PSYC 3100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Genetic Drift, Mutation, Phenotype

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3100
• Professor: Pat Barclay

Document Summary

All current species having evolved from common ancestors. Humans are right in the middle of the primate lineage. When comparing humans and chimps: humans did not evolve from chimps, we evolved from a common ancestor with the chimp. Common ancestor = some characteristics of chimps, some human, some monkey, etc. This should point out there is no ladder of progress -> but rather everyone is equally evolve. Chimps are not failed humans, they are simply really good at being chimps. Definition: change in gene frequency in populations. Genes influence various traits, change in inherited traits in populations. Four mechanisms for population frequency change : Mutation: random, genes can mutate into alternate versions of the original trait, selection is not random, variation is required and thus is a means to variation. Migration: some individuals leave a population, some enter a new population, and thus reflects a change in the population. Overall evolution -> is a combination of these four factors.