Table of Contents

Evolution

Model organism

Sea squirts (Ascidiacea) are a cluster of marine animals included in the subphylum tunicates. About 3000 species have been described. The ascidian is a model organism for the phylogeny of the striders and the early evolution of vertebrates. The dorsal string is present in them only in the larval stage. In the adult stage, they are sedentary marine animals characterized by the presence of an external, organic sheath called a tunic. 1)

The Miller-Urey experiment

The Miller-Urey experiment is the classic experiment on the origin of life on Earth. It was performed in 1953 and involved the simulation of hypothetical environmental conditions of the early Earth. It was the first experiment to demonstrate the possibility of obtaining the simple basic components of living organisms from inanimate matter. As many as 22 different amino acids were created in Miller's experiment. 2)

Eugenics

Eugenics “well-born” was a term introduced in 1869 by Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, that referred to the selective breeding of animals and humans to improve species from one generation to the next, especially when it came to inherited traits. 3)

Olduvai Gorge

Olduvai Gorge is located in Tanzania on the border of the Serengeti National Park. The site became famous for the discoveries made by Louis and Mary Leakey, a couple known as hominid hunters. Geological layers of the gorge contained traces of human presence dated at 2.6-1.7 million years. Remains of Paranthropus boisei, an Australopithecus and a pitecanthropus, among others, were found here. 4)

Neanderthal genes

Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans has occurred several times. DNA from Neanderthals has been found in the genome of modern populations in Europe and Asia, accounting for 1-4 percent of modern genomes. Neanderthal genes are not found in most modern populations of sub-Saharan Africa. 5)