Basic Concepts of Species and Macroevolution

who was Jean Baptiste Lamarck? describe his theory?

came up with the idea of acquired traits

• acquired traits: any trait species acquire during their lifetime they can pass onto their offspring

  • for example: if I dye my hair red, my kid could have red hair

who was Georges Cuvier? what was his theory?

• Father of Vertebrate Paleontology; came up with the idea of catastrophism

  • catastrophism: the idea that the Earth has been affected by sudden short lived. violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope; because the events were so big and had such an impact they would change things about the organisms alive at the time

who was charles lyell? what was his theory?

• considered the father of modern geology; came up with uniformitarianism

  • uniformitarianism: the present is the key to the past; thighs that happen in the world today happen the same way they happened in the past; we can observe the present and assume similar things about the past

who created the first geology textbook? what was it called

The Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell

who was charles darwin? what was his books? what theory did he come up with?

the poster child of evolution who advanced the science and was shunned for his work

• The Origin of the Species

• natural selection and evolution

what are the main pieces of evidence for evolution? give a definition for each (5)

• comparative anatomy: the comparison of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different kinds of animals

• embryology: the study of the development of organisms from the development of embryos and fetuses from earliest development until birth

• biogeography: the study of the patterns in the distribution of plants and animals over the earth

• experimental evidence: man made or artificial selection shows the effects of selection within the relatively short time period of recorded human history

• paleontology: the study of ancient organisms based in anatomy

what is comparative morphology?

the branch of biology that compares the physical forms, shapes, and structural features of different organisms to understand their evolution and relationships

what are the main three things comparative morphology studies? give brief definitions?

• analogy: structures that serve similar functions but derive from different origins

• homology: structures derived from similar origins, exhibiting a common underlying plan and similar purposes

• vestigial structures: structures that remain in an organism but serve no purpose

what are some examples of experimental evidence for evolution?

• selective breeding

• artificial breeding

• food industries

what is evolution?

descent with modification; change in biological species throughout time; change in gene frequencies in a population through time

what is natural selection?

the core biological process where organisms with traits best suited to their enviornment survive and reproduce more successfully than others; too many offspring are produced to survive

what is evolutionary fitness

an organism’s ability to survive, find a mate, and pass its genetic traits on to the next generation; how able are you to survive and reproduce

what is differential reproductive success

some individuals in a population leave more surviving offspring than others do, usually because they have traits that help them survive or win mates

what is the linnaean classification system

a method used to name and organize living things; puts all life into different categories based on their traits in a hierarchy based on said traits

what are the categories of the linnaean classification system? in order… (7)

1. kingdom

2. phylum

3. class

4. order

5. family

6. genus

7. species

in the linnaean classification system, more specificity can be created by adding _

super and sub categories

what is binomial nomenclature?

when we name organisms we name them based on the last two categories, the genus and the species

what are the traits of a species? (4)

• an array of population

• actually or potentially interbreeding

• reproductively isolated from other populations

• in the natural state

what is taxonomy? what does it use?

looking at animals anatomical features and coming up with a systemic analysis of it; uses phylogenetic systematics

what is phylogenetic systematics?

a classification method which uses homologous characters to draw evolutionary relationships through time between ancestors and descendants

what is cladistics

a classification method which uses specific homologous characters to draw evolutionary interpretations btween organisms

what is a plesiomorph

a primitive character; an old primitive character inhertited from ancestors

what is an apomorph

a derived character; a newly evolvoed character

what is a symplesiomorph

a shared primitive character

what is a synapomorph

a shared derived character; newly evolved with a specific species that differentiates from their ancestors and is also passed onto future generations

what is a cladogram

evolutionary diagrams that show the relationship between descents and ancestors over time