Principles of Evolution: Natural Selection and the Survival of the Fittest

Vocabulary flashcards covering core principles of evolution, historical context, key figures, mechanisms of natural selection, and scientific evidence for evolutionary theory based on Bio 80 Lecture 3.

Theory

A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.

Evolution (Working Definition)

Descent with modification.

Aristotle

A Greek philosopher (384-322 BCE) who viewed species as fixed (unchanging) and proposed the Scala Naturae.

Scala Naturae

A proposed sequence by Aristotle that organized species based on increased size and complexity, placing humans at the top.

James Hutton

A British geologist who proposed in 1795 that Earth's geologic features could be explained by gradual mechanisms, such as valleys being formed by rivers.

Thomas Malthus

A British economist and demographer who published 'Essay on the Principle of Population' in 1798, outlining how human growth is exponential while resource growth is linear.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

A French zoologist who hypothesized in 1809 that species evolve through the use and disuse of body parts and the inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Georges Cuvier

A French naturalist who published extensive studies of vertebrate fossils in 1812 and is credited as the founding figure in paleontology.

Charles Lyell

A Scottish geologist who published 'Principles of Geology' in 1830, proposing that the same geologic processes operating today occurred in the past at the same rate.

Adaptations

Characteristics of organisms that enhance their survival and reproduction in specific environments.

Alfred Russel Wallace

An English naturalist who sent Charles Darwin his hypothesis of natural selection in 1858 while studying species in the Malay Archipelago.

The Origin of Species

A work published by Charles Darwin in 1859 based on four central ideas: descent with modification, common ancestry, adaptation, and natural selection.

Natural Selection

A process in which individuals with certain heritable traits survive and reproduce at a higher rate than other individuals because of those traits.

Artificial Selection

The process in which humans direct the differential reproductive success of individuals in a breeding population to select for preferred, heritable traits.

Homology

Similarities among different organisms resulting from common ancestry.

Molecular Homologies

Genes shared among organisms inherited from a common ancestor, such as the Cytochrome C gene.

Vestigial Structures

Remnants of features that served a function in an organism's ancestors, such as pelvic bones in snakes or human goose bumps.

Convergent Evolution

The evolution of similar, or analogous, features in distantly related groups as they independently adapt to similar environments.

Analogous Traits

Features that arise when groups independently adapt to similar environments in similar ways, which do not provide information about common ancestry.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, such as clone USA300, that cause potentially fatal infections like flesh-eating disease.