Post-Darwinian (book) Flashcards
especially promoted the exploring and interpreting of the history and diversification of life
Ernst Haeckel
golden age of paleontology, comparative morphology, and comparative embryology, during which a great deal of information on evolution in the fossil record and on relationships among organisms was amassed
late 19th century, early 20th century
Theories which rejected natural selection
- neo-Lamarckian
- orthogenesis
- mutationist theories
includes several theories based on the old idea of inheritance of modifications acquired during an organism’s lifetime
neo-Lamarckian
- held that the variation that arises is directed toward fixed goals, so that a species evolves in a predetermined direction by some kind of internal drive, without the aid of natural selection
- aka straight-line evolution
orthogenesis
advanced by some geneticists who observed that discretely different new phenotypes can arise by a process of mutation
mutationist theories
natural selection by mutationist theories
not necessary
accomplished geneticist who nevertheless erroneously argued that the origin of new species and higher taxa is entirely different from evolutionary change within species
Richard Goldschmidt
how did new species or genera originate according to Richard Goldschmidt
sudden, drastic changes that reorganize the whole genome
- includes the principles of natural selection, genetics, DNA, and biogeography
- do not speak to the origins of life, but rather scientists working in each field are trying to assess and understand the patterns of life
Evolutionary synthesis
adaptive evolution is caused by natural selection acting on particulate (Mendelian) genetic variation
- often used to mean the theory articulated in the evolutionary synthesis
neo-Darwinism
neo-Darwinism properly refers to __ strict version of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection
Weismann
- developed a mathemetical theory of population genetics
- showed that mutatoin and natural selection together cause adaptive evolution
- mutation is not an alternative to natural selection, but is rather its raw material
- Ronald A. Fisher
- John B. S. Haldane
was pioneered in Russia by Sergei Chetverikov and continued by Theodosius Dobzhansky
study of genetic variation and change in natural populations
who pioneered and continued the study of genetic variation and change in natural populations
- Sergei Chetverikov
- Theodosius Dobzhansky
provided laboratory evidence for natural selection and variation where previously there had been only field observation
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Major causes of evolution within species
- mutation
- gene flow/ migration
- natural selection
- genetic drift
- defined as changes in the frequency of a gene in a population
- subtle changes that can occur in very short periods of time, and may not be visible to a casual observer.
Microevolution
refers to evolution of groups larger than an individual
Macroevolution
Major contributors to the synthesis
- Ernst Mayr
- Bernhard Rensch
- G. Ledyard Stebbins
- George Gaylord Simpson
Ernst Mayr
- Systematics
- Origin of Species
Berhard Rensch
Evolution Above the Species Level
G. Ledyard Stebbins
Variation and Evolution in Plants
George Gaylord Simpson
- Tempo and Mode in Evolution
- The Major Features of Evolution
established the structure of DNA in 1953
- James Watson
- Francis Crick
developed the neutral theory of molecular evolution
Motoo Kimura
argued that most of the evolution of DNA sequences occurs by chance
(genetic drift) rather than by natural selection
neutral theory of molecular evolution
- enable biologists to determine phylogenetic relationships with ever great confidence
- revelad the genetic bases of adaptive characteristics of species and how and when they were modified by natural selection
- revealed the history of populations and their distributions over the globe
genomic data
when did evolutionary theory expand into areas such as ecology, animal behavior, and reproductive biology
mid 1960s
pioneered the detailed theories that explain the evolution of particular kinds of characteristics such as life span, ecological distribution, and social behavior
- William Hamilton
- John Maynard Smith
- George Williams
- does not equal to Darwinism
- any antievolutionary critiques of Darwin that do not take into account modern research are irrelevant to our understanding of evolution today
modern evolutionary biology
helped define the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory, proposing the “Biological Species Concept
Ernst Mayr
promoted a Darwinian macro-evolution in accord with the principles of gradualism
Bernhard Rensch
- showed how genetics and natural selection provide the keys to explaining plant speciation
- principal contribution was a book, Variation and Evolution in Plants (1950)
G. Ledyard Stebbins
proposed the idea of quantum evolution, which explains the rapid evolution of species under certain circumstances
George Gaylord Simpson
