Lecture 1

Question 1

What view on evolution did Aristotle have?

Answer 1

suggested a human-centred view of life

life can be viewed as a great chain of being with humans at the top and all other life forms below them

Question 2

What view on evolution did Lamarck have?

Answer 2

he suggested individuals change due to the behaviour of their parents

change in a species over time is due to traits acquired in life being passed onto the next generation

Question 3

What view on evolution did Erasmus Darwin have?

Answer 3

suggested species change due to survival of the strongest

Question 4

What is evolution?

Answer 4

descent with modification (not necessarily beneficial)

Question 5

What is the HMS beagle?

Answer 5

a boat trip to various places around south America that Darwin went on and collected both animal and plant samples

took 5 years, 18 months at sea and 3.5 years exploring the range of stops

Question 6

Galapagos finch

Answer 6

this is the animal Darwin observed the most, the finches from different islands had differing beaks according to what foods they had available to eat

Question 7

What is natural selection?

Answer 7

The process by which adaptive evolution occurs in the wild

individuals with beneficial traits for survival are more likely to survive and reproduce to pass on these heritable traits

Question 8

Darwins observations

Answer 8

individuals in a population show variation in their traits

traits are inherited by offspring from their parents

individuals overproduce more offspring than the environment can support so many die without reproducing

Question 9

Darwins theories

Answer 9

individuals who inherited traits increasing their survival and reproduction tend to leave more offspring than other individuals

over generations this will lead to the accumulation of favourable characteristics in the population therefore natural selection causes evolution

Question 10

What is artificial selection?

Answer 10

the process of evolution in situations that humans control

Question 11

5 types of evidence for evolution

Answer 11

direct observation
molecular evidence
homology
fossils
biogeography

Question 12

Direct observation of rapid evolution

Answer 12

Means we can watch evolution happen (e.g evolution of bacteria can be observed under experimental conditions)

Question 13

Molecular evidence for evolution

Answer 13

evidence of evolution is increased by modern molecular evidence using DNA,RNA, amino acids and proteins

all life on earth shares a universal genetic code suggesting we all came from a common ancestor

Question 14

What are homologies?

Answer 14

similarities between organisms that are the result of shared inheritance from a common ancestor

Question 15

Molecular homology

Answer 15

anatomical resemblances are mirrored by similarities in genes and proteins

Question 16

Fossils

Answer 16

fossil records provide extensive evidence of evolution by showing us what species used to be like and we can observe differences over time

Question 17

Biogeography

Answer 17

The geographic distribution of biological species

related species generally tend to live in similar areas due to a common ancestor from the same place

includes continental drift (Pangea)