Book contents
- The Evolution of Everything
- The Evolution of Everything
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure Credits
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Part I Introduction to the Scientific Perspective on the Past
- Chapter 2: The Origins of the Universe
- Chapter 3: The Structure and History of the Earth
- Chapter 4: Life
- Chapter 5: Evolution
- Chapter 6: Genetics
- Chapter 7: The Evolution of Complex Life
- Chapter 8: The Cambrian Explosion
- Chapter 9: Fish and Land Animals
- Chapter 10: Protohumans
- Chapter 11: The Genus Homo
- Chapter 12: Human Variation
- Chapter 13: Evolution and Human Behavior
- Chapter 14: Brain Evolution
- Chapter 15: Chaos and Complexity
- Part II Science and History
- Additional Readings
- Index
Chapter 5: - Evolution
from Part I - Introduction to the Scientific Perspective on the Past
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2022
- The Evolution of Everything
- The Evolution of Everything
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure Credits
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Part I Introduction to the Scientific Perspective on the Past
- Chapter 2: The Origins of the Universe
- Chapter 3: The Structure and History of the Earth
- Chapter 4: Life
- Chapter 5: Evolution
- Chapter 6: Genetics
- Chapter 7: The Evolution of Complex Life
- Chapter 8: The Cambrian Explosion
- Chapter 9: Fish and Land Animals
- Chapter 10: Protohumans
- Chapter 11: The Genus Homo
- Chapter 12: Human Variation
- Chapter 13: Evolution and Human Behavior
- Chapter 14: Brain Evolution
- Chapter 15: Chaos and Complexity
- Part II Science and History
- Additional Readings
- Index
Summary
This chapter provides an outline of Mendelian and molecular genetics, with a particular emphasis on how DNA provides evidence of a single origin for all living things. It discusses the role of genetics in serial homology, and how that demonstrates genetic relatedness among vertebrates especially, and it shows how homologous HOX genes provide the head–tail orientation and body plan segmentation for animals as diverse as the house fly and human, and that we see this same pattern of segmentation as far back as the Cambrian. It also explains how the independent DNA of mitochondria and chloroplasts provide evidence for a deep history of symbiosis between the host and parasite for both plants and animals. This chapter provides a support for later chapters reviewing principles of evolution and the evolutionary history of complex organisms.
- Type
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- Information
- The Evolution of EverythingThe Patterns and Causes of Big History, pp. 60 - 76Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022