Chapter 16 Notes - Principles of Evolution

Thomas Mathus

was an economist, he published a book which stated that babies were being born faster than people were dying.

Radioactive dating

indicates that Earth is about 4.5 bil years old- plenty of time for evolution by natural selection to take place.

Thomas Mathus

was an economist, he published a book which stated that babies were being born faster than people were dying.

Radioactive dating

indicates that Earth is about 4.5 bil years old- plenty of time for evolution by natural selection to take place.

Vestigial structures

- inherited from ancestors but have lost much of their original size and function.

Lyells

principles of geology: the same process that changed the Earth in the past still operate in the present.

Biogeography

- the study of where organisms live now and where they and their ancestor lived in the past.

evolutionary theory

The helps us understand and respond to important events such as the emergence of drug- resistant bacteria and new strains of influenza (flu)

Principle

of common descent- all species, living and extinct, are united by descent from ancient common, and exhibit diversity due to natural selection and adaptation.

Fitness

- the ability of an animal to survive and reproduce in its specific environment.

Fossils

- the preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms.

Evolution

- change in living things over time.

James Hutton

and Charles Lyell- concluded that Earth is extremely old and that the processes that changed Earth in the past are the same processes that operate in the present.

Natural selection

- the process by which organisms in nature with variations most suited to their local environment survive and leave more offspring.

fossil species

Patterns in the distribution of living and , combined with information from geology, tell us how modern organisms evolved from their ancestors.

theory of evolution

He was one of the first people to realize that organisms are adapted to their environments and to propose a(n) .

Natural heritable variation

affects the ability to survive and reproduce, and fitness varies among individuals.

Darwin

observed that individual organisms differed from one another and that variation could be inherited.

natural selection

In both artificial and , only certain individuals produce offspring, but in it is the environment, not a farmer or breeder, that influences fitness.

Darwin

developed a theory of biological evolution that offered a scientific explanation for the unity and diversity of life by proposing how modern organisms evolved through descent from common ancestors.

Natural selection

occurs in any situation in which more individuals are born than can survive.