Ch 22: Decent with Modififcation Flashcards
What created Earth’s biodiversity?
evolutionary processes
What is the germ theory?
the theory that diseases are caused by microorganisms
What is scientific law?
a set of observed regularities expressed in a converse verbal or mathematical statement
What is a scientific theory?
a unifying explanation that accounts for many factors and is based upon the results of repeated experiments and observations
What was Aristotle’s view on biological diversity?
(384-322 B.C.) latter of nature (scala naturae), species are fixed and unchanging
What was Carolus Linnaeus view on biological diversity?
(1707-1778) developed system of binomial nomenclature, relationship among species based on pattern of creation (“God”)
Who was Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)?
major founder of paleontology, supported catastrophism, still believed in the “creation”
Who was James Hutton (1726-1797)?
geologic features created by gradual mechanisms that continue to occur in the present day, first developed concepts of uniformitarianism
What is uniformitarianism?
is you give certain processes enough time enormous events will occur
Who was Charles Lyell (1797-1875)?
principles of geology, further developed and popularized Hutton’s concept of uniformitarianism (gave more examples)
Who was Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829)?
explained evolutionary change by two principles: 1. use and disuse, 2. inheritance of acquired characteristics. He was wrong, but he recognized adaption can happen through gradual change and he provided a testable hypothesis to explain this change
What was the name of the boat Charles Darwin used to voyage around the world?
HMS Beagle
How did Darwin develop the concept of “Descent with Modification”?
initial observations were based on geology and fossils, Galapagos Islands: Fuana an individual islands often differed from one another, yet was overall similar to species on South American mainland
What is artificial selection?
selective breeding developed different species
What were Darwin’s observations?
members of a population differ in their traits, traits are inherited from parents to offspring, all species have great reproductive potential such that population size would increase exponentially is all individuals born were able to successfully reproduce, and environmental resources are limited
Who was Thomas Malthus?
an English parish priest who studied economics and relationship between resources and population growth. He was also the single influence that helped Darwin crystallize his concept of natural selection (mainly his writings).
Who was Alfred Wallace?
came to a similar conclusion as Darwin regarding natural selection and origins of species
What were Darwin’s inferences?
individuals whose inherited traits confer a higher probability of survival and reproduction in a given environment leave more offspring than individuals without those traits and increased survival and reproduction of individuals with favorable traits leads to the increase in frequency of those traits in a population
What is evolution?
changes in gene frequencies that occur over generation in a population
What is natural selection?
the increase in frequency of genes resulting in phenotypes that raises the probability that organisms possessing the phenotype will survive and reproduce (selection operates on the phenotype)
What is adaption?
a character state that has come to be present at a high frequency in a population because it confers a greater probability of survival reproduction relative to available alternative character states in the population
What is Darwinian fitness?
the relative contribution that an individual makes to the gene pool of the nest generation (genes to offspring)
What is biogeography?
the geographical distribution of plants and animals
What is convergent evolution?
the process whereby distantly related organisms independently evolve similar traits to adapt to similar necessities
What is the fossil record?
these artifacts provide direct evidence of evolutionary change as well as common ancestry
What is homologous structures?
a trait that is inherited from a common ancestor and shared by all decedents
What is analogous traits?
traits that arise due to convergent evolution not common ancestry
What is molecular homologies?
comparison of gene sequences among different taxa corroborates evidence from paleontology and comparative anatomy regarding evolutionary relationships
What is comparative embryology?
homology among structures during embryonic development (early in development, embryos look similar )
What is derived traits?
unique defining trait that is shared by a taxonomic group
