Evolution

Question 1

Plato

Answer 1

World was constant/static.
-theory of forms essentialism
-2 worlds, ideal and eternal and an illusionary world
Typological view: individual variation is imperfect manifestation of ethos

Question 2

Aristotle

Answer 2

-living organisms in a scale of nature or great chain of being. Ladder of life.

Question 3

Carolus Linnaeus

Answer 3

• establish system of taxonomy to discover order in diversity of life for greator glory of god.
• groupings based on similarity
• hierarchical relationships of organisms

Question 4

James Hutton

Answer 4

Observable processes produce small changes that accumulate over time

Question 5

William smith

Answer 5

Different rock layers contain distinct fossils
-faeutures on earths crust can be explained by means of natural processes gradually over geological time
Contrasted biblical catastrophism

Question 6

Charles Lyell

Answer 6

Unifromitarianism

Same natural processes operating now operated in past, everywhere at the same rate

Question 7

George’s Cuvier

Answer 7

• species go extinct: fossils resemble but are not exactly the same as modern species
• elephant fossils found near Paris revealed distinct bones from those living elephants in Africa and India

Question 8

Lamarck

Answer 8

First articulate theory of evolution: organisms develop adaptations to changing environment through the use and disuse of organs PARTIALLY CORRECT

• acquired characteristic are inherited WRONG
• a clam strove to be a better clam, lo ever necked giraffes pass on to their offspring

Question 9

Darwin

Answer 9

Origin of species by natural selection:
-struggle for exsistence
-heritable variation: like begets like but with mistakes
-heritable variation influences the struggle
-came from voyage on HMS beagle
-witnesses species with adaptations to a wide environment
-GALAPOGOS ISLAND: most species there live nowhere else. Yet closest relatives on mainland few miles away
Idea of fixity to unifromitarianism to evolution

Question 10

Variation in bill shape among Galapagos finches

Answer 10

• closely related that occupy different ecological settings tend to have diff characteristics
• character displacement
• populations physically isolated tend to differ

Question 11

Transitional

Fossils

Answer 11

Archaeopteryx: intermediate between reptile and bird
-whales have good fossil record showing transitional forms
-fossils document transition from aquatic to tetrapods but with no smooth transition
-

Question 12

Embryology

Answer 12

• all vertebrate embryos develop gill pouches at some stage suggesting common origin
• land vertebrate embryos features pouches, notochord, suggest aquatic existence

Question 13

Vesitigial structures

Answer 13

-many species retain structures that only make sense in light of their ancestry (human tailbone)

Question 14

Anatomy

Answer 14

• darwins theory predicts organisms should share common features because they descended from common ancestors
• homologous structures: closely related species have homo structures (serve diff purposes)

Question 15

Analogous structures

Answer 15

• similarities in structures in distinctly related organisms
• independently originated but with similar functions
• eye of human v octopus
• wings of birds and bats

Question 16

Biogeography convergent evolution

Answer 16

• plants and animals diversify into ecological niches available to them when geography blocks dispersal
• similar adaptations occur in unrelated taxa occupying the same habitat type: flying squirrel versus sugar glider

Question 17

Adaptation

Answer 17

Natural selection as the mechanism for adaptation was darwins most important contribution