The unit in one line
How life began, the evidence that it has changed since, the theories that explain the change, and the line from Ramapithecus to modern man. 3 of Zoology's 40 questions, spread over four chapters.
Read in this order
- Origin of life (8 min) — Oparin–Haldane and the Miller–Urey apparatus. Short, and the dates and gases are sure marks.
- Evidences of evolution (9 min) — homologous, analogous and vestigial organs, fossils, embryos, molecules. Read before the theories: every theory is argued from this evidence.
- Theories of evolution (9 min) — Lamarck, Darwin, Neo-Darwinism and Hardy–Weinberg.
- Human evolution (9 min) — the eight names in MEC's order, with cranial capacities and tools.
About 35 minutes in all.
How it is asked
MEC sets the paper roughly half recall, a third understanding and a fifth application. In this unit recall is names, dates and examples (who proposed what, which organ is vestigial). Understanding is telling homology from analogy, or saying why Weismann's experiment counts against Lamarck. Application is reading a described fossil or skull.
Then practise
Each chapter has a fixed-length chapter test under Practice › Topics, drawn from questions written to that chapter's scope. Sit it after reading; a second sitting a week later shows whether it stuck.