Fundamentals of Evolution Final

Carolus Linnaeus

Established the framework for modern hierarchical scientific classification using binomial nomenclature and aimed to catalogue God's creations.

Georges Louis Leclerc

Proposed that each species has an unchanging 'internal mold' and that closely related species may have arisen from a common ancestor.

James Hutton

Father of geology who deduced that geological time was much longer than previously thought due to deposition and erosion patterns.

Georges Cuvier

World's expert on animal anatomy, proponent of catastrophism, and established extinction as a fact.

Charles Lyell

Introduced uniformitarianism, stating that the earth is shaped by slow-moving forces over time, contradicting catastrophism.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Proposed the mechanism of change through use and disuse and the inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Charles Darwin

Credited with discovering evolution; contributed to understanding the means by which evolution occurs.

Voyage of the Beagle

Five-year voyage during which Darwin collected fossils, noted geology, and gathered specimens.

Alfred Wallace

Conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection.

Two major themes of Origin of Species

Descent with modification and the theory of natural selection.

Darwin's Theory of Evolution

Organisms change over time, species diverge from common ancestors, and changes occur gradually within populations.

Microevolution

Evolutionary change within a species or small group of organisms over a short time period.

Macroevolution

Evolution above the species level, encompassing the broadest trends in evolution.

Creationism

Opposes the teaching of evolution in public schools.

Evidence for evolution

Includes biodiversity, biogeography, fossil records, embryology, comparative anatomy, and molecular evidence.

Biogeography

Study of geographic distributions of organisms combining geology, paleontology, systematics, and ecology.

Fossil record

Direct evidence of macroevolutionary processes, usually incomplete.

Homologous structures

Structures with different functions derived from the same body parts in a common ancestor.

Analogous structures

Superficially similar structures that evolved independently, resulting from convergent evolution.

Speciation

Origin of two species from a common ancestor.

Reproductive isolation

Biological differences that reduce gene flow between populations.

Prezygotic barriers

Include geographic, ecological, and behavioral isolation.

Hybrid inviability

Occurs when hybrids have lower survival rates than non-hybrids.

Allopatry

Species or populations that are geographically separated.

Sympatry

Species or populations with overlapping geographic ranges.

Taxonomy

The naming and classification of organisms.

Phylogenetics

The study and reconstruction of evolutionary relationships among organisms.

Altruism

An activity that enhances the fitness of other individuals while lowering the fitness of the actor.

Naturalistic fallacy

The assumption that what is natural is necessarily good.

Mass extinction

A significant percentage of species going extinct in a relatively short time.

Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction

50% of all species went extinct, with evidence suggesting a large meteor impact.

Gene flow

The transfer of genetic variation from one population to another.

Genetic drift

Random fluctuations in allele frequencies in populations.

Hamilton's rule

An altruistic trait increases in frequency if the benefit to relatives outweighs the cost to the individual.

Eusociality

A high level of organization in social species, characterized by cooperative breeding and division of labor.

Coevolution

The process by which two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution.

Endosymbiosis theory

Suggests that some organelles in eukaryotic cells were once free-living prokaryotes.

Cambrian explosion

A relatively short evolutionary event when most major animal phyla appeared.

Punctuated equilibrium

A pattern of evolution characterized by long periods of stability followed by rapid change.

Greater apes

Includes chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, and humans.

Multiregional hypothesis

Proposes multiple independent origins of modern humans across different regions.