Understanding biodiversity pt 2

Question 1

The first concept of species being defined by morphology was…

Answer 1

• Aristotle’s Scala Naturae (which was directly related to Plato’s theory of the form)

Question 2

Who worked off of Aristotle’s classification system and collected specimens/observations

Answer 2

Pliny the Elder

Question 3

What were some of the drawbacks of Pliny the Elder’s collection of biodiversity observations?

Answer 3

• documented his sources, but did not critically investigate them
• included mythological/fictional organisms to naturalize them

Question 4

Al-Jahis was interested in ……

Answer 4

• reconciling Aristotle with Islam
• inter-species relationships (predator-prey)
• intermediate forms (Hybrids, ect)

Question 5

What were the main reasons why classical understanding of biodiversity was greatly expanded in the enlightenment period?

Answer 5

1. global expansion (exploration of new world, rapid increase in discovery of new animals)
2. Increased study of fossils (Began to look at fossils as a record of the past, saw extinct organisms)
3. invention of microscopes (new microscopic life!)

Question 6

Why do plants play such a large role in the study of biodiversity?

Answer 6

• big interest in their utility! used for food, medicine
• easy to cultivate, gather, and keep alive
• economic uses
• preserved very easily

Question 7

Who was Andrea Cesapino?

Answer 7

• enlightenment scholar
• worked with plants, developed classification based on detailed observation

Question 8

Who was John Ray?

Answer 8

• scholar in the late 1600’s
• worked on plants and biodiversity

Question 9

What was John Ray’s main contribution to biodiversity studies?

Answer 9

• didn’t like the morphological species concept, thought it didn’t work (especially for sexually dimorphic species)
• instead, proposed the biological species concept: If any two organisms can breed and produce viable offspring, they are defined as species

Question 10

What were Buffon’s main contributions to the study of biodiversity?

Answer 10

• he wasn’t religious, and was really skeptical on finding a ‘natural/perfect’ classification scheme, because he thought organisms were not made ‘perfectly’
• was skeptical on assigning classification based on specific traits, and wanted to organized them based on their uses to us.