Evolution Flashcards
Age of Earth
4.6 billion years
Knowledge of life for 4 billion years
Nothing for first 2 billion years and following 2 billion it was microbes
What is the cambrian explosion?
Explosion of diversity 545 million years ago
Complex organisms in 5-10 million yrs
What is diversiy?
All different form, shapes and appearances life form can have
What is complexity?
How complicated a life form can be
What is modular construction?
Construction of cellular organism by joining together standardised units to form larger compositions.
Enabled large dynamic range of sizes
What are the levels of organisation?
Cell, tissue, organ, organ system, organims
What are the 3 domains of life?
Bacteria, Archaea, eukaryota
Prokaryotes
Incorporates bacteria and archaea.
Cells without nuclei
Eukaryotes
Multi-celled organisms containing a nucleus.
DNA in chromosomes
What are the distinct mechanisms for increases in size, complexity and diversity?
-random, passive tendence to evolve
- non-random, active or driven biased towards increasing
3 trends evident in fossil record
- multi life forms evolved independently many times
- new life forms lead to periods of rapid diversification
- complex life forms arise from early organisms
Examples of fossils
Microfossils
Cyanobacteria
Trilobites
What drove the colonization of land?
- transition from aquatic to a gaseous environment
- changes to physiology and anatomy
What elements dominate the composition of life?
H, O, C, N
95% by weight of all living matter
Why is H and O in life>
H and O - large amount of water in organisms
Why is carbon in life?
Can form bonds and chains that can incorporate other atoms well and provide stable structures of cells
Why N and O in life?
Can form double bonds that are rebust allows for stable molecules
What is most of the mass inside human body?
Oxygen
What percent human body is water?
57
What are most of the atoms in the human body?
Hydrogen
What are some examples of cyanobacteria?
Stromatolites - rock like structures built by by microbes
What are trilobites?
Earliest known fossil groups of marine arthropods
500 myr
What is an arthropod?
invertebrate animal having an external skeleton, a
segmented body, and jointed outgrowths (i.e. legs, antennae)
