Lesson 2 - Historical Predecessors - Evolution Flashcards
the process by which living organisms change over time through changes in the genome
evolution
idea of change through time in animals and plants dates back to over how many years ago
2,500 years ago
developed ideas about the course of change from fishlike and scaly animals to land forms
Anaximander
- saw original creatures come together in oddly assembled ways - humans with heads of cattle, animals with branches like trees
- argued that most perished, but only those creatures who came together in practical ways survived
Empedocles
- felt that species were fixed and unchangeable, and were created originally as we find them today
- devised a system for naming plants and animals
Carolus Linnaeus
- species adaptations reflected the care exercised by the Creator
- diversity of plant and animal species was proof of God’s almighty power
- tackled the tricky question of why the Divine made obnoxious creatures
Reverend John Ray
what did Reverend John Ray write
The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation
- wrote Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature
- archdeacon of Carlisle
William Paley
- studied fossil fishes and was first to recognize evidence of the worldwide ice ages, episodes of glaciation in Earth’s history
- founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University
- remained unconvinced of Darwinian evolution to the end of his life
Louis Agassiz
believed that living things evolved in a continuously upward direction, from dead matter, through simple to more complex forms, toward human “perfection”
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
what did Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck’s ideas spoke to
three issues of evolution
three issues of evolution
- fact
- course
- mechanism
species changed through time
fact of evolution
a progressive change in species along an ascending scale, from the lowest on one end to the most complex and “perfect” (meaning humans) on the other
course of evolution
need itself produced heritable evolutionary change
mechanism of evolution
“as environments changed, a need arose, metabolism adjusted, and new organs were created. Once acquired, these new characteristics were passed on to offspring”
evolution by means of the inheritance of acquired characteristics
notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime
Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism
- mechanism of evolution
- Organisms that are more adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and pass on the genes that aided their success
- process causes species to change and diverge over time
Natural selection
who unveiled natural selection
- Charles Darwin
- Alfred Wallace
natural selection favored individuals with __ __
superior characteristics
