Lecture 2 Study Guide Flashcards
The 6 lines of evidence for evolution
Biodiversity, biogeography, fossil record, embryology, comparative anatomy, and molecular evidence
Biogeography
the study of geographic distributions of organisms
Continental Drift
The movement of continental plates through the actions of currents generated deep within the molten rock mantle
Vicariance
The evolutionary separation of species by barriers such as those formed by continental drift
Completeness of the fossil record
Far less than 1% of species that ever existed become fossilized
Why do so few become fossils
They lack hard parts, decompose rapidly, sediments only form under certain conditions, fossils must solidify into rocks and persist over time, fossils must be available for discovery
Theory of Recapitulation
A largely discredited biological hypothesis that he development of the embryo of the animal from fertilization to gestation/hatching goes through states resembling or representing successive stages in the evolution of the animals remote ancestorys
Theory of recapitulation phrase
ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
Von Baers Law
Features common to a more inclusive taxon often appear on development before the specific characters of lower level taxa consistent with modern evolutionary thinking because it states that one or a few simple embryo morphologies can diversify into branching patterns of increasing diversity
Homologous structures
structures with different appearances and functions that all derived from the same body part in common ancestors
Divergent Evolution
The process by which a single species or lineage diverged into two or more evolutionary groups with different characteristics
Analogous structures
superficially similar structures that were independently derived
Convergent evolution
when two species with different ancestral origins develop similar characteristics
Vestigial Structures
Structures in a body that no longer serve a function
Central dogma of molecular biology
The process of how DNA instructions are converted into function produce which is consistent with a single origin of life (DNA-RNA-Protine)