Chapter 3 & 22 Flashcards
What is Biology
The Study of life
What is Science
A body of knowledge about the natural world, a collection of unified insights about nature.
What is a Theory
A theory is a well-substantiated explanation fo some aspect of ht natural world that incorporates facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypothesis
What is the Scientific Method
- Make Observations
- Ask well-framed questions about those observations
- Create a hypothesis
- Evaluate competing hypotheses by experimenting, observing, and modeling
- Draw conclusions
What are the facts of life
- Energy Processing
- Regulation (homeostasis)
- Response to the environment
- Growth and Development
- Order
- Evolutionary Adaptation
How do we organize living things
From most specific to least
Domain –> Kingdom –> Phylum –> Class –> Order –> Family –> Genus –> Species
What are the currently recognized kingdoms
Archaea, Bacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia
What are the currently recognized domains
Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya
What is Taxonomy
A method of naming living things.
The name of most species is their Genus + Epithet
What are three observations about life
- Organisms are well suited and adapted to their environments
- Life shares many unifying characteristics
- Life is incredibly diverse
What were Aristotle’s ideas
Scala Naturae proposed that species are organized into a sequence based on increased sized and complexity, with humans on top
What did James Hutton propose
Earths geologic geatures could be explained by gradual mechanisms (valleys formed by rivers, etc..)
What did Charles Lyell propose
Inspired by Hutton, proposed that geological processes were operating today in the same rate as in the past.
What did Thomas Malthus decide
Essay on population proposed and outlined how human growth is exponential but resources are scarce and linear
- Population checks in the form of competition, hunger, and disease are needed.
What did Jean-Baptiste Lamarck propose
Hypothesized that species evolve through use and disuse of body parts.
- Organisms evolve in a single life time to meet their environmental needs, and pass it onto the next generation; the cycle continues
Georges Cuvier
The founding figure in paleontology (Study of fossils)
What inspired Darwin
Lyell’s principle of Geology, Malthus Principle of Population, And the diversity of plankton in the open ocean
What were some of Darwins ideas
Descent with modification, Natural Selection, Common Ancestry, and Adaptation
What does descent with modification mean
that Descendants of an ancestral organism lived in various habitats, and accumulated in
diverse modifications (adaptations) that fit
them to specific ways of life
What are the observations of Natural Selection
- Species tend to produce more offspring than necessary
- Despite mass reproduction, adult populations stay fairly consistent
- Natural resources are limited and limiting
- Individuals in a population vary
- Variation in a population is charitable
- Humans use artificial selection to select preferred traits
What are the 3 main tenets of Natural Selection
- Individuals with certain heritable traits survive and reproduce more than others
- Natural selection increases the frequency of adaptations that are favorable in an environment
- If the environment changes, natural selection may drive adaptations to new conditions (new species may arise)
What are accepted pieces of evidence for evolution
- Anatomical and Molecular homologies
- Fossils
- Biogeography
- Experimental observations
What is Homology
Similarities resulting from a common ancestor (similar bone structure)
What is Convergent evolution
The evolution of similar or analogous features in distantly related groups
What are Analogous traits
Traits that arise when groups adapt independently to similar environmentsH
Homologous vs Analogous traits
Homologous traits share common ancestry but have different functions, while analogous traits serve similar functions but evolved convergently.
