Evolutionary Beginnings

I never put together that evolution occurs at two different scales but it makes complete sense to me. It makes sense that the type of evolution that takes a longer time would be different that one that takes a shorter time. Macro evolution is evolution that occurs over a long period of time. An example of this could be how a certain species has changed over the course of the species history. Micro evolution takes place in a shorter time frame. An example of this is how a bacteria can mutate to become resistant to antibiotics.

The timeline of Earth's history was quite surprising to me. The video really put into perspective how long the Earth has been around and how long it took for the major advancements to take place. It was surprising how long it took for oxygen to appear on the planet. It was also interesting to see how quickly life began to diversify after the ozone layer was created. The diversity of different kinds of animals came relatively quickly after one another. Seeing how long humans have existed on that time scale was surprising as well. 

I thought that the EvolutionTalk episode did a great job of breaking down natural selection and made it easier to understand. They listed the 3 aspects of natural selection which were finding a mate, reproducing successfully, and having viable offspring. I liked how they described natural selection as "survival of the good enough". The example of the moths was really good too because they described how being fit for an environment can change with the changing environment.