Lecture 12 - 21 Flashcards
What was Samuel Wilberforce’s view of the Origin of species?
He wrote a very negative review of the Origin of species and thought that Darwin’s work was irreligious
What was Thomas Henry Huxley’s view of the Origin of species?
He was a viscous defender of Darwin. * Reviews OOS fairly and positively – strongly believed that Darwin’s scientific ideas cannot be dismissed by religious/moral objections
Who coined the term “Agnostic” and when was it coined?
Thomas Henry Huxley
1869
What does “Agnostic” mean?
One does that believe in the existence of God simply because there is not enough evidence
What was the first modern book of human evolution and who wrote it?
“Man’s place in nature” 1863
Thomas Henry Huxley
What was Fleming Jenkin’s view of the Origin of species?
He wrote the most powerful negative review about the Origin of species
He believed that variation is everywhere and spontaneous variations are constantly appearing, not a one-off thing.
What theory did Henry Walter Bates develop?
Mimicry (only occur for species within the same area and nowhere else)
What was the Archaeopteryx?
Most famous fossil with a long bony tail just like a reptile
Who is Asa Grey and what is his attitude towards Darwin’s idea of natural selection?
He was one of Darwin’s strongest supporter in America.
Disliked natural selection as he wants more room for divine intervention
Who wrote “Explorations and Adventures in equatorial Africa” in 1861?
Paul Du Chaillu
What was Richard Owen’s view of the Origin of species?
He wrote an anonymous review to bash Darwin’s work and praised his own work
Argued that humans were different – wants to separate humans from animals
Claims that humans are different by saying that there is a structure in human brains that is different
What was the Great Hippocampus test (Richard Owen vs Thomas Henry Huxley) about?
Huxley attacked Owen (said that the “special brain structure was also present in the brains of monkeys – not unique to humans)
Who wrote the book “Geological evidences of the antiquity of man (1863)”
Charles Lyell (Most radical book ever)
Said that humans existed for 50-60,000 years
What is naturalism?
Only natural laws and forces exist in nature/can be detected in nature (without external forces/power/manipulation/control/control of god)
When did the French revolution occur and what was it about?
1788
French rise and took down their government and monarchy (Anti-church and Atheist ousted the government)
Abolished churches and cathedrals – turned them into secular temples of reason (worship logic and reason)
Pierre-Simon Laplace vs Napoleon
Laplace said that the universe worked on natural laws and there is no place for God
Who was associated with the argument of design by a divine being?
William Paley
What was the Bridgewater Treatises about and how many volumes were there?
It was about how God is involved in the creation of earth and living things.
8 volumes
Who wrote the 9th Bridgewater treatise and what was it about?
Charles Babbage
Mock the other 8 Bridgewater treatise by saying that it is silly to think that you can learn more about God by studying nature
He said that nature is governed and run by natural laws whether you are aware/believe in it or not
Who was known as the inventor of the computer?
Charles Babbage
What was the book “Architecture of the heavens” by J.P Nichol in 1837 about?
Nebula: Spinning clouds; Nebula hypothesis: suggests that the solar system was formed from these spinning discs of dusts and gases in the space by laws of gravity (formed by a gradual process – nebula evolved into a solar system)
What is phrenology and who invented it?
First scientific psychology
It is the belief that the bumps on one’s head showed structures of the brain - thereby revealing one’s strengths and weaknesses and characteristics
Franz Joseph Gall
When did Phrenology die down?
The 1950s
Who brought phrenology to Britain (in particular Edinburgh)
Johann Gaspar Spurzheim - disciple of Franz Joseph Gall
Who published “The Constitution of Man” and when was it published?
George Combe in 1828
What was “The Constitution of Man” about?
Argued that human beings are subjected to natural laws and he developed his own sort of philosophy of natural laws (copied from French philosophers)
His book states that the laws of nature is what you need in order to live a good life (will still die if you are sailing on a poorly maintained ship even if you are very religious) natural laws does not take morality and religious beliefs into account
Had a system of 3 laws: Physical, Organic and Moral
Message of the book: Man must live in accordance to the laws of nature instead of just following the moral laws
Biblical criticism
Scholarly edit and study of the bible (found the bible had many different versions and writing styles
What was the Victorian crisis of faith?
People were starting to doubt their faith in Christianity after reading and getting exposed to these radical ideas from the Vestiges/OOS/Constitution of Man etc.
Who pushed for scientific professionalism
Thomas Henry Huxley
What was John Tyndall’s Belfast Address in 1874 about?
British Association for the advancement of science was meeting in Belfast, Ireland.
Said that religion must keep out of the boundaries of Science (religion had no power over science)
Promotes the sufficiency of natural laws – natural laws work by themselves to make the world go around – no room for God
What is a pantheist?
A person who equates naturen with God
What was the Victorian Evangelicalism?
Devoted to their own version of Christianity that regarded the bible as the bedrock of their beliefs (sceptical of science)
Fierce opponents of anything that denies god
How did Darwin’s theory of evolution become so successful in such a religious and conservative world back then?
various movement There were various movements that pushed the idea that nature is working by its own (God was so clever that he designed everything so that he did not intervene) – convinced the religious people that Darwin’s theories did not challenge/affect the fundamental of their faith.
They’ve seen so many radical books coming in and out (e.g. vestiges etc.) – these radical views were brought up slowly and gradually
What book did Darwin publish after publishing the origin of species and when was it published
A book about orchids
1862
What was the first book that supported Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection?
Orchids in 1862
What is the advantage of mixing?
It creates variation which is advantageous to increase the species chances of survival as they are better adapted to the environment
What was Darwin convinced about after studying about orchids?
He was convinced that sex was universal as it allowed mixing to occur to create more variations which will may help the species survive/adapt better to the environment
Convinced that without any variation, the lineage of organisms will remain unchanged – no variation for natural selection to filter out the changes to help them adapt to a changing world
What orchid did Darwin conducted his experiment on?
Early purple orchid
What did Darwin find out from his experiment on orchids?
Plants evolve structures to make sure that they do not mate with themselves
Darwin showed that plants were just as rich with intricate adaptations as animals and that their adaptations were cobbled together from pre-existing elements by natural selection.
Natural selection was the only scientific explanation that can explain why these things were
What is the relationship between the long nectary orchid and the moth?
Mutualism - Both the orchid and moths must be slowly changing/evolving over time to achieve such a specialisation (both moth and orchid are adapted to each other
What was the book “Reign of Law” by the Duke of Argyll in 1867 about?
Argyll was unconvinced by Darwin’s argument that only natural causes have led to orchids – believed that there is divine intervention
Why are plants in waterlogged soil prey/trap insects sometimes?
Waterlogged soil lack nitrogen, the plant needs nitrogen so it obtains it from consuming insects
What are the benefits of cross-fertilisation?
Seedlings of cross-fertilised plants are superior/stronger and are more numerous compared to seedlings of self-fertilised plants
When was the book “The variation of animals and plants under domestication” published and what was it about?
- It was about the intense study of variations. He studied domesticated poultry
What was Darwin’s speculation of the theory of inheritance? Was it accepted?
He speculated that cells of the body give off little particles called Gemmules
Theory was unpopular, not widely accepted!
What did his cousin, Frank Galton, experimented on to prove Darwin wrong?
Bunnies
How are new species formed?
Struggle for survival will determine that those variation that are better suited to the current environmental conditions will be preserved/selected, and those that are unfavourable will be killed off
When was the “Descent of Man” published and what was it about?
1871
It stated that the origin of species is not about human but about the general process of biological change over time
Explained sexual selection
Said that man was descended from other primates/common ancestry
When did Darwin first use the word “evolution” in his works?
The Descent of Man 1871
What does similar embryo structures between man and other animals indicate?
Common ancestry
What are vestigial organs?
- Leftover structures by our ancestors that served a function back then but not now
What did Darwin theorized to be the origin of races?
Result of sexual selection
What was Darwin’s most famous example of sexual selection?
The Argus Pheasant
What was Darwin’s final book and when was it published?
The formation of vegetable mould, through the actions of worms, with observations on their habits - 1881
What was the book “The expression of the emotions in man and animals” about?
Darwin showed that we do not have muscles in our face that we used to express emotion that is not found in other primates
One of their belief is that we are totally different from other species, but Darwin said no -> it is a continuum (there is no one feature possessed by humans that are unique only to humans -> at least some degree of similarity can be found in other species
What are the 3 main points of the book “The expression of the emotions in man and animals” ?
Emotions aren’t unique to human as we do not have special muscles just for expressing our emotions that are not present in other animals
Human morality was a more refined development of other social animals
Reciprocity and concern for the welfare of relatives
When did Thomas Henry Huxley coin the term “Agnostic”
1869
When did Darwin begin to have doubts in Christianity?
1838
Was Darwin a sceptic of Christianity on board the Beagle?
No. Darwin was orthodox to the beliefs of Christianity
Did Darwin stop going to church after his daughter’s death?
No. But the date when he stopped going to church was not recorded
Did Darwin lose his faith in Christianity after his daughter’s death in 1851?
No. Darwin was still reading books about religion in the 1850s. He already had doubts about his faith in 1838
What evidence did Darwin give to support his loss of faith?
Comparative anthropology (cross-cultural studies)
Darwin travelled the world and he was aware of the myriad of religious beliefs around the globe
Realise that there are many false religions that were widespread around the globe – led him to wonder that just because his religion is widespread does not necessarily mean that is it the true religion
The gospels in the bible cannot be proved to have been written simultaneously with the events (different versions of the gospels differ in many important details – not convincing
He thinks that there is not enough evidence to prove that God exists
Did Darwin have a sudden crisis of faith?
No. Gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation
When did Darwin die and where was he buried?
Died in 1882 in Westminster Abbey (most prestigious church in England) - given a state funeral. He died of heart trouble
Q
When was the theory of evolution accepted by the international scientific community?
The 1870s
Q
Common viewpoints in the 1870s to 1890s
God or a creator made the universe and the laws of nature which are so perfect that they need no further interference.
Darwin’s theory showed that biology too, like astronomy, chemistry, geology etc., was under the control of natural laws
Humans were descended from earlier beings just like all plants and animals
What was Darwin’s last book? And what was it about?
The formation of vegetable mould, through the actions of worms, with observations on their habits (1881)
Found that worm reshaped the landscape of Earth and helped to fertilise the soil
Concluded that worms cannot hear – they react to vibrations
Q
What is the function of wormstone? What did it prove?
measure the rate that it gradually sunk into the earth (slow and gradual process)
Proved that things are constantly buried by earthworms
What is the meaning of Pangenesis?
Cells flow through your body – pass down characteristics from the adult to the offspring
Q
When was Darwin’s statue placed inside London’s Natural History Museum?
1885
Who was the first person to introduce rigorous statistical methods to study heredity?
Francis Galton
Who coined the term Eugenics and when was it coined?
Francis Galton in 1883
What was August Weissman’s Germ plasm theory about?
Only the characteristics of the sex cells get passed) not passed down by any particle that is flowing through the body
Inheritance (in a multicellular organism) only goes through germ cells: egg cells and sperm cells, not body cells.
No inheritance of acquired characteristics (anti-Lamarckism)
Characteristics are in the reproductive cells (gametes)
Is Gregor Mendel the father of modern genetics?
Nope
What was Carl Linnaeus thought about how species are formed?
He thought that species were formed/evolved due to cross-breeding between varieties (Not by natural selection as proposed by Darwin)
What did Gregor Mendel conduct experiment on and what was he trying to study?
What was the finding of Gregor Mendel’s pea plant experiment?
The 3:1 ratio
What are Mendel’s 2 laws?
Law of Segregation
Law of Independent assortment (different traits are inherited independently of each other)
What law did Gregor Mendel create?
“Law of combination of different characters” but only specified to hybrids
Did Darwin have a copy of Gregor Mendel’s work?
Nope
What did Hugo de Vries postulate?
Postulated that “inheritance of specific traits in organisms comes in particles” which he called “pangenes”
Combined Galton’s statistics to create a new theory – theory of mutation (mechanism where organisms become different without natural selection)
Who were the founder of modern genetics?
Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns and Erich von Tschermak
What did Walter Sutton and Theodor Boveri suggest?
They suggested that chromosomes are hereditary units
What did Thomas Hunt Morgan want to prove?
Morgan sought to prove Mutation Theory with his experiments breeding fruit flies
1910 Morgan showed that genes are on chromosomes
1915 Morgan combined Mendel’s theories with Chromosome Theory of Inheritance.
Wanted to prove that mutation was responsible for the variation in living things, not natural selection (but was proven wrong)
What did Ernest Rutherford discover?
Discovered radiometric dating – used radioactivity to date rocks
Who discovered the double helix structure of DNA?
James Watson and Francis Crick
Q
What is the modern synthesis?
genetics confirmed evolution by natural selection.
Mutation was a major source which natural selection picks to adapt things. One of the ways where variations occur
Majority of variation in organisms is a result of sexual reproduction, not mutation
Genetics was part of natural selection
Who proposed the theory of Continental Drift?
Alfred Wegener
He had evidence, the rocks of either side of the ocean were identical rocks. They contained exactly fossil types. (cannot be a coincidence) evidence that they originated from the same spot.
What is Palaeomagnetism?
The reversal of Earth’s magnetic field.
Evidence of seafloor spreading?
Magnetic Striping
Is there a missing link between humans and other species?
No. The missing link idea is a misconception
What was the book “Paleontological Tree of Vertebrates (1879)” by Ernst Haeckel about?
Made human seem like the ultimate outcome of evolution – final stage of a slow and gradual progress towards something of higher complexity) – but that is not true as humans are not at the top of the evolution tree
Not accepted at all in a biological or Darwinian sense
Are the Neanderthals our ancestor?
No. They are our cousins and we share a common ancestor
What species was the Java man?
Homo Erectus
Was the Piltdown Man real?
No it was a hoax
Are Neanderthals intelligent creatures?
Yes. They had fire and they made complex tools
What are hominids?
Creatures that walked on 2 legs
Which came first? Bipedalism or Big brains?
Bipedalism
Why did humans start walking on 2 legs?
Hunting theory:
o Can run more efficiently – able to run farther distance on 2 legs than 4
o Higher viewpoint – able to spot prey/predators more easily
- Tree theory:
o Orang Utans spent a considerable portion of their time walking on their hind legs in trees – already comfortable with walking on 2 legs
o Habitat: trees – but started to live on the ground due to the widespread lost of forests in Africa - Aquatic ape theory:
o substantial part of our evolutionary past was conducted in the water, there would have been a phase of the evolution of these creatures in which they would have done a lot of wading (this is supposed to explain the lost of body hair, because wading with almost naked skin is better than being covered in hair which will slow you down).
o Ancestors have to wade and to keep their head out of the water to look for food
o Not a successful theory
What are Homo Floresiensis
Dwarf sized ape like creatures - Hobbits
Where did humans evolve in?
Africa
What theory did Darwin use to explain why different human race exists?
Darwin used the theory of sexual selection to try to explain why different human races existed, he didn’t think that the earlier theory that humans were adapted to their local environment was correct. He tried to argue that humans have domesticated ourselves and made our own races through sexual choice, by mating based on their standard of beauty.
This is nonsense and is not accepted
What is race synonymous with?
Varieties
Are we still evolving?
Meaningless to ask if anything is still evolving because big changes take thousands of years to occur (the process is a slow and gradual change – invisible to us because we have short life spans
What was the scopes monkey trial in 1925 about?
First epic battle against the theory of evolution (Creation vs Evolution)
According to the America constitution, religious views of any kind, of any religion, aren’t allowed to be in the legislation because there is an official separation between church and state. But the evangelicalist wanted religion to be taught in public schools
What was the Butler act in 1925 about?
Illegal to teach evolution in public schools
Teachers used the science textbook which includes evolution -> but they weren’t allowed to teach evolution
Evangelical parents felt that it was not fair that evolution (an idea that they hated) are allowed to be taught in public schools but their religious beliefs were banned.
What is Evangelicalism?
Christian Fundamentalism
What were the ideas that were brought up to try to hide religion under the pretence of science?
Creationism
Creation-Science
Intelligent design
What was the Irreducible complexity in Michael Behe’s “Darwin’s black box about?”
Argued that some structures in nature and living things are so complicated that they cannot be reduced (i.e. if you remove one component the entire system will not work)
Hence such a complex structure wouldn’t be possible to have come about in a slow and gradual way as proposed by Darwin (should come all at once)
Was the argument of irreducible complexity logically sound?
No. It is a logical fallacy (argument from ignorance)
What is the appeal to consequences fallacy
two ideas/concepts that cannot be logically connected
A logical conclusion cannot be drawn from A to B
E.g. belief in evolution leads to immoral behaviour
Who coined the term Eugenics and when was it coined?
Frank Galton
1883
What is Eugenics?
It is the improvement of the human species through selective breeding
What is positive Eugenics?
originally designed as a benign system to improve humanity, to decrease the percentage of people in the world with disease, deformities and bad propensities, like the propensity to beat their children or to be alcoholics. They thought that by careful breeding, one could make humanity happier. (do not let these people reproduce; allow the “good” people to reproduce)
What is negative Eugenics?
not about improving desirable characteristics, but instead of getting rid of people whom they consider to be have undesirable characteristics (e.g. mentally retarded, criminals, handicapped) – resulted in enforced sterilization of these people
Was Hitler inspired by Darwin?
No
How old is the Earth and how was it measured?
Around 4 to 4.5 billion years old. Measured by radiometric dating (discovered by Ernest Rutherford)
What is the age of the universe?
Around 13 billion years old
What was the traditional theory that made human special?
Traditional theory is that we ate meat and meat contains more nutrients and calories – more nutrients can be absorbed and assimilated to fuel or big brains
Why was the theory of meat eating not the reason why we got bigger brains?
But not true because meat eating goes way before humans developed big brains – bipedalism was developed first before big brains
Furthermore, there are other animals who are carnivorous (e.g. lions and tigers) – but these animals do not have big brains and are not intelligent like us
Who came up with the “Cooking Ape Hypothesis” ?
Richard Wrangham
What was the “Cooking Ape Hypothesis” about?
His theory is that cooking is unique to humans (we learned how to use fire) - and that eating cooked food led to us having bigger brains
What are the benefits of a diet of cooked food?
More calories as the cooked food is partially digested already, body do not need to spend so much energy to break it down further -> net gain in calories
More nutrients because it is easier to digest and absorb the nutrients in cooked food
What are the disadvantages of a raw food diet?
Body needs more energy to digest the raw food than the energy present in the food -> net loss in nutrients/calories -> results in weight loss, malnutrition and in extreme cases – infertility!
Is a diet of cooked food the cause of our big brains?
No. It is only the prerequisite for a bigger brain.
What are the characteristics that shows that humans lived on a diet of cooked food?
Smaller molars and teeth
Absence of barrel chest
Smaller stomach
When did humans become biologically adapted to a diet of cooked food?
somewhere around the time of homo erectus that the cooking revolution happened
Who wrote the book “Guns, Germs and Steel” and what was it about?
Jared Diamond in 1997
Explained why the world turned out to be the way it is
Addressed a very profound and interesting question, why is it that after human beings have evolved and spread over most of the surface of the earth, for thousands of years, all the people in the world were all the same? We were all cavemen.
In the beginning we were are equal – hunter/gatherers and lived in caves
However, after thousands of years, we became unequal (some countries became very prosperous while others remained poor)
Is it true that people gave up the lifestyle of gathering to domestication of animals and plants because they thought that it will be easier to grow plants and rear animals instead of chasing the animals down everyday?
No it is a myth.
Hunter/Gatherer lifestyle is better than the farming lifestyle – only work a couple of hours a day to hunt (no stress, no job etc.) why would they give up their chill life to work in the farms where they have to work constantly.
Q
What does the domestication of plants and animals resulted in?
larger amount of food can be grown and stored -> surplus of food led to:
A larger population as there are more than enough food to go around, people were well nourished, body had the energy to reproduce.
The surrounding land is unable to support the larger population -> people were stuck in the farmers/agricultural life
Specialism arose because of the surplus of food, since not everyone has to grow their own food (not possible for hunter/gatherers back then because everyone have to go out and get their food) -> devoted their time to create new art/technologies -> made the societies more sophisticated/advanced
What and where is the Fertile Crescent?
The origin of the agricultural revolution (7000 - 10000 B.C.)
Middle East
Diamond’s question: Why didn’t we domesticate plants and animals everywhere?
His answer is that it was dependent on the native species available in the area (can only domesticate what is already there)
And that only certain species have the characteristics to be domesticated (e.g. wheat or rice)
Once these species were domesticated, it was easier to spread the domesticated plants laterally compared to vertically -> led to uneven distribution of domesticated plant species
Why is it easier to transfer domesticated plants and animals laterally compared to vertically?
Movement of domesticated plant species laterally was possible because the climate and environmental conditions were similar
However, vertical movement was impossible (e.g. South America to North America) as the climate and environmental conditions were drastically different
What is the first animal domesticated by humans?
Wolves
What is the ancestor of modern languages?
The Indo-European language
What is a cuneiform?
Cuneiform tablets (earliest surviving forms of writing from the Sumerians about 7000 years ago)
Who invented the first alphabet system in 1200 to 150 BCE?
Phoenician (ancestor of our modern alphabet)
How did the Spaniards conquered the Incas?
Civilisation crumbled due to the disease. That is why the Spaniards conquered the Incas and not the other way around.
Before the Spaniards even heard of the Incas and before they got there, there were unbelievably horrible diseases that spread to the Incan Empire and had decimated thousands of people, including the original emperor
What is the “Black Death” ?
A plague that swept through Europe for centuries
Why was it Europe who conquered the world and not China?
Diamond says: Europe was always politically fractured because of its mountains and so was never united – unlike China that was mostly united under a single authority because it has far fewer barriers. This is the reason for the differential success between China and Europe.
Arms race for weapon and technology (in Europe) whereas in china there is only one emperor who says we are going to do this or that and this or that will happen – JVW doesn’t believe this is convincing.
From Wiki: (for Europe) Threats posed by immediate neighbours ensured governments that suppressed economic and technological progress soon corrected their mistakes or were out-competed relatively quickly - reason of why being politically divided was good
Even though both had large populations and sophisticated technologies
What is the species of plant that can be domesticated in Australia?
Macadamia nuts
Why did the Australians live as Hunter gatherers?
People lived as hunter/gatherers (why didn’t they domesticate plants and animals and grow in population like the rest of the world?
They did not have anything that they can domesticate (except for macadamia nuts) – not their fault and not because they are less intelligent than other people in other parts of the world
What are some criticisms of Jared Diamond’s work?
Geographic determinism – Diamonds is saying that geographical factors allow/permit things to develop, emerge rather than determining which direction they should advance in – wrong to say this
Should be geographical enable-lism – different things that were present in different parts of the world are the factors/constraints that made some things possible and other things impossible), not geographical determinism
What is evolution?
Evolution is not a thing/force that can “shape” anything – not a thing but a process
Evolution did not solve any problem/did not find ways to adapt living things
Evolution is the change of living things over time (slow and gradual process)
Evolution is a process that involves a population (occurs at the population level
When did simple microscopic unicellular organic microorganisms start to appear on earth?
3.5 billion years ago
When did multicellular organisms appear
2.5 billion years ago
What are Stromatolites?
Bacteria Colonies
When did Jellyfish appear?
2 billion years ago
What are the basic principles of evolution?
Everything comes about gradually. Every step has to be advantageous/make sense in its own terms- there is no reference or mechanism for future needs.
There is no such thing as evolving for ‘the good of the species’- only individuals.
Ancestry usually explains similarity
o Analogy vs. ancestry… wings of bats & birds are convergent evolution…
Isolation leads to difference … Galapagos or any isolated place
o Divergence.
o Gives a false impression of progress. If you look at a small subset, you will be mistaken.
o It is not a story of progress
“Progress” is not inevitable, although of course:
o Complex things can only come about after simples ones. But sometimes more simple follows more complex.
Cave fish, crabs etc. have lost their complex eyes.
New territory or niches opening up tend to draw in new species
Many things have happened again and again.
o Big extinction events.
o Explosions of diversity such as the Cambrian explosion.
o Evolution of carnivores/predators from herbivores- in fish, reptiles, dinosaurs, marsupial mammals, placental mammals… Aldabra tortoises perhaps…
