Describing and Arranging Organisms

Question 1

Why are common names less useful than scientific names?

Answer 1

They are less specific, with multiple species sharing the same name based on appearance despite varied biological qualities.

Question 2

What was the view of species before evolutionary thinking?

Answer 2

Essentialism, where each species has a different set of “essential characteristics”.

Question 3

What concept describes the idea of species once evolutionary thinking came about?

Answer 3

Population thinking, where species are defined by their common ancestors and their ability to interbreed, rather than simply morphology.

Question 4

What differentiates an artificial grouping from a natural one?

Answer 4

Artificial: based on a group-defining attribute without other considerations
Natural: group-defining attributes correlate with other common attributes

Question 5

What is an example of an artificial grouping? What about a natural grouping?

Answer 5

Artificial: all organism which are green
Natural: all organisms which have canine characteristics, are descended from a common ancestor, and are able to interbreed

Question 6

Why were botanists and zoologists forced to take their scientific inquiry beyond what they read in ancient literature?

Answer 6

Ancient literature knew nothing of Northern European species or species from the Americas.

Question 7

With regards to plant systematics, what were zoologists primarily concerned with?

Answer 7

Function and adaptation.

Question 8

With regards to plant systematics, what were botanists primarily concerned with?

Answer 8

Identification and classification.

Question 9

Who were Theophrastus and Diascorides?

Answer 9

The most famous ancient botanists, both were pupils of Aristotle. Each was responsible for discovering 500-600 plants.

Question 10

What is John Gerard known for? What controversy surrounds this?

Answer 10

Publishing “The Herball”, a compendium of many plant species. He didn’t write it though he stole it from Rembert Dodoens.

Question 11

How many plants did the botanists of the 16th century describe which had been unknown to the Greeks?

Answer 11

~500, of both medicinal and non-medicinal use.

Question 12

What is a herbarium? Who invented this?

Answer 12

Invented by Luca Ghini, an Italian. Basically a library of dried and pressed plants.

Question 13

Why was information-management an issue for 17th century botanists? How many species were known at the time?

Answer 13

~18,000 plants had been described but there was no way of organizing this information or easily accessing it when needed.

Question 14

What famous writing is Buffon known for authoring?

Answer 14

A 36 volume work titled “Natural History” (8 more volumes were added after his death).

Question 15

What organization was Buffon at the head of?

Answer 15

He was the director of the Royal Botanical Garden, which he turned into the greatest natural history museum in the world.

Question 16

What are the 4 basic types of beliefs with respect to religion?

Answer 16

1. Theism
2. Deism
3. Pantheism
4. Atheism

Question 17

What were Buffon’s religious views? How did they change throughout his life?

Answer 17

It’s thought that he was an atheist in his youth, but believed in deism in his later years.

Question 18

Describe theism.

Answer 18

One or more gods with ongoing involvement in the world/humanity as well as morality.

Question 19

Describe deism.

Answer 19

A divine creator who is no longer involved in the world. “First Cause” of creation, but then they peaced out.

Question 20

Describe pantheism.

Answer 20

No gods or supernatural realm, but the natural order of the world is divine in and of itself.

Question 21

Describe atheism.

Answer 21

Non-belief/disinterest in a “higher power”.

Question 22

What were some of the topics covered in Buffon’s “Natural History”?

Answer 22

Any of:
geology, minerals, origin of life, embryology, physiology, biogeography, functional anatomy, systematics, mammals, birds, anthropology, sociology, cultural history, etc…. (holy crap it’s so much).

Question 23

Why did Buffon get into trouble with religious organizations?

Answer 23

For his religious skepticism and writings which did not include commonly held religious beliefs.

Question 24

What did Buffon believe regarding higher classifications for organisms above the species level?

Answer 24

They had no basis in biological reality and were artificial methods of categorization.

Question 25

How did Buffon suggest that species were organized?

Answer 25

Developed the biological species concept, but this did not become commonly accepted until the 20th century.

Question 26

What scientific field is Buffon often credited with inventing? Briefly describe this.

Answer 26

Biogeography, which studies not just the distribution of species but also the history of their distribution.

Question 27

Before spontaneous generation or evolution, what was the prevailing theory which described the distribution of organisms?

Answer 27

Species radiated out from Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat after the “great flood”

Question 28

What was Buffon’s belief regarding the origin of life and the distribution of species?

Answer 28

Believed in separate genesis (spontaneous generation) for different geographical areas.

Question 29

What is meant by the “interior mould” which Buffon proposed?

Answer 29

A single unchangeable body plan (reminiscent of Plato’s ideal forms). However, outer parts can undergo limited adaptation.

Question 30

What does Buffon’s Law stipulate?

Answer 30

Different regions that have similar environments will have different plants and animals.

Question 31

Buffon considered descent from common ancestors but ultimately rejected it, why?

Answer 31

On the scientific grounds that if this were the case the intermediate forms would still be present. Also, no new species had arisen since human history began.

Question 32

What is central to Buffon’s idea of an “Arrow of Time”?

Answer 32

That there is a single process driving all change that progresses in a linear fashion over time. Used this idea to propose the gradual but constant cooling of the Earth.

Question 33

What were the 7 periods in the history of life according to Buffon’s “The Epochs of Nature”?

Answer 33

1. Comet hits the sun, ejecting debris
2. Debris cools to form planets (including Earth)
3. Oceans form, marine life spontaneously generated
4. Oceans retreat and continents form
5. Animal life generated on land
6. Continents fragmented
7. Humans appear and take over

Question 34

What experiments did Buffon undertake to try to prove the age of the Earth? What theory was this based on?

Answer 34

Heated metal balls and observed their rate of cooling in an effort to model the cooling of the Earth according to his idea of an overarching “Arrow of Time”.

Question 35

What did Buffon conclude about the age of the Earth from his cooling experiments?

Answer 35

That the Earth was far older than religion suggested (but not nearly as old as it ACTUALLY is).

Question 36

What were some of Buffon’s important contributions to later evolutionary thought? (5 examples given)

Answer 36

Introduced:

• Common descent (didn’t really believe this though)
• limited adaptation in response to environment
• Long history of the Earth
• Biological species concept
• Biogeography

Question 37

How did Carl Linnaeus and Buffon disagree?

Answer 37

Basically opponents in regard to the ability to classify organisms in natural groups.

Question 38

What 2 main roles describe Carl Linnaeus?

Answer 38

1. Compiler of botanical information

2. Student of biological relationships

Question 39

How did Carl Linnaeus influence modern scientific naming?

Answer 39

He was the first to use binomial nomenclature consistently. This set it as the standard for the naming convention we still use today.

Question 40

What differentiated scientific names from before Linnaeus and those which he had a hand in naming?

Answer 40

Before: compound descriptive names
ex - Canna Foliis Untrinque Accuminatus Nervosis (reed leafy bag sharp sinewy)
After: Unique non-descriptive binomial name
ex- Canna Indica

Question 41

Why do many scientific species have a letter in brackets following their binomial names?

Answer 41

This was an initial and indicated the individual who had named the species.

Question 42

How did Linnaeus’ classification system differ from Aristotle’s?

Answer 42

Linnaeus’ was a nested, hierarchal system while Aristotle’s was linear and reflected form dominance.

Question 43

While the modern taxonomic classification system contains Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species, Linnaeus didn’t have all these categories. What did he have?

Answer 43

Just Class, Order, Genus, and Species.

Question 44

How did Linnaeus group organisms (plants) into Class and Order? Why did his taxonomy not contain solely natural groups?

Answer 44

Class: organized by number of stamens (artificial grouping)
Order: organized by number of pistils (artificial grouping)
Included artificial groups because he didn’t think he knew enough about plants to form strictly natural ones.

Question 45

While Linnaeus didn’t travel much, he did inspire others to travel and catalogue biodiversity. What were these people called? What classic image did they inspire?

Answer 45

“Linnaeus’ Apostles”, established the idea of the scientific explorer (ex: Darwin, von Humboldt, Douglas).

Question 46

What implications did Linnaeus’ classification system have for evolutionary thought?

Answer 46

Implied that species boundaries were unbridgeable, with no continuum or intermediates. Also gave rise to the idea that certain organisms are more closely related.

Question 47

How did Darwin explain away the need to present evidence of species intermediates in order for his theories to work?

Answer 47

Didn’t need to provide evidence for intermediate species because they all died (golly that’s convenient!).

Question 48

Who invented the idea of the biological key which is still in use today?

Answer 48

Lamarck.

Question 49

What is the purpose of a biological/dichotomous key? How are they used?

Answer 49

To identify a specimen of a known species quickly and efficiently by answering a series of twofold questions.

Question 50

Place these important figures from the history of biological classification in order from oldest to most recent: Lamarck, Theophrastus/ Diascorides, Luca Ghini, Carl Linnaeus, George-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon

Answer 50

1. Theophrastus/Diascorides
2. Luca Ghini
3. George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
4. Carl Linnaeus
5. Lamarck