Evolution and Natural Selection

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts related to the history of evolutionary thought and natural selection.

Al-Jahiz

8th-9th century Islamic scholar who observed diversity, behavior, classification, environment, and struggle for existence in animals, 1000 years before Darwin.

Fixity of Species

The idea that organisms are perfectly adapted to their environment and do not need to change, a common belief in Western Europe before the 1700s.

Scala Naturae/Great Chain of Being

A hierarchical classification system developed by Aristotle, placing organisms in a linear order from simplest to most complex.

James Ussher

Determined the Earth was created on the night preceding the twenty-third day of October, 4004 BC.

Heliocentrism

The concept, introduced by Copernicus, that the sun is at the center of the universe.

John Ray

Father of Natural History; emphasized the role of Divine Creator; defined species based on morphology and common ancestry; introduced the concept of genus.

Nicholas Steno

Father of Stratigraphy; contributed to understanding of deep time, fossils, and environmental change; studied glossopetrae (tongue stones).

Stratigraphy

The study of how rock/rock layers form.

Carolus Linnaeus

Father of Taxonomy; developed binomial nomenclature for classifying organisms; created hierarchical classification system (e.g., class, order).

Taxonomy

The science of naming and classifying organisms.

Georges Cuvier

Father of Vertebrate Paleontology; established that extinction is real; proposed catastrophism to explain Earth's landscape.

Catastrophism

The theory that Earth’s landscape is the result of sudden, rapid, catastrophic events.

Uniformitarianism

Geological processes that occurred in the past also occur in the present and have shaped the Earth’s landscapes.

Charles Lyell

Father of Geology; proposed uniformitarianism.

Jean Baptiste de Lamarck

Proposed inheritance of acquired characteristics as a process of evolution; recognized adaptive change over time and influence of environment.

Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics

The concept that animals adapt to their environment through the use/disuse of characteristics, and these adaptations are heritable to offspring.

Thomas Malthus

Proposed that population size increases exponentially while resources increase arithmetically, leading to competition for resources.

Natural Selection

Organisms better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and contribute genetic material to subsequent generations.

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace

Developed the theory of natural selection and descent with modification.

Fitness (in evolutionary terms)

A relative measure that changes as the environment changes; individuals with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce.