ST.

XAVIER’S HIGH SCHOOL,

KHANDAGIRI

BIOLOGY INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

DARWINISM AND
ADAPTIVE RADIATION

Submitted by –
Sreya Aditi Mohapatra
XII-A
CBSE Roll No.
 ST. XAVIER’S HIGH SCHOOL
Khandagiri , Bhubaneswar
Senior Secondary School
C.B.S.E Affiliation No – 1530086
School No – 53011

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Miss Sreya Aditi Mohaptra has

compiled the results of the study in the form of
Biology Investigatory Project work entitled
‘DARWINISM AND ADPATIVE RADIATION’. This is the
original contribution of her to biology and no part
of this work has been submitted anywhere. The
presented work has been carried out at
Department of Biology, St.Xavier’s High School ,
Khandagiri , Bhubaneswar (Odisha). She has fulfilled
the requirements of C.B.S.E regulations for
submission of the project . It is our pleasure to
forward this project for evaluation .

SINGNATURE OF INTERNAL SIGNATURE OF EXTERNAL

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the accomplishment of this project successfully, I would like to
express my gratitude to all the people who have willingly helped me
out with their abilities.

Firstly, I would like to express heartfelt gratitude to CBSE for giving

such a wonderful opportunity to create a Biology Investigatory
Project and gain knowledge about the topic ‘Darwinism and
Adaptive Radiation’.

Secondly, I would like to thank to the Principal of our school Ms.

Ranjita Mall for providing me with facilities required to complete
this project.

I am highly indebted to my Biology teacher Mrs. Deepa Das for her

invaluable guidance which has sustained my efforts in all the stages
of this project work.

Lastly, my sincere gratitude goes to my parents and fellow

classmates for their continuous support, encouragement .
 INDEX

Sl.No. Content Page No.

01. Certificate 2

02. Acknowledgements 3

03. Introduction 5

04. Darwinism 6

05. Darwin's Theories of Evolution 7

I. Gradualism 7

II. Natural Selection 7

III. Population Speciation 9

06. Adaptive Radiation 10

07. Examples of Adaptive Radiation 12

08. Conclusion 14

09. Bibliography 14
 INTRODUCTION
Evolutionary Biology is the study of history of life forms on earth - e
story of origin of life and evolution of life forms or biodiversity on planet
earth.

Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), known as father of evolutionary

biology, transformed the way we understand the natural world with
ideas. Born in 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Darwin was fascinated
by the natural world from an early age. Growing up he was an avid
reader of nature books and devoted his spare time to exploring the fields
and woodlands around his home, collecting plants and insects.

In 1831, Darwin accepted an offer to embark on a five-year voyage

aboard HMS Beagle. He was recommended by one of his Cambridge
professors for the role as naturalist and companion to the ship's captain,
Robert FitzRoy.

Darwin explored remote regions of world.

He encountered birds with bright blue feet,
sharks with T-shaped heads and giant
tortoises.
On his travels, he collected plants,
animals, fossils, and took copious field
notes. These collections and records
provided the evidence he needed to
develop his remarkable theory – theory
of natural selection and adaptive
radiation.

Darwin returned to England in 1836. He

spent many years comparing and
analysing specimens before finally declaring that evolution occurs by a
process of natural
selection and the concept of adaptive radiation.

On his travels Darwin had collected finches from many of the

Galápagos Islands (off the coast of Ecuador), which helped him to
formulate his idea. Darwin suspected that the environment might
naturally manipulate species, causing them to change over time, giving
rise to various species of flora and fauna known to us today.
 DARWINISM
Darwinism is the theory proposed by Charles Darwin
which states that organic evolution occurs through
natural selection and accumulation of small variations
which provide structural and functional superiority to
certain individuals over the others in their survival and
differential reproduction .

What were Darwin’s observations in Galápagos

Island ?

➢ Different areas and islands possess different flora

and fauna despite having similar climate and
topography.
➢ Plants and animals of nearby islands are related to
each other but are otherwise different not only
amongst themselves but also from those of
mainland .
➢ The same organism shows different variations in
different areas .
➢ Galápagos islands were described as living
laboratory of evolution by him .
➢ He collected a number of fossils , out of which some
resemble modern day plants while others were
quite different .

The two main concepts of Darwinian theory of evolution

are i. Branching descent ( adaptive radiation )
ii. Natural selection .
 DARWIN’S THEORIES OF
EVOLUTION
From all the observations that he made in Galapagos islands, Charles
Darwin postulated the ‘Darwin’s theories of Evolution’ , which
constitutes of three parts .

GRADUALISM

Gradualism refers to changes of organic life that occur through

gradual increments, and often that transitions
between different states are more or less
continual and slow rather than periodic and
rapid.

It has been ascribed to the way

“Darwin inferred the origin of one species from
another over geologic time, or the
‘transmutation’ of species. Evolution through
natural selection through gradual change from
the environment.”

NATURAL SELECTION

This theory states that, ”organisms with heritable traits that favours
survival and reproduction will tend to leave more offspring than
their peers, causing the traits to increase in frequency over
generations.”
It depends on the environment and requires existing heritable
variation in a group.

Darwin's concept of natural selection was based on several key

observations:
• In living organisms, many characteristics are inherited, or
passed from parent to offspring.
 • Organisms are capable of producing more offspring than their
environments can support. Thus, there is competition for
limited resources in each generation.

• The offspring in any generation will be slightly different from

one another in their traits (color, size, shape, etc.), and many of
these features will be heritable.

What can we conclude from Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection ?

• In a population, some individuals will have inherited traits that
help them survive and reproduce and these individuals will
leave more offspring in the next generation than their peers.

• As these traits are heritable, the survival traits will tend to

become more common (present in a larger fraction of the
population) in the next generation.

• Thereby, over generations, the population will

become adapted to its environment .
 POPULATION SPECIATION
In this theory, an ancestral population splits into two or more
genetically distinct descendant populations.

• Speciation involves reproductive isolation of groups within the

original population and accumulation of genetic differences
between the two groups.

• It produces diversity of life on earth by splitting evolutionary

lineages through the evolution of reproductive isolation
between populations of a species.
 ADAPTIVE RADIATION
What do we mean by ‘Adaptive Radiation’?

It is made up of two individual words – ‘adaptive’ meaning

accommodation and ‘radiation’ meaning spread from a central point .

The process of evolution of different species in a given geographical

area starting from a point and literally radiating to other areas of
geography(habitats) is called as adaptive radiation .

CHARATERSITICS

• A common ancestry of component species specifically,

a recent ancestry.
• Phenotype-environment correlation - a significant association
between environments and the morphological and
physiological traits used to exploit those environments.
• Trait utility - the performance or fitness advantages of trait
values in their corresponding environments.
• Rapid speciation - presence of one or more bursts in the
emergence of new species around the time that ecological and
phenotypic divergence is underway.

CAUSES OF ADAPTIVE RADIATION

• Ecological Opportunities– The ecological opportunity allows a

group to rapidly diversify in terms of species number and
physical characteristics.
• Mass Extinction- The term "mass extinction" refers to the
extinction of many species in a relatively short period of
geological time.
Climate change, asteroid strikes, huge volcanic eruptions, or a
combination of these factors can all contribute to catastrophic
events.
These have the potential to alter at a quicker rate than
evolution. Extinct species are quickly replaced by new species
that are better adapted to the changing environment.
 • Acquisition of Novel Adaptive Traits-
Evolutionary novelties can lead to changes in the basic pattern,
resulting in something distinct that adapts to a new role.
A minor change in regulatory genes or a gene mutation might
cause massive structural alterations in the organism.

IMPACTS OF ADAPTIVE RADIATION

▪ It allows organisms to adapt to a favourable environment while

avoiding the unfavourable one, increasing their chances of
survival and decreasing their chances of extinction.
▪ It is responsible for the diversity of species in each geographic
area.
▪ This enables the creation of novel species with distinct
morphological and physiological characteristics.
▪ It has accelerated the evolutionary process.
▪ This allows organisms to take advantage of various ecological
niches.
EXAMPLES OF ADAPTIVE RADIATION
Adaptive radiation in Darwin’s finches
Galapagos Islands are a chain of islands resulting from volcanic
action. Darwin’s finches descended from small sparrow-like birds
that once inhabited the mainland and migrated to Galapagos islands.
• Some 14 species of these finches occur in Galapagos
islands(13 species) and nearby Cocos island(one specie)
• The species resemble the
mainland finches in
plumage, body plan and
short tails.
• They show differences
amongst themselves as well
as from mainland finches in
shape and size of beaks,
food habits , colour of
feathers and body size.
• The size and shape of their
beaks differs according to their feeding habits.
• Some are specialised for crushing seeds (ground finches)
whereas others to eat insects (tree finches).Small beaked finch
feed on small grass seed, those feeding on hard fruit have large
beaks, cactus eating finches have thicker, decurved, flower-
probing beaks.
• Woodpecker finch possesses a stout straight beak

This is called as ‘Divergent evolution’.

 Adaptive radiation in Australian Marsupials
A number of marsupials, each different from other evolved from an
ancestral stock but all within the Australian island continent.

• It is believed that they evolved in North America, migrated to

South America and from there to Australia with which it was
then in contact through the then warm Antarctica.
• As Australia separated, only mammals were present and there
was no competition from placental mammals .
• They adapted different types of feeding habits, mostly
herbivorous as vegetation was available in plenty .
• Only a few groups shifted to carnivorous and insectivorous
habits. Thus , resulting in development of several lineages of
marsupials in Australia .

1. Grazing –
Kangaroo
2. Burrowing-
Marsupial moles
3. Arboreal- Koala,
tree kangaroo
4. Teeth like
rodents-
Wombats,
marsupial rats
5. Rabbit-like – Hare
wallabies
6. Wolf-like –
Tasmanian
wolves
7. Ant eating –
Banded anteater
8. Badger-like – Tasmanian Devil

This is called as ‘Convergent evolution’.

 CONCLUSION
Conclusively, it is likely that new lineages like the Big
Birds have originated many times during the evolution of
Darwin’s finches, according to the authors. The majority
of these lineages have gone extinct but some have led to
the evolution of contemporary species.
“We have no indication about the long term survival of
the Big Bird lineage, but it has the potential to become a
success, and it provides a beautiful example of one way
in which speciation occurs,” said Leif Andersson,
professor at Uppsala University.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
The content of this investigatory project has been
adopted from the below mentioned sources .
❖NCERT Class 12 Biology Textbook
❖Companion Biology Book by K.Bhatti
of DINESH Publications.
❖https://en.wikipedia.org
❖https://www.googlescholar.com
❖https://www.britanica.org
❖https://www.pinterest.com
❖Reference articles and essays from various
blogs.