History of Evolutionary Theory

Flashcards covering the history of evolutionary theory.

Science

A dynamic process, a systematic way to investigate the natural world, reducing complexity into general scientific principles.

Hypothesis

A logical explanation of a natural phenomenon that lends itself to forming a testable prediction.

Theory

An integrated explanation of numerous hypotheses that have withstood rigorous evaluation and continue to be well-supported.

Natural Law

Observed principle that appears to be without exception and has become consolidated by repeated successful testing; it describes an outcome while theory often describes a process.

Evolution (Biological Definition)

Change in the properties of groups of organisms over generations.

Essentialism

The idea that there is an ideal form of everything, and variation is the result of accidental imperfections, implying species have fixed properties.

Uniformitarianism

The principle that the same processes operated in the past as in the present; slow, small, incremental processes can result in very large changes over long periods of time.

Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics

The now discredited idea proposed by Lamarck that individuals change over time and pass those changes to their offspring.

Natural Selection

Individuals with features that provide them with a competitive advantage will reproduce more successfully, and if these features are inherited, the average character of the species would change over time.

Perpetual Change

The concept that the world is not constant and organisms change over time.

Common Descent

The idea that species had diverged from a common ancestor; all of life could be portrayed as a family tree with a common ancestor.

Gradualism

The concept that large differences between very different organisms are the result of gradual accumulation of changes with small steps of intermediate forms.

Descent with Modification

The idea that populations change over time in the proportions of individuals with different, inherited characteristics.

Modern Synthesis

The reconciliation of Darwin’s ideas with genetics that occurred by the 1930s and 1940s.