The Story of Evolution

The Earth has been around for 4.6 Billion years. The Earth formed when dusts
and cosmic debris came together due to gravity. The Earth was constantly hit by
meteors and therefore heated up so much that it melted. The Earth was a very hot and
toxic place to be. Eventually Earth cooled enough to have a top layer and oceans. The
dense water was brown and covered most of the surface eventually.

How did life start? On a primitive, rough Earth with iron and dirt filled oceans and
toxic air it seems that nothing could live. Yet, this was actually a condition in which
single organic molecules and cells could thrive. This means that single cells were just
popping up out of no where and living on their own! The reason these cells and
molecules could form and live is because the air had no oxygen, which would interfere
with the molecules chemical reactions, and bacteria had not yet evolved to eat up the
cells. These first cells, called microspheres, formed out of bundles of organic molecules
that were just loosely balled up
together. In order for this to happen
the bundles had to be under the right
conditions. Microspheres were
basically single fat cells that could
simply let water in and out and store
energy. These first cells eventually
began to evolve RNA, which lead to
DNA.
Now you are asking how did
oxygen not kill all life when it became
part of our atmosphere? Around the
precambrian time, 2 billion years ago, photosynthetic bacteria first evolved to produce
oxygen. As more and more of these bacteria formed, more oxygen formed. The rise of

oxygen in the atmosphere killed the cells that could not evolve to the new conditions,
while other new life forms evolved to use the oxygen for breathing. The first new type or
organism was the eukaryotic cell, cells with nuclei. Prokaryotic cells are cells without
nuclei. Prokaryotic cells formed eukaryotic cells when large prokaryotic cells absorbed
smaller ones. These smaller cells evolved into organelles like mitochondria in the large
prokaryotic cell. A nuclei formed and the first eukaryotic cells were made. The next
evolution was the development of sexual reproduction, rather than asexual
reproduction. This allowed for cells to
combine their DNA to create a new cell that
was not a replication of either parent, but a
random combination. This allowed for more
genetic variation, or cells with different traits.
Eventually, it lead to the development of
multicellular organisms.
We know that evolution of animals
occurred over time because we can study

the

hard structures that

animals have left behind
when they died. The
animals remains get
covered and condensed
by layers of sediment.
The pressure then
imprints the animals
body structure into the
rock it is in and a fossil is
formed. Fossils let us
observe what they ate,
whether they were
predator or prey, and
what their environments
were like. Scientists have
put together all the fossils in one big database known as the fossil record.
The fossil record shows fossils from many different times in Earths history.
Scientists can determine how old an animal is by determining how old the rock layer is
that they were found in or with a technique called radioactive dating. Overtime we can
see that the fossils evolved to fit their environment and needs of survival with new

skeletal structures. They evolved with better tools like claws to gather food and bones to
adapt to their environment, such as going from water to land.
Using the fossil record, scientists have classified Earth into eras. Each era is split
into periods. Before these Eras was the Precambrian time. The Precambrian time
includes Earth's development and the formation of basic cells. The Precambrian time
includes 90% of Earth's history. That means life has only been here for 10% of the time
since the Earth began to form.
The first era was the Paleozoic Era. It
was when life and diversity in the Oceans grew
significantly. The first period of the Paleozoic
Era was the Cambrian Period. This period saw
the Cambrian Explosion, an extremely rapid
growth in diversity where sea animals
developed shells and outer skeletons, and the
first invertebrates such as sponges and jellyfish
evolved. The second period of this era was the
Ordivician and Silurian Period where the first vertebrate, the jawless fish, evolved along
with the first insects. Third was the Devonian Period. Invertebrates began to invade the
land and many amphibious animals formed. At the same time plants and fish evolved
greatly. The fourth period was the Carboniferous and Permian Periods. By this period
plant life had greatly evolved and reptiles had evolved. However, a mass extinction
occurred in which 95% life became extinct.

Next was the Mesozoic Era, a 180 million year era with flowering plants and
dinosaurs. First came the Triassic Period, a time in which the reptiles, fish, insects, and
plants that survived the mass extinction thrived.
To give you an idea, this Period happened about
225 million years from modern day. 225 MYA
dinosaurs appear and small mammals like mice.
Second, the Jurassic period brought the arrival
of the first birds and big dinosaurs. This 150
million year period saw the bus sized dinosaurs
that you see in Hollywood movies like Jurassic
Park. Third, the Cretaceous Period saw the fall
of flying reptiles, while big dinosaurs like T-rexes
dominated ecosystems. In the oceans, big
dinosaur like organisms such as crocodiles and
turtles evolved. New plants such as leafy trees,
shrubs, and flowers developed. At the end of this period however, another mass
extinction occurred and all of the dinosaurs were wiped out.
The Cenozoic Era was the Age of the Animals. Mammals thrived with no
dinosaurs to prey on them. They evolved to life in land, water, and air. First came the
Tertiary period, where earth was relatively warm
and mild, allowing for grasses to develop and
ancestors of deer and cows to feed on. Second, the
Quaternary Period brought what is commonly
thought of as the Ice Ages. It forced animals to
develop heavy furs and other methods of staying
warm. Then, 20 thousand years ago, the ice melted
and the sea levels rose. Life thrived in the oceans,
land, and skies with mammoths, cattle, bats, and
mollusks. It is found that even our ancestors thrived
in this period when homo sapiens evolved about
200 thousand years ago.

There are lots of animals on the Earth today. We have developed different levels
of classification to better categorize the vast amount of animals today.

We have now covered the Eras

and the classifications of organisms,
but how did these animals evolve the
way they did? The first animals would
never have been fossils because they
have no hard structures that would
have become fossils. After multicellular
organisms arrived, sponges evolved in
the Cambrian period. These animals
were very simple and circulated water
through them and filter fed out of the
water. Later jellyfish formed which were able to now move and have tissues. Over long
periods of time, invertebrates evolved to have many more amazing advancements.
Some cool ones were body systems. We tend to take these for granted, but animals
back then didnt have this luxury. We have a digestive system that has a beginning and
end. Early animals had just 1 opening for both food and waste to enter and exit! Outer
shells formed on some animals to protect them from predators. One final adaption that
animals had was a nervous system to interact with their environment and protect them.
All of these neat evolutions in animals were in invertebrates, meaning that they
have no backbone. A major evolutionary advancement in animals is this backbone that
provided good support and movement. Chordata is mostly characterized by having
something similar to a backbone. Most Chordata contain a backbone, but some have

the beginnings of one. Most of the amazing diversity of animals we see today came
from Chordata evolution.
The first Chordata were fish in the Ordovician and Silurian periods. They evolved
to have this hard backbone to support themselves. Over many millions of years, some
fish evolved to have stubby arms instead of swaying fins to move and lungs to breath
air. This allowed some fish to move onto and live at least part-time on land during the
Devonian period. Over many million more years amphibians evolved to be able to live
on land and water easily. In the Carboniferous period from the Cambrian era reptiles
evolved because of the increased heat in the atmosphere. During the Jurassic period
birds began to evolve with wings
and feathers. Early birds were still
land animals, but gradually
evolved over time to be in the air.
The first mammals were also
emerging during the first birds.
Mammals were generating their
own body heat and nourishing
their young. Finally the first
primates that would later become
humans were evolving by the end
of the Mesozoic era and
beginning of the Cenozoic era.
This means our earliest ancestors
were around just 65 million years
ago out of the 460 million years
that Earth has been around!
Primates would evolve to later
have more human-like characteristics and even later become humans.
How did all these types of organisms come to be when originally there were only
simple cells that were all so similar? The evolution of sexual reproduction, rather than
asexual reproduction accounts for this. Sexual reproduction allowed for cells to combine
their DNA to create a new cells that were not a replication of either parent, but a random
combination. This allowed for more genetic variation, or cells with different traits.
Hundreds of millions of years later, Charles Darwin would explain how this lead to
multiple, different types of species. He observed many different species and different
types of animals on other continents during sailing voyages to Americas. On the
Galapagos Islands he made his most observations. He noticed animals can be told
what island they are from based on features. He found that animals evolved to be best
fit for the environment they are in. He then developed the idea of survival of the fittest.

Scientifically, survival of the fittest is called natural selection. Natural selection is when
animals with the strongest and most important adaptations survive, and therefore can
reproduce and pass on their strong traits. For example: Before the Industrial Revolution
in Great Britain in 1870s there were two main types of moths, black and white. The
white moths could hide on the white trees the best, and therefore all the black moths
were eaten. Because most of the surviving moths were white, more white baby moths
were reproduced. The black moth population was about to die. Then, the Industrial
Revolution came around and all the trees turned black with pollution. The opposite
happened and all the black moths started to survive, while the white moths were eaten.
Evolution is an amazing scientific discovery. The idea of evolving, genetic
variation, and natural selection first came from Darwin. His ideas brought forth
something amazing to the table. We now know that animals have had a long journey to
get where they are today. They
first came from just little cellular
animals to simple sea creatures.
As sea creatures became more
complex, new land animals were
forming. Within 650 million years,
a huge diversity of land and sky
animals were created. Through
amazing evolutionary processes
animals have gone from
extremely simple and nonexistent to very complex animals
everywhere.

Games/Quiz
Game: Classroom Natural Selection
Materials: 10 people, 5 flashlights or phones, 5 markers or pencils, and a room
that can be darkened.
Steps:
1) Take 10 people and let 5 of them use a flashlight/phone light.
2) Have someone, who is not one of the 10, place the 5 markers randomly
throughout a room. (Make sure the 10 players do not see where they are placed)
3) Turn off the lights in the room and bring everybody in to look for the markers.
The players with the flashlights/phones can now turn them on.
4) Once all the markers are found turn the lights on and make sure the players
who found the markers hold on to them
5) Make a table:
Flashlight Players

No Flashlight Players

# of players w/ markers
6) You should end up with more # of players w/ markers under the Flashlight
Players. This is because the flashlight players had the advantage in a dark room.
Finding the marker is a symbol that these players found food to survive. The

players who did not find markers would have died, and therefore not been able to
pass on their traits. Since there were more flashlight players with food, the
flashlight trait will be passed on more in that species, making the species
stronger.

Quiz:
1. How old is the Earth?
a. 200 years old
b. 4,500 million years old
c. 4.6 billion years old
d. None of the Above
2. What idea did Darwin found?
a. natural selection
b. Principle of Population
c. early life formation theory
d. all of the above
3. What period had the first sea creatures arrive on land?
a. Devonian Period
b. Jurassic Period
c. Cambrian Period
d. Triassic Period
4. What killed off many early organisms?
a. Oxygen
b. Nitrogen
c. Carbon Dioxide
d. Sulfur
5. How much of Earths history is the Precambrian Era?
a. 50%
b. 10%
c. 90%
d. 75%