Running head: Reflection 1

Reflection

Tyrell Reiman

Salt Lake Community College

Anthropology 1020

3/25/18

Marisa Maughan
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Reflection

Over the course of the semester the Theory of Evolution has been a main point

throughout each chapter building on everything we have learned so far. I already believed in the

theory of evolution, but this course gave me more of an understanding into the theory and how it

has affected species. Some of the biggest take-aways for me have been how Darwin and Mendel

each made key discoveries about evolution and built the foundations for the modern theory, also

how genetics has had such a profound effect on evolution, and the traits and tools that non-

human primates, such as the chimpanzee, use are similar to our ancestors.

Darwin and Mendel

With Darwin coming up with the theory of natural selection it laid out the foundations on

how species adapt to their environments. He did this through observing birds on an island during

a voyage he was on and how the population adapted to their environments on the island. He

noticed that the beaks of the birds were different depending on the environment they were in.

Then Mendel demonstrated how traits are passed on from generation to generation. To show this

he breeds pee plants for hundreds of generations and noticed that some traits were passed on

while others weren’t. For me, these were a big moment in the class because it showed me how

traits and adaptations happened. I found it amazing how much we have adapted to our

environment from skin pigmentation to being biped and how those adaptations have been passed

on to future generations.

Genetics

Then, learning about genetics was truly an eye opener on how the traits are passed on to

future generations through dominant and recessive genes. The only source of new genetic

variation in a population is mutations. Evolution must act on the mutation to promote survival
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and reproduction to be passed on more frequently. Through this I learned that a mutation is very

important in creating a new species like humans. A good example of this is sickle cell anemia

with AA, AS, and SS. People that have AA are normal people and have a homozygous

configuration. Then people with AS have sickle cell anemia but only have minor side effects.

Finally, SS people would have died before reproductive age without modern medicine. Then if

we look at malaria and sickle cell anemia the AS gene is more advantageous because they don’t

contract malaria or if they do they suffer less. Through genetics and the theory of evolution this

genotype has been passed on to generations where malaria is an epidemic but outside of malarial

environments the S allele was never advantageous, so it wasn’t passed on. This demonstrates

how natural selection has acted upon a more desirable trait in certain areas. To me this was

significant in the fact that we could see how it has affected us as a species.

Behavior and Tool Use

Finally, looking at the behaviors and tool use of nonhuman primates we can gain insight

into how our ancestors were. Being able to learn how chimpanzees make and use tools was of

great importance for me because it shows how our ancestors evolved. It gives us great insight

into the ways we learned and adapted to our environments. By looking at the behavior of

nonhuman primates we can also see how our ancestor might have behaved and the social culture

we came from. Through learning these ideas we can identify how we evolved.

Conclusion

Overall, the theory of evolution has shown me how species evolve and by the means that

they do. Through mutations species can evolve into new ones. Then species adapting to

environment plays an important role in evolution and how those traits are passed on. I have

gained a great appreciation for the theory of evolution and a greater understanding of it.