B5 Flashcards
What is evolution?
Evolution is the gradual change in a species over time
How do organisms evolve?
Organisms evolve through natural selection because in a species there is normally a wide genetic variation. When further mutations happen, genetic variation increases
What is natural selection?
When mutations occur and those better adapted to the environment reproduce and those while the others die out and so evolving.
What is survival of the fittest?
When organisms better suited to their environment survive and those that aren’t, die out.
What is variation?
Differences within a species which give the organism its appearance (phenotype)
What is a mutation?
Changes in the gene sequence that arise spontaneously
How fast do bacteria reproduce?
Double every 20 minutes
What happens if there is a mutation in bacteria?
They usually aren’t favourable and the bacteria die instantly however sometimes mutations are favourable such as antibiotic resistance.
How do different species come about?
When there is so much generic variation and they can’t reproduce together anymore.
What are fossils?
They are formed when animals and plant remains are preserved in rocks.
How are fossils in different rock layers different?
The most recent layer is usually at the top
What is a fossil record?
When fossil layers form a sequence showing how an organism has gradually changed over time.
Where are the simplest organisms found (in terms of fossils)?
In the oldest rocks
Where are more complex organisms found (in terms of fossils)?
Organisms such as vertebrates are found in more recent rocks
How are fossils formed?
- The reptile dies and falls to the ground
- The flesh rots, leaving the skeleton covered in sand or soil before it’s damaged.
- The skeleton becomes mineralised and turns into rock after millions of years
- The fossil eventually emerges as rocks move and erosion takes place.
What do scientists look at for molecular comparisons between species?
The order of nucleic acid bases or the order of amino acids in a protein.
What is a creationist?
Someone who doesn’t believe in the theory of evolution.
What is an evolutionist?
Someone who believes in the theory of evolution
What type of ‘evolution’ did people believe from 384 BCE to the 1600s?
Spontaneous Generation
Who proposed the idea of spontaneous generation?
Aristotle
What is spontaneous generation?
The idea that life came from non-living material if the material contained vital heat (pneuma)
Who are the four men that significantly contributed to the theory of evolution?
Jean-Baptise Lamarck
Charles Lyell
Charles Darwin
Alfred Wallace
What is Lamarckism?
The idea that an organism could evolve just by thinking it in response to an environmental change
Who was Charles Lyell?
A Scottish geologist whose book, Principles of Geology, inspired Charles Darwin
What did Charles Lyell suggest?
That fossils were evidence of animals that had lived millions of years ago
That Geologic processes are due to natural events “not god”
Who was Charles Darwin
A man who believed that all organisms evolved though simple to more complex organisms
What were Darwins’s key ideas?
Inherited traits
Variation in population
Offspring competed for limited resources
Evolution by natural selection (survival of the fittest)
When did people believe in spontaneous generation?
384 BC to the 1600s
When was the time of Lamarckism?
1744-1829
When was the time of Charles Lyell?
1797 - 1875
When was the time of Charles Darwin?
1809 - 1882
Who was Alfred Wallace?
The man who independently proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection
When was the time of Alfred Wallace?
1809 - 1882
What were Alfred Wallace’s key ideas?
Living things change over long periods of time
Survival of the fittest
Advantageous characteristics passed onto offspring
Speciation by reproductive isolation (Wallace effect)
What did Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin do together?
Publish a book called ‘on the origin of species’
What did Wallace and Darwin challenge with their ideas?
They challenged the common belief that God created all living beings
What is classification?
The process of sorting living organisms into groups in which organisms within each group share similar characteristics
Why do scientists classify organisms?
Identify species
Predict characteristics
Find/show evolution
What is the taxonomy system?
A system that divides organisms into 5 kingdoms
What are the kingdoms of the taxonomy system?
Plants
Animals
Fungi
Protoctista
Prokaryotes
What happens as you move down the hierarchy of the taxonomy system?
The organism share more and more characteristics
What does the taxonomy system end in?
It ends in organisms being classified as individual species