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WEEK: 8
TOPIC: VARIATION AND EVOLUTION
CONTENT:
INTRODUCTION
Evolution is the cumulative changes in the characteristics of population or organisms occurring in the course of successive generations related by descent. Variations are differences in traits or characteristics between individuals of the same species.
Variation can be:
In Discontinuous variation, individuals fall into distinct categories e.g. Pea plant with either red flowers or white flowers. There are no intermediate forms between these traits. They are easily distinguishable and are not affected by environmental conditions.
Examples of such traits are
Such discontinuous variation is brought about by one or a few genes.
In Continuous variation, there is a complete range of measurements from one extreme to another. In other words individuals do not fall into discrete categories,
Examples includes:
Man is not just dark or fair, nor is he either tall or short. There are many intermediate skin colours and heights. Such characteristics show a continuous variation from one extreme to the other. A continuous variation is brought about by the combined (or additive) effects of many genes.
There may be genes for dark skin and gene for fair skin. The more dark-skin genes a person has, the darker will his skin colour be. Continuous variations are also affected by the environmental conditions for example; a greater exposure to sunlight may cause a person to have a darker skin colour. This is also known as acquired variation. Other examples of continuous variation in man are intelligence and weight.
Variation found in or among organizations could be physical (morphological) or behavioural (physiological).
SUB-TOPIC 1: MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION
Variations in physical traits or outward appearances in organizations are known as morphological variations.
Examples include:
Weight of individual organisms in a population can vary greatly from newborn babies to teenagers and mature adults there is a continuous variation form one extreme to another (underweight to overweight).
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