Macroevolution
This item is included in the following series/curriculum: Physical Anthropology: The Evolving Human
- Grade Level: Senior High (10-12)-Adult
- Subjects: Anthropology
- Produced By: Coast Learning Systems
- Year: 2008
- Country: United States
- Language: English
- Running Time: 30m
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A key question of macroevolution is, What distinguishes a species? This leads to taxonomy and discussion of the two main approaches to classification: evolutionary systematics and cladistics. Examples are given of homologies and analogies, and ancestral and derived traits, keys to classifying by these different approaches. Cladistics focuses only on derived traits. In the second segment, two different species concepts are mentioned?the biological species concept, which is the most commonly used definition, and the ecological species concept, which places emphasis on niche occupation and natural selection. The difficulty of recognizing a fossil species is explained by anthropologists Alfred Rosenberg and Jonathan Bloch. In the third segment, the immense time span involved with macroevolution is examined, continental drift and its effects are explained, and the characteristics of mammals are illustrated.