traits/characteristics from? (Tick one) Your mother and Your mother, father Just your mother Just your father no-one father and grandparents 3. Name two traits that help animals survive _______________________________________________ 4. How do poison dart frogs get their poison? ______________________________________________ Inherited or Environmental? We inherit some characteristics from our parents but sometimes we have characteristics that are caused by the environment we live in. Sort the characteristics from the box into the correct part of the Venn diagram. inherited environmental shape of nose scar from accident eye colour scar from accident height sporting ability hair colour tan from sun language spoken skin colour general health ear lobe shape shape of nose blood group intelligence weight tongue rolling What is variation? All people are human. They belong to the same species. Your friends and classmates may have different eye colour and hair colour. Some will be boys and some will be girls. Some will be tall and some will be shorter. The presence of differences between living things of the same species is called variation. Variation between different species is usually greater than the variation within a species. What is cross breeding? Some species such as dogs, have different breeds. These breeds can then produce new dogs which have a mixture of characteristics from each dog. For example a Labrador and a Poodle can be crossbred to make a Labradoodle. Labrador retriever Poodle Labradoodle Which characteristics has the labradoodle inherited from the Labrador and which have been inherited from the Poodle? Pugs and Beagles can be crossbred to make Puggles. Pug Beagle Puggle Which characteristics has the Puggle inherited from the Pug and which have been inherited from the Beagle? Debate it: Humans should not crossbreed dogs because it often leads to canine health problems. Lesson 2: Who was Charles Darwin? 1. Match the correct definition to the vocabulary by drawing a line. characteristic An animal or person’s young/child A feature or quality belonging typically to a offspring person, place or thing and which identifies them evolution An idea intended to explain something The change in the characteristics of a species theory over several generations and relies on the process of natural selection 2. Name 3 characteristics that you might inherit from your parents. 3. What can you NOT inherit from your parents? Name two things. Charles Darwin Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who changed the way humans viewed themselves and the world around them through his amazing ideas on evolution and natural selection. Read on for interesting facts about Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin was born in England on the 12th of February 1809, he died on the 19th of April 1882. He is most famous for his work on natural selection: the idea that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors. This process involves favourable traits becoming more common in successive generations of living things while at the same time unfavourable traits become less common. Not only did Darwin develop the idea of natural selection, he also presented compelling evidence from his detailed research which included a five year voyage on the HMS Beagle. On this voyage, Darwin visited ecologically diverse regions such as Brazil, Chile, Australia, the Falkland Islands and the Galapagos Islands. His 1859 book ‘On the Origin of Species’, detailed much of his research on natural selection, it contained a large amount of evidence to back up his ideas and became a landmark work in the field of evolutionary biology. Darwin’s ideas created a lot of discussion regarding the impact on various scientific, religious and philosophical viewpoints. Although most of those in educated society accepted the theory of evolution, many still challenge its existence despite the wealth of evidence supporting it. Answer these questions using the text to help you. 1. What is Charles Darwin most famous for? Tick one box. creating a discovering work on natural travelling classification system selection animals 2. Which 5 countries did Charles Darwin visit on HMS Beagle? _____________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ 3. What was the name of the book that Charles Darwin wrote in 1859? _____________________ 4. Does everybody accept Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution? ___________________________ Find out which animals live on the Galapagos Islands (use the internet if available). Choose some, draw and label their characteristics. Lesson 3: What happened to the ‘Peppered Moth’? 1. What is an offspring? _______________________________________________________ 2. What is the name of the famous scientist who created the theory of evolution? _________________________________ 3. Name 3 characteristics that you might inherit from your parents: _____________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Name 1 characteristic that you might have that is environmental: _____________________________ 5. What dangers do animals face in their environments? ______________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Look at these pictures of foxes (Vulpes). They are all foxes, but over time their characteristics have slightly changed as they have adapted to their environment. Discuss why you think their characteristics