History Flashcards
topic one
What is the latin word “Evolutio”
Means unravelling or unfolding
What is evolutions significance?
Nothing makes sense (apparently) except in the light of evolution
What is evolution? What is it not?
Descent with modification. This does not include developmental change in the life of an organism and is not proceeded along some predictable course.
Who proposed that populations of organisms change over time?
Anaximander: thought species were formed from water and humans/other animals were descended from fish.
Empedocles: heads, limbs and organs were joined together at random combinations and were for survival.
Plato: though each natural type of object in the observed world is an imperfect manifestation of ideal
Aristotle: though the world had fixed essences, or templates for all species. the gradation from inanimate to barely animate through plants and invertebrates up to higher forms. Moving from imperfect to perfect. Permanent and unchanging = perfection.
Main creation ideas
- species created independently of one another and remain unchanged. variability within a species is minor or limited.
- lineages do not split, separately created
- Earth and life are young
Ideas of Descent with modification
- Species change over time (microevolution)
- Lineages split and diverge (speciation)
New life forms derive from older forms (macroevolution) - all life forms are related (common ancestory)
- Earth and life are old
Carolus Linnaeus
- was a naturalist
- classified plants (morphology to kingdom to species)
- introduced binomial nomenclature for species identification
- established framework for modern classification in systema naturae
Erasmus Darwin
- Theory of evolution (descent with modification)
- he had an integrative approach
- found that among the males seemed to be the strongest and most active animal should propogate the species.
Jean Baptiste Lamarck (Lamarckism)
proposed all species are derived by gradual change from other species.
- mechanism: inheritance of acquired characteristics
- organs become improved if used a lot: This mechanism required that bodily changes have a way to be registered in the germ cells.
Catastrophism
Biblical interpretation of the history of Earth about 6000 years ago. and has been affected by a series of catastrophic events
Uniformitarianism
The modern view of earths history. That it is really old, landforms present today are a result of geological process that are still occurring. Most of these ideas have originated from the work of James Hutton.
Charles Lyell
Challenged that the beliefs of earths age and history. Thought is was millions of years old. Geology of Eath was created by natural forces including earthquakes, volcanoes, winds and rain.
Charles Darwin
- when studying clergy at university he got interested in biology. Then accepted a position as naturalist on the voyage of the beagle.
- was not the first to come up with how species orignated
Charles Darwin observations from South America
- Fossils that were no longer in existence for that area. Meaning species can and do go extinct
- Fossils of animals in a region were different from modern day equivalents, like armidillo. Meaning that species have ancestors and change through time
- In traveling from N to S, one species was replaced by a similar but slightly different species (like rheas). Species differ across space and distance.
Galapagos Islands observations
- Tortoises changed based on geological distance
- Darwin`s finches
Fossil record
- species go extinct
- law of succession
- transitional forms
- environmental change
Vestigial Organ
- founded back at home by Charles Darwin
- Functionless versions of a body that has an important function in the other close allied species. like the rubber boa
Homology
- The study of likeness
- the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function for example forelimbs
Artificial selection
Over time humans have modified many species to suit their needs through careful breeding programs
Charles Darwin thoughts on expanding population
that we have the potential to exceed the food supply available to nourish the populations
Alfred Russel Wallace
- collected plants from south America and collected it for 4 years to bring back to England, losing the collection in a fire during the way home
- he came up with the same idea as Darwin, islands were good to study evolution because of isolation and time, you can see more variation
- came up with the idea of natural selection
Linnean society of London
- forum for discussion on genetics, natural history, systematics, biology and the history of plant and animal taxonmy
- Worlds oldest extant biological society
Darwins concept of Natural selection: Deduction one
Observation 1: potential exponential increase of populations
observation 2: steady state of populations
Deduction 1: struggle for existence among individuals
Deduction 2
Deduction 1: struggle for existence among individuals
Observation 3: heritable variation in organisms
