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Evolution > Test 1 > Flashcards

Test 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)

A
  • fossils resemble but are not exactly the same as modern species
  • many past species are extinct
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2
Q

James Hutton

A
  • observable processes produce small changes that accumulate over time
  • the earth must be old
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3
Q

William Smith

A
  • different rock layers contain distinct fossils
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4
Q

Jean Lamarck

A
  • proposed a full-blown theory of evolution
  • life driven from simple to complex
  • complex species descended from microbes
  • microbes continually generated spontaneously
  • adaptation occurs through inheritance of acquired changes
  • proposed a view of evolution that questioned the then popular idea that species did not change
  • idea that changes do take place in animals over long periods of time, specifically through the use of organs and appendages
  • popular example is the long necks of giraffes
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5
Q

In the 1800s, what three individuals proposed explanations for biological evolution?

A

Jean Lamarck, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Russel Wallace

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6
Q

Charles Darwin

A
  • Invited to serve as unofficial naturalist for HMS Beagle in 1831
  • observed similarities and differences among organisms and compare them on the mainland and islands
  • theory of natural selection
  • wanted to amass a wealth of evidence before presenting his idea
  • published a book
  • sexual selection
  • genetic drift
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7
Q

Alfred Russel Wallace

A
  • expedition to Amazon river
  • observed variations in organisms that engaged same questions that Darwin posed
  • sent Darwin his theory, to which to Darwin’s shock, nearly replicated Darwin’s own
  • Darwin reported his and Wallace’s work in a joint presentation
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8
Q

Homologous trait

A

Similar because of inheritance from a common ancestor

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9
Q

Sexual selection

A

Selection for traits that provide a mating advantage

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10
Q

Genetic drift

A

Change in frequency of traits due to chance events

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11
Q

Mendel

A
  • studied hereditary in a garden of peas
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12
Q

Which scientists showed how natural selection could operate in a Mendelian world?

A

Ronald Fisher, JBS Haldane, and Sewall Wright

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13
Q

Fisher, Haldane, and Wright left what major project open for later biologists?

A

To explain the language of genes, what species are and how they originate

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14
Q

Theodosius Dobzhansky

A
  • interested in discovering the genetics that determined the differences between populations of a species
  • “The Modern Synthesis”
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15
Q

Lord Kelvin

A
  • disputed Darwin

- proposed earth was no more than 20 million years old based on the temperature of rocks

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16
Q

What indicates that the earth is 4.6 billion years old?

A

Radiometric dating

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17
Q

What allows us to learn about extinct species?

A

Fossils

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18
Q

Biomarker

A

Distinctive molecules only produced through biological activity

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19
Q

What was used to infer types of plants eaten?

A

C13/C14 ratio

20
Q

Thales and Anaximander

A

Proposed explanations for life’s origins and gradual changes

21
Q

Earths oldest materials

A

4.3 billion year old zircon crystals

22
Q

Archean era (3.8-2.5bya)

A
  • earliest signs of life
  • origin of multicellularity a major transition in history of life
  • oldest fossils of multicellular life
  • earliest fossils of algae
23
Q

Cryogenian (850-635mya)

A
  • succession of incredibly harsh ice ages
  • Snowball earth
  • life consisted of tiny organisms - microscopic ancestors of fungi, plants, animals, and kelps evolved during this time
24
Q

Ediacaran (635-545mya)

A
  • also known as the Vendian
  • final stage of Pre-Cambrian time
  • all life was soft-bodied
  • diverse and unique animals dominated the oceans
  • worlds first ever burrowing animals - found fossils of the burrows
25
Q

Cambrian (545-495mya)

A
  • explosion of abundant and diverse life forms
  • shells
  • sea still very much the center of licit activity
26
Q

Ordovician (495-443mya)

A
  • few animals explored margins of land, but nothing colonized
  • majority of life still in seas
  • began with shallow, warm seas but the end of the period experienced a 500,000 year long ice age, triggered by the drift of the supercontinent, Gondwana, to the south polar regions
  • ended with a mass extinction
  • first terrestrial plant and fungal life
  • early plants resembled mosses and liverworts
  • fungi appear
27
Q

Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction

A
  • third largest extinction in earths history
  • had two peak dying times
  • some 85% of sea life was wiped out
  • ice age blamed
  • huge ice sheet in the Southern Hemisphere caused climate change and a fall in sea level, and messed with the chemistry of the oceans
28
Q

Silurian (443-417mya)

A
  • reefs - new type of ecosystem for marine life
  • host of tabulate and rugose corals, Crinoids, and sponges
  • extensive seas
  • bony fish made their first appearance
  • plants became more established
  • first wetland habitats
  • first terrestrial animal life
29
Q

First terrestrial animal life

A

Silurian

30
Q

Devonian (417-354mya)

A
  • Age of Fishes
  • sea surface temps averaged 30C
  • growth rings from corals provided evidence that there were more than 365 days in the year back then
  • first terrestrial vertebrates
  • oldest fossils of tetrapods
31
Q

Late Devonian mass extinction

A
  • 3/4 of all species on earth died out
  • much of sea bed became devoid of oxygen
  • out of bounds for anything except bacteria
  • changes in sea level, asteroid impacts, climate change, and new kinds of plants messing with the soil have all been blamed for these extinctions
32
Q

Carboniferous (354-290 mya)

A
  • highest atmospheric oxygen levels the earth has ever experienced
  • evolution of first reptiles
  • plants grew and died at such a great rate that they eventually became coal
  • Coal Measures after its proliferation of coal-bearing rocks
  • started off warm, but temp dropped and polar regions plunged into an ice age because of its lush coal forests
  • two epochs - Mississippian and Pennsylvanian
33
Q

Permian (290-248 mya)

A
  • started with ice age
  • ended with the most devastating mass extinction earth has ever experienced
  • two mass extinctions occurred
  • continents finally coalesced into one supercontinent, Pangaea
  • oxygen levels plummeted from 35% to around 15%
34
Q

Permian mass extinction

A
  • The Great Dying
  • Permian-Triassic extinction event
  • up to 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species became extinct
  • only known mass extinction of all insects
  • so much biodiversity was lost
  • earlier phase likely due to gradual environmental change
  • latter phase has been argued to be due to a catastrophic event
35
Q

Triassic (205-142 mya)

A
  • life on earth took a while to recover
  • heat, vast desert, and warm seas
  • first mammals and dinosaurs evolved
  • Pangaea began to break apart
  • ended as it had begun, with an extinction
36
Q

Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction

A
  • climate change, flood basalt eruptions, and an asteroid impact have been blamed
  • plants were not so badly affected
  • vacated terrestrial ecological niches, allowing dinosaurs to assume the dominant roles
  • evolution of mammals
  • mammals evolved from synapsids
37
Q

Jurassic (205-142 mya)

A
  • life was quick to recover
  • host the most diverse range of organisms that earth had seen yet
  • first birds
  • continental break gave rise to the sea that became Atlantic Ocean
  • ocean floor that formed at this time is the oldest surviving on the planet
38
Q

Cretaceous (142-65 mya)

A
  • ended with most famous mass extinction - the one that killed the dinosaurs
  • much of what we know as dry land was underwater
39
Q

K/T extinction

A
  • famed for death of dinosaurs
  • suggested thy the declines was due to flood basil eruptions effecting the worlds climate, combined with drastic falls in sea level
  • then a huge asteroid or comet struck the seabed near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico
40
Q

Paleocene (65-54.8 mya)

A
  • dense forests and evolutionary experiments
  • more mammals and birds to evolve
  • India and Asia collided
  • at the end, an abrupt ride in temp across the planet made the climate much wetter and caused a sea level rise
  • diversification of mammals
  • whales, bats, and primates
41
Q

Eocene (54.8-33.7 mya)

A
  • began as time of global warming
  • trees grew even in polar regions
  • be me cooler and drier
  • mass of rocks thrust up to form the Himalayas
  • Africa was an island
  • many species of grass evolved
42
Q

Oligocene (33.7-23.8 mya)

A
  • global cooling that would shift earths climate to one where glaciers were present and ice ages were possible
  • grasslands began to expand and forests shrank
  • open landscape
  • many fast running prey and predator species arose as a result
43
Q

Miocene (23.8-5.3 mya)

A
  • apes arose and diversified
  • ancestors of humans had split away from ancestors of chimps to follow their own evolutionary path
  • kelp forests made their first appearance and became one of earths most productive ecosystems
44
Q

Pliocene (5.3-2.6 mya)

A
  • north and South America had been drifting ever closer and gap was sealed
  • ice at North Pole became permanent, grassland and tundra thrived
45
Q

Pleistocene (2.6mya-11.7tya)

A
  • glaciers came and went, series of ice ages
  • dust storms would have been a lot more common
  • our species evolved
46
Q

Holocene (11.7tya-present)

A
  • current geological epoch
  • started when glaciers began to retreat
  • man kinds demand for timber and agricultural land grew
  • still in an ice age - indicated of ice caps at the poles
  • planet is just in an interglacial phase

Evolution (7 decks)

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