Evolution: Constant Change and Common Threads

Lecture 3 – Fossils, Genes, and Embryos

by David M. Kingsley, PhD
  1.  1.  Start of Lecture 3
  2.  2.  Welcome by HHMI President Dr. Thomas Cech
  3.  3.  Introductory interview with Dr. David Kingsley
  4.  4.  Laws of nature lead to natural selection
  5.  5.  Descent with modification explained conundrums
  6.  6.  Major questions resulting from Darwin's theories
  7.  7.  Is the earth too young for descent from a single ancestor?
  8.  8.  Modern physics shows that the earth is 4.6 billion years old
  9.  9.  Where are the transitional forms in the fossil record?
  10. 10.  Billion-year-old fossils of early lifeforms
  11. 11.  The reinvasion of water by land mammals
  12. 12.  Traits suggest manatees evolved from land mammals
  13. 13.  Transitional manatee ancestors
  14. 14.  The dolphin and its transitional forms
  15. 15.  Fossils of transitional forms in stickleback fish
  16. 16.  Video: Fossils show 25,000 years of stickleback evolution
  17. 17.  Transitional fossils are everywhere
  18. 18.  Q&A: What caused rapid replacement in the fossil record?
  19. 19.  Q&A: What were the first common ancestors?
  20. 20.  Q&A: Does evolution address how life started?
  21. 21.  Q&A: Can the evolution rate change over time?
  22. 22.  Can rare forms be swamped out?
  23. 23.  Mendelian genetics: Variants are not lost by blending
  24. 24.  Pocket mouse simulation and real stickleback data
  25. 25.  Are animals too different to share an ancestor?
  26. 26.  Organisms share molecular pathways and enzymes
  27. 27.  Organisms share DNA as the basis for heredity
  28. 28.  Different animals share developmental pathways
  29. 29.  Hox "toolkit" genes guide development in mice and flies
  30. 30.  Eye development in humans, flies, and mice uses pax6 gene
  31. 31.  Overexpressing pax6 in flies creates eyes in wrong places
  32. 32.  Pax6 is a toolkit gene that turns other genes on or off
  33. 33.  Animation: How regulatory switches work
  34. 34.  Forelimb vs. hindlimb development in vertebrates
  35. 35.  Master regulators are expressed in one limb or other
  36. 36.  Pitx1: master regulator for stickleback hindfin reduction
  37. 37.  Pitx1 plays multiple roles in development
  38. 38.  Variants have changes in switch regions, not in Pitx1
  39. 39.  Animation: Pitx1 switching in two types of sticklebacks
  40. 40.  Genetic basis of evolutionary change in species
  41. 41.  Darwin's predictions supported by multiple sciences
  42. 42.  Q&A: How do major changes in gene structure occur?
  43. 43.  Q&A: Are the extra eyes on the pax6 flies functional?
  44. 44.  Q&A: Why are some religions and evolution in conflict?
  45. 45.  Q&A: How do you look for single-celled fossils?
  46. 46.  Q&A: Has evolution of viruses been traced?
  47. 47.  Closing remarks by HHMI President Dr. Thomas Cech


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