Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Charles Darwin's biography, geological and economic influences, evolutionary theory mechanisms, and observations from the HMS Beagle expedition.

Charles Darwin

English naturalist (1809–1882) born in Shrewsbury who formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection after observing diverse flora and fauna on his global voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

Robert Darwin

A successful physician and financier who was the father of Charles Darwin; he sent Charles to study medicine at Edinburgh and later theology at Christ's College, Cambridge.

Dr. Alexander Munro III

The professor at the University of Edinburgh whose anatomy lectures Charles Darwin found extremely boring, contributing to his abandonment of medical studies.

Down House

The family estate in Kent, England, where Charles and Emma Darwin moved after living in London and resided for forty years until Charles' death in 1882.

Anne Elizabeth Darwin

Charles and Emma Darwin's daughter who died at age 10, a tragedy that deeply affected Charles and intensified his concerns over the health consequences of inbreeding.

Evolution

The process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms over time, resulting in cumulative change in the heritable characteristics of a population.

LUCA

The Last Universal Common Ancestor; the primordial entity that represents the shared biological origin of all extant life on Earth.

Homo neanderthalensis

An extinct hominin species that lived across Europe, southwest Asia, and central Asia from about 400,000 to 40,000 years ago, characterized by a brain size of $1,200\,\text{cm}^3$ to $1,750\,\text{cm}^3$, a large nose, and stocky build.

James Hutton

A geologist who proposed the Theory of Geological Change in 1795, arguing that slow, continuous physical forces shape and alter the Earth's surface over long periods.

Charles Lyell

Geologist and author of Principles of Geography, whose work argued that Earth's geological features are built up or torn down over vast stretches of time, influencing Darwin to contemplate similar changes in living species.

Malthusian Growth Theory

Thomas Malthus's socioeconomic premise stating that human populations grow geometrically while food supplies increase only arithmetically, causing resource deficits that force a struggle for existence.

Lamarck's Theory of Evolution

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's 1809 evolutionary hypothesis proposing that organisms acquire physical modifications through the 'use or disuse' of organs to adapt to environmental changes, passing these acquired traits to their offspring.

Alfred Russel Wallace

A British naturalist and botanist who independently formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection while studying in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, co-authoring a joint presentation with Darwin to the Linnaean Society of London in 1858.

Full Gastric Aversion

An unusual physiological defense mechanism in frogs where, unable to vomit normally after ingesting poison, the frog completely ejects its stomach, cleans it, and swallows it back inside.

Yeti Crab

A deep-sea decapod crustacean discovered in 2005 that lives at depths of $2,200\,\text{meters}$ near hydrothermal vents, using the dense hair on its claws to cultivate bacteria for nutrition.

Parrotfish Mucus Cocoon

A protective envelope secreted at night by parrotfish that acts as a natural barrier to mask scent, block parasites, and trigger an alarm response when disturbed.

Divergent Evolution

The evolutionary pattern in which two or more descendant species form from a common ancestor by adapting to different environmental niches and pressures.

Convergent Evolution

The evolutionary process whereby distantly related or unrelated species develop analogous traits and structures in response to similar environmental demands.

Natural Selection

The non-random process whereby individuals possessing advantageous heritable variations survive and reproduce at higher rates, causing favorable traits to increase in frequency over successive generations.

Fitness

A biological measure of an individual organism's ability to survive and pass its genes on to viable offspring within a specific environment, rather than mere physical power.

Selective Pressure

Any external environmental factor—such as food availability, predation, or climate conditions—that alters reproductive success and drives the direction of natural selection.

Artificial Selection

The selective breeding process directed by humans to enhance, propagate, and preserve specific desired phenotypic traits in domesticated plants or animals.

The Struggle for Existence

The inevitable competition among members of a species for essential, finite resources such as nourishment, shelter, mates, and space, resulting in differential survival.

The Origin of Species

Charles Darwin's landmark 500-page book published on November 24, 1859, detailing the evidence and theoretical framework of evolution by natural selection.

HMS Beagle

The British naval vessel on which Charles Darwin served as an unpaid naturalist from 1831 to 1836 during a global charting voyage commissioned to survey the South American coastline.

Captain Robert FitzRoy

The commander of the HMS Beagle who invited Charles Darwin along as an onboard naturalist and companion to survey uncharted coasts and collect biological specimens.

Galapagos Islands

An archipelago of volcanic islands situated along the equator, approximately $500\,\text{miles}$ west of Ecuador, where Darwin documented crucial biogeographical variations in tortoises and finches.

Galapagos Tortoises (Shell Variation)

Morphological adaptations in Chelonoidis species, including saddle-backed shells with long necks on dry islands with sparse vegetation (like Hood Island) and dome-shaped shells on high, damp islands with abundant low food (like Isabela Island).

Darwin's Finches

A group of 13 closely related Galápagos finch species characterized by distinctive beak shapes adapted to specialized feeding strategies like crushing seeds, catching insects, or extracting nectar.

Volatinia jacarina

The blue-black grassquit; a South American bird species believed to represent the single continental ancestor from which all 13 Galápagos finch species evolved.

Gause's Competitive Exclusion Principle

An ecological principle stating that two distinct species competing for identical limiting resources cannot permanently coexist within the same ecological niche; one will inevitably outcompete and exclude the other.

Resource Partitioning

An evolutionary strategy by which competing sympatric species divide scarce resources or microhabitats to reduce interspecific competition and avoid competitive exclusion.

Stupendemys geographicus

A colossal extinct freshwater turtle from the Miocene epoch (13 to 5 million years ago) native to northern South America, with a shell length reaching at least $3.3\,\text{meters}$ and weighing over one ton.