Exam One Flashcards
What were Plato’s ideas?
Ideal form
Allegory of the cave
What is the Allegory of the cave?
We do not really experience the real world, only an approximation of the ideal form
Leads to the idea that species are fixed
What were Aristotle’s ideas?
Strives to organize all living things
“Great Chain of being”
What is the Great Chain of Being?
Aristotle’s system of organization by intellect or complexity
What did Linnaeus do?
Created binomial nomenclature
Created a taxonomic scheme with nested clusters of similar species
What did Compte de Buffon (George Lous LeClerc) do?
Wrote Histoire Naturelle (biology encyclopedia)
Suggested evolutionary change (then denied it)
What did Buffon use for his basis of evolutionary change?
Homology Extinction Variation in population High reproductive rate "struggle for existence"
What are Lamarck’s accomplishments?
First to separate phyla of soft bodied invertebrates
Coined words “invertebrates” and “biology”
Came us with the first real theory of how evolution works
What was Lamarck’s evolutionary idea (1809)?
Animal type evolve up Scala Naturae
-Climb up the ladder
Inheritance of acquired characteristics
First real theory of how evolution works
What was Lamarck’s evolutionary idea (1815)?
Animal types evolve to sides of ladder
Specialize and diversify
What was Lamarck’s evolutionary idea (1821)?
First to depict evolution with branching diagrams
How was George Cuvier beneficial?
Catastrophism
Correlation of parts
What is Catastrophism?
There have been a series of catastrophies that lead to all organisms becoming extinct. A new creation event then occurs
Based of observation of fossils being different in different rock layers
What is Cuvier’s idea of correlation of parts?
All organs are so interrelated that they could not handle change
How was Louis Agassiz beneficial?
Discovered evidence of continental glaceration
Opponent of evolution (last serious creationist)
Founder of museum of comparative zoology
What is ironic about Agassiz founding the museum of comparative zoology?
He was an opponent of evolution and the museum is now the major center for evolutionary theory
Who were the pros of evolutionary theory before darwin?
Linnaeus
Buffon
Lamarck
Who were the cons of evolutionary theory before darwin?
Cuvier
Agassiz
What did Hutton do?
Proposed idea that the earth is really old and has been gradually changing
What did Lyell do?
Worked towards the idea that the world changes gradually
Becomes known as uniformitarianism
What are Darwins two ideas?
Common descent
Natural Selection
What are Darwin’s postulates?
- There is variation among individuals
- Some of the variation is heritable
- Individuals very in their success at surviving and reproducing
- Reproduction is nonrandom
Who are Peter and Rosemary Grant?
Scientists who have been studying finches on Daphne Major
Testing Darwin’s postulates
Who are the two scientists who have been studying finches on the Galapagos islands and what island are they on?
Peter and Rosemary Grant
Daphne Major
What did Hutton do?
Proposed idea that the earth is really old and has been gradually changing
What did Lyell do?
Worked towards the idea that the world changes gradually
Becomes known as uniformitarianism
What are Darwins two ideas?
Common descent
Natural Selection
What are Darwin’s postulates?
- There is variation among individuals
- Some of the variation is heritable
- Individuals very in their success at surviving and reproducing
- Reproduction is nonrandom
Who are Peter and Rosemary Grant?
Scientists who have been studying finches on Daphne Major
Testing Darwin’s postulates
Who are the two scientists who have been studying finches on the Galapagos islands and what island are they on?
Peter and Rosemary Grant
Daphne Major
What is an adaptation?
An inherited trait that makes an organism more fit in it’s environment and that has arisen through natural selection
What is fitness?
Relative reproductive success