Unit 1: The History of Evolutionary Thought

Question 1

What is Evolution?

Answer 1

a change in allele frequencies of a population across generations

Question 2

What is an allele?

Answer 2

variant form in a genetic locus

Question 3

What population?

Answer 3

potentially interbreeding organisms of the same species living in the same place

Question 4

What is generations?

Answer 4

not within a lifetime of an organism

Question 5

What processes cause evolution?

Answer 5

1. natural selection
2. genetic drift
3. migration
4. mutation

Question 6

Microevolution -> Macroevolution

Answer 6

?

Question 7

Who were the 2 major philosophers for the Ancient Greek regarding evolution?

Answer 7

Plato & Aristotle

Question 8

What did the Ancient Greeks believe regarding Evolution?

Answer 8

• Organism are unchanging and represent perfect “types”
• Species were independently created and are fixed types
• Hierarchy (ex: apex predator)

Question 9

What did the Non-European Ancient Scholars believe regarding Evolution?

Answer 9

themes related to struggle for survival among individuals and change over time, which were unknown the European scholars

Question 10

Who are the most important Non-European ancient scholars regarding Evolution?

Answer 10

Zhuang Zhou & Al-Jahiz

Question 11

What were the common views of the 19th century and earlier?

Answer 11

• Species are fixed (unchanged)
• Species are independent (no common ancestry)
• Earth was young (ex; 10,000 years old)

Question 12

What were fossils originally believed to be?

Answer 12

Originally thought to be geometric forms in the rock

Question 13

Who was the first to recognize fossils were remains of organisms?

Answer 13

Nicholas Steno (1638 - 1686)

Question 14

What is Steno’s law of superposition?

Answer 14

Layers of rock are arranged in a time sequence, with younger layers at the top

Question 15

What are Fossils?

Answer 15

the preserved remains (body fossils) or traces (trace fossils) of organisms from prehistoric time

Question 16

What are the 3 paths to preservation?

Answer 16

1. Permineralization
2. Trapped in amber
3. Frozen

Question 17

What does the Fossil Record say?

Answer 17

Evidence that organisms from the past are not the same as we see today, giving a record of change over time within a group of related organisms

Question 18

What did the rise of Geology tell us?

Answer 18

• There are different rock types/layers
  2. the slow but continuous process of erosion and uplift
  3. Earth is old
  4. Fossils were confined to distinct layers

Question 19

Who discovered the process of erosion and uplift?

Answer 19

James Hutton & Charles Lyell

Question 20

Who first recognized extinction?

Answer 20

Baron Georges Cuvier

Question 21

How did Baron Georges Cuvier recognize extinction?

Answer 21

Fossils resemble but are not exactly the same as modern species

Question 22

What is Homology?

Answer 22

Species share common themes in their anatomy

Question 23

What is Morphology homology?

Answer 23

bones in forelimbs of vertebrates

Question 24

What is Embryology homology?

Answer 24

tail developing embryos of vertebrates

Question 25

What is Molecular homology?

Answer 25

similarity in genes of fruit flies and mammals

Question 26

What are Homologous Structures?

Answer 26

parallel (similar) structure in diverse organisms that were inherited from a common ancestor

Question 27

What is a Vestigial Structure?

Answer 27

physical structure present in an organism but has no (or little) apparent function and appears to be from a functional structure in a distant ancestor

Question 28

What is the Law of Succession?

Answer 28

extinct species were succeeded by similar species

Question 29

What is a Transitional Feature?

Answer 29

trait in a fossil that is intermediate between ancestral (older) and derived (newer) species

Question 30

What does Fossil records provide with evidence from transitional features？

Answer 30

that lineages have changed over time

Question 31

Who discovered the inheritance of acquired characteristics?

Answer 31

Jean Baptiste de Lamarck

Question 32

What did Lamarck believe?

Answer 32

1. Continuous use of an organ results in its growth (and dissuse causes it to shrink)
2. trait changes due to use/disuse are passed to offspring

Question 33

Who discovered the Malthusian Catastrophe?

Answer 33

Thomas Malthus

Question 34

What is the Malthusian Catastrophe?

Answer 34

without regulation, human population size will become too large, leading to famine/war/disease and a population crash back to subsistence levels

Question 35

What advancement were made in evolutionary thought?

Answer 35

• Species have changed through time
• Life on Earth is ancient (allowing time for large divergences among species)
• Transitional fossils document changes in the traits of related species
• Homologous traits are common
• Closely related species often live in the same geographic area

Question 36

What was “The Voyage of the Beagle”

Answer 36

(1831-1836)
A voyage taken by Darwin to survey geology among South America, where he collected nearly 10,000 fossils and specimens.
He was in the Galapagos Islands for only 5 weeks.

Question 37

How long is Charles Darwin work cataloging his findings, conducting experiments, and working on details of his theory?

Answer 37

20 years

Question 38

Who is responsible for the Wallace Line?

Answer 38

Alfred Russel Wallace

Question 39

What is the Wallace Line?

Answer 39

An imaginary divider used to mark the difference between species on either side of the line

Question 40

What 2 explorations did Wallace have?

Answer 40

1. Exploring Brazil (1848-1852)
2. Malay Archipelago (1854-1862)

Question 41

Which authors published a theory on Natural Selection?

Answer 41

Alfred Russel Wallace & Charles Darwin (a joint-publication)

Question 42

Which book complies Darwin’s research?

Answer 42

On the Origin of Species (1859)

Question 43

What is Modern Synthesis?

Answer 43

overarching evolutionary paradigm that took shape by the 1940s that is generally accepted today
(reconciled works of Darwin/Wallace “natural selection” & Mendel “genetics”)

Question 44

Perminerlization

Answer 44

minerals enter dead organic material and form an internal cast