Contributions to evolution Flashcards
1
Q
LeClerc
A
- He is the first person to challenge the idea that life forms are unchanging
- He noted similarities between apes and Humans and had the idea that we have a common ancestor
- He suspected that the earth was older than people at the time believed (6000 years old)
- In the 1830’s he began with studies of Paleontology, Biology, Geology, and Geography
2
Q
Cuvier,
A
- He is credited with the study of Paleontology, the study of ancient life through fossils
- He found that every layer of rock in the earth had a different kind of species similar to the previous one.
- the deeper the layer the less alike they were to modern life.
- He found that new species appeared as others disappeared
- This proved that species can become extinct
- Because Cuvier believed that species remain unchanged overtime he explained his finding with the theory of Catastrophism
3
Q
Lyell
A
- He Rejected the idea of catastrophism along with Hutton
- By examining fossil deposits, it stated the Earth’s surface has undergone and continues to undergo slow, steady, gradual changes.
- He proposed idea of uniformitarianism: The theory that changes in the earth’s crust during geological history have resulted from the action of continuous and uniform processes.
4
Q
Lamarck
A
- The first biologist to recognize the key role the environment played in evolution.
- He reasoned that for species to survive, they must adapt to changing environments. (ex. Blindness in moles, lack of teeth in birds).
- Through comparing current species with fossils he came up with the idea “line of descent”
- Old fossils lead to modern species and species increase in complexity over time
- Speculated that organisms become better adapted to their environments and body parts used most often become stronger. Then this trait is passed on to their offspring. He called this inheritance of
acquired traits
5
Q
Darwin
A
- In December 1831, he set sail on the HMS Beagle, one of the most influential voyages in human
history. - On this voyage, he developed the theory of evolution by Natural selection
- Theory Of Evolution By Natural selection – Theory explaining how life has changed and continues to change during Earth’s history
- He didn’t use the word ‘evolution’
6
Q
Wiesmann,
A
- Tested Lamarck’s theory by cutting off tails of mice for hundreds of generations, each new generation
was always born with tails - Concluded body changes were not transmitted from one generation to the next
- Showed that it is only material in a sperm and egg that passes on to the next generation
- Weismann’s experiment is proof that acquired characteristics are not inherited and does not explain evolution
For this to be true it means dying ur hair pink gives ur kids pink hair
