Week 8- History of Evolutionary Thought

Question 1

What are the 4 Ages of Evolutionary Thought?

Answer 1

1. Antiquity
2. Middle Ages
3. Early Modern Thought
4. Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism

Question 2

3 thoughts of Antiquity?

Answer 2

1. Greek Thought
2. Chinese Thought
3. Roman Thought

Question 3

He claimed that life had originally developed in the sea and only later moved onto land.

Answer 3

Anaximander

Question 4

He discussed a non-supernatural origin for living things.

Answer 4

Empedocles

Question 5

He formulated the Theory of Forms; all potential life forms being present in a perfect creation.

Answer 5

Plato

Question 6

Aristotle’s work that’s based on complexity of structure and function, with organisms that showed greater vitality and ability to move described as “higher organisms”.

Answer 6

Scala Naturae or “Ladder of life or Chain of Being”

Question 7

Explicitly denied the fixity of biological species.

Answer 7

Taoism

Question 8

Ideas on evolution were expressed by ancient 1.)__________ thinkers such as 2.)_____________.

Answer 8

1. Chinese
2. Zhuangzi (Chang Tzu)

Question 9

2 types of Middle Ages Thoughts?

Answer 9

Christian and Islamic Thought

Question 10

• Europeans were re-introduced to the works of Plato
  and Aristotle, as well as Islamic thought.
• They combined Aristotlean classification with
  Plato’s ideas of the goodness of God.

Answer 10

Christian Thought

Question 11

Aristotle’s work under Christian Thought?

Answer 11

Scala Naturae or “Great Chain of Being”

Question 12

1. ______ and ________ evolutionary ideas molded the early theories on evolution and natural selection.
2. This theory is known as?

Answer 12

1. Greek and Roman
2. Mohammedan Theory of Evolution

Question 13

He considered the effects of the environment on
the likelihood of an animal to survive and evolve, and
first described the __________

Answer 13

Al-Jahiz; struggle for existence

Question 14

Specific book or work under Islamic Thought?

Answer 14

Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (The Epistles of
Ikhwan al-Safa)

Question 15

Stated that the “germs” of all things have always existed and contains internal principle of development which drives them on through a vast series of metamorphoses

Answer 15

Gottfried Leibniz

Question 16

In his De rerum originatione radicali, he clearly felt that evolution proceeded on divine
principles.

Answer 16

Gottfried Leibniz

Question 17

◦Different geographical locations have different organisms.

◦Speculated the closely related species called genus (in
modern times, it is called family).

◦Hypothesized that all quadrupeds are descended
from just 38 species.

Answer 17

Georges-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon

Question 18

Who created the book Zoonomia, a book with evolutionary speculations but does not influence the other evolutionary thoughts after it?

Answer 18

Erasmus Darwin

Question 19

Grandfather of Charles Darwin.

Answer 19

Erasmus Darwin

Question 20

Provides principles for defining genera and species of
organisms that generate order in the diversity of life.

Answer 20

Carolus Linnaeus

Question 21

Who created the two-part format of scientific naming of organisms being used today?

Answer 21

Carolus Linnaeus

Question 21

Hierarchy of Taxonomic Categories

Answer 21

Carolus Linnaeus

Question 22

Essay on the Principle of Population.

Answer 22

Thomas Malthus

Question 23

His observation that in nature plants and animals produce far more offspring than can survive, and that Man too is capable of
overproducing if left unchecked.

Answer 23

Thomas Malthus

Question 24

1. Patterns of extinction and faunal
   succession revealed by the fossil record.
2. Who made this theory?

Answer 24

1. Theory of Catastrophism
2. Georges Cuvier

Question 25

• published his findings on the differences between living
  elephants and those found in the fossil record.
• His analysis demonstrated that mammoths and
  mastodons were distinct species different from any living
  animal, effectively ending a long-running debate over the
  possibility of the extinction of a species.

Answer 25

Georges Cuvier

Question 26

‘Father of Geology’

Answer 26

James Hutton

Question 27

-The Prevailing Idea during this time about was
Catastrophism – changes were due to large, quick events.

-He proposed the formation of Uniformitarianism –
Geology was a long process with small changes over time.

Answer 27

James Hutton

Question 28

-Acquired characteristics during lifetime to survive are
passed to the next generation.

-Wrong, but, influenced others. First to give the
mechanism that evolution is happening.

Answer 28

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Question 29

• Geologist, followed footsteps of Hutton.
• Earth was over 300 million years old.
• Mentor of Darwin.

Answer 29

Charles Lyell

Question 30

• Independently came up with the idea of natural
  selection in his observation at the Amazon Basin.
• Sent his ideas to Darwin in 1858 (who has the same
  ideas).

Answer 30

Alfred Russel Wallace

Question 31

Published infamous on the Origin of Species in
1859.
- Most famous studies in Galapagos on ‘Darwin’s
finches’
- Coined ‘Natural selection’
- Evolution = ‘Descent with modification’

Answer 31

Charles Darwin

Question 32

Patterns of Biological Diversity (based on
Darwin’s Observation)

Answer 32

◦Species vary globally
◦Species vary locally
◦Species vary over time

Question 33

Darwinism/Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural
Selection

Answer 33

• Species can change over time,
  ◦New species come from pre-existing species
  ◦All species share a common ancestor.
  ◦“Survival of the Fittest”

Question 34

Difficulties/Things cannot be explained by
Darwinism

Answer 34

◦Lack of Transitional Forms in the fossil record
◦Lack of proof where variation came from
◦How variations are passed from one generation to
the next?
◦Pangenesis - Theory of Heredity – Gemmules to
Gonads

Question 35

• Also called Mendelian Inheritance
• A Principle of Heredity
• System of particulate of Inheritance by units, or
  genes
• Gregor Mendel

Answer 35

Mendelism

Question 36

Formulated by Julian Huxley
- Merging the ideas of Darwin and Mendel
- Diversity within a population arose from the random production of mutations, and the environment acted to select the most fit phenotypes.

Answer 36

Neo-Darwinian Theory