Chapter 2: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory Flashcards
Transpecific Communication
Communication across species, like touch.
How do we know all species are related by common ancestry? Three main questions.
How did the theory of evolution come to be?
What was Darwin’s construction to the theory of evolution?
What has happened since Darwin in the development of our understanding of evolution?
Explain Darwin’s Voyage
2 year trip on HMS Beagle which lasted 5 years.
Near Cape Horn, near Strait of Magellan.
Had sea sickness the whole trip.
22 years old.
Brought: notebooks, pickling jars, “Principles of Geology”, and a Bible
Theory of Coral Reef Formation
Studied the subsidence (sinking) of volcanoes and how “atolls” (circled coral reefs) formed. Published in 1842.
Common Ancestry
descent form one ancestral species
Species
Group of related organisms in populations able to interbreed and produce fertile (reproduce), viable (live to adulthood) offspring.
Adaptations
Changes in physical structure, function, or behavior allowing species to survive and reproduce better in a given environment.
Adaptive Radiation
One ancestral species has populations branching out in several closely related descendent species adapted to new habitats.
Speciation
Evolution of a new species through adaptation of new populations.
Common Views before Darwin
Young earth, species divinely created, species immutable, species don’t stay the same.
Emerging Scientific Views
Old earth, surface has changed, plants and animals change (go through extinction)
Geology
Study of earth
Paleontology
Study of fossils
Taxonomy
Naming species
Systematics
Study of classification and relationships of organisms
Demography
Study of populations
Evolutionary Biology
Study of organisms and changes over time
James Hutton
1726-1797 Modern geology founder, noticed that rocks come in layers over time, Geological Strata, came up with uniformitarianism (understand past things to understand future things, ex rain and erosion)
Charles Lyell
1795-1875 Wrote “Principles of Geology” deduced the earth is very old, his age estimates were too young.
Robert Hooke
1635-1703 Founder of Paleontology, looked at micro fossils of plants which presented sedimentary layers of rocks, fossil wood was once alive.
Georges Cuvier
1769-1832 looked at fossils of animals, recognized that animals CAN go extinct (catastrophism), different fossils in different geological strata (faunal succession) Deep rock layers are older than shallower layers.
Carolus Linnaeus
1707-1778 came up with latin naming of organisms
Binomial Nomenclature
2 names, Genus is first, specific epithet is after like Homo Sapiens
3 Major Domains
Archaea, Bacteria, Eucarya
Thomas Malthus
Looked at Victorian populations and overcrowding (Demography)
Darwinian Theory
Individuals with variations advantageous for survival and produce more offspring, changing future.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
1744-1829 Came up with idea that certain acquired characteristics are passed down to next generation (wrong) example of giraffe growing its neck
Epigenetics
How genes are expressed
Neo-catastrophism
long periods where things don’t change that much (gradual)
The major catastrophe
Luis Alvarez and Walter Alvarez proposed the asteroid impact at K-T boundary 65MYA in the Yucatán Peninsula.
This site has a layer of clay enriched with iridium.
Alfred Russel Wallace
1823-1913 discovered natural selection similarly to Darwin and “worked” with Darwin on the publication of “On the Origin of Species (1859)
Blending inheritance
Inheritance received from mother and father are blended together. Not very true, people become homogeneous (boring)
Gemmules
The invisible particles that determined the characteristics from inheritance, NOT TRUE
Darwin’s Major Points
Common ancestry and Adaptation
Thomas Henry Haxley
Darwin’s bulldog argued in debates defending Darwin’s ideas.
Gregor Mendel
1822-1884 Priest who worked out the patterns of genetics.
Mendel’s Peas, Punnet Square, Laws of inheritance, no blending inheritance, there are dominant and recessive traits.
Factors
Mendel’s description for genes today
Law of segregation
how they pair
Law of independent assortment
genes assort independent of each other
Genotype
Pairing of alleles
Phenotype
Physical appearance of characteristics.
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Fruit Fly Work, studied their genetics, eye color, shape, antennas, studied chromosomes and their relationships with the traits
Populations Genetics
Gene’s frequency, genes vary across population, genes enter new populations
Natural Selection
Variation, differential survival and reproduction of different levels of genes in populations
Mutation
new alleles and new forms of genes
Gene Flow
Alleles population to population
Genetic Drift
random changes in gene frequencies
EVOLUTION
Changes in gene allele frequencies over generations in a population.
Rosaline Franklin
studied first x-ray image of DNA Structure, Watson an Crick took the data and studied traits, chromosomes and DNA
