Evolution and Genetics Come Together - MT3 Flashcards
What theory was not really testable or could be proven with experiments?
Mbecausehis theory
What did Darwin suggest about variants?
That they occur at a high rate
What must all new variants be?
Deleterious
- as the appearance of mutants in the lab suggested
What did radio activity do to the earth?
It kept it unnaturally warm
What does natural selection not have?
Inherited directionality
What book did de Vries write?
Mutation Theory
- mutation meant something different to him
What did de Vries rediscover?
Mendelian genetics
What was de Vries plant?
Oenothera lamarckiana
What was de Vries observation about his plant? (3)
- He found 2 strains of this plant growing in a field outside Amsterdam
- When he self-pollinated them they produced offspring of different sizes
- Produced suddenly in a single generation not over a long period of time
What did de Vries suggest incorrectly?
New species evolve in single generation jumps called saltationism
Saltationism
Is a sudden large mutational change from one generation to the next, potentially causing single step speciation
What questions did de Vries mutation theory answer about Darwinism evolution? (5)
- Swamping of new variants
- didnt observe any swamping but also no new variants - Selection creative
- natural selection is not the creative aspect - Young earth
- event occurred quickly - Fossil in a progressive series
- thought mutations built on other mutations - Gaps in the fossil record
- no smooth transition
What did each mutation leave?
A gap
What is the problem with de Vries Oenothera lamarckiana? (2)
- Not the same in all species
- Its idiosyncratic as it doesnt necessarily pass on hereditary information like most, therefore his work was not very successful
Whats a recent example of saltational evolution?
Richard Goldschmidt
- he believed that microevolution does not lead to macroevolution and that large genetic jumps are needed to explain speciation
What is not sufficient to explain speciation?
Small changes
- thought there needed to be a genetic change and not an accumulation of small changes
- called these hopeful monsters
What are 2 models of evolution?
- Orthogenesis
2. Neo-Lamarckism
Orthogenesis
Evolutionary lineages have an inherent direction determined by internal drives, not by natural selection
What can lineages experience? (3)
- Growth
- Development
- Sensecene
- under the weight of an evolutionary momentum that natural selection cannot reverse
What is an example of Orthogenesis?
Irish elk
- went extinct a few thousand years ago because their antlers got too big and couldnt go through the forest
- internal drive
Neo-Lamarckism
Revival of the idea of inheritance of acquired characteristics
- experience of parents influence the offsprings characteristics
What approach did Hardy and Weinberg take to Mendelian genetics?
A populational approach
- asking how frequencies of Mendelian factors increase or decrease in a population over generational time
What did Fisher invent?
Statistics that scientists used
- eg) variance
What concept was Wrights?
Genetic drift