Chapter 1: Introduction to Evolutionary Biology

Neo Lamarckism

______ includes several theories based on the old idea of inheritance of modifications acquired during an organism's lifetime.

Evolutionary biology

________ is concerned with explaining and understanding the diversity of living things and their characteristics.

Microevolution

________ is slight, short- term evolutionary changes within species.

Uniformitarianism

________ is the proposition that natural processes that operated in the past are the same as in the present.

hypothesis

A(n) ________ is an informed conjecture or statement of what might be true.

naturalistic fallacy

The ________ is the philosophical supposition that what is "natural "is "good".

Carolus Linnaeus

This person established the framework of modern taxonomy.

Chevalier de Lamarck

This person hypothesized that different organisms originated separately by spontaneous generation from nonliving matter, starting at the bottom of the chain of being.

Macroevolution

________ is the evolution of the major alternations that distinguish higher taxa (genera, families, orders, and classes).

Natural selection

______ is the differential survival and/or reproduction of classes of entities that differ in one or more characteristics.

Genetic drift

______ is the evolution of DNA sequences that occurs by chance, rather than natural selection.

Biological

______ evolution is the inherited change in the properties of groups of organisms over the course of generations.

Gradualism

A distinct component of Darwin's theory of evolution that says differences between even radically different organisms have evolved by small steps through intermediate forms, not by leaps.

Evolution

______ is the simple proposition that the characteristics of organisms change over time.

18th century

Belief in the literal truth of the biblical story of creation started to give way in the ________ when a philosophical movement called the Enlightenment adopted reason as the major basis of authority and marked the emergence of science.

scientific theory

A(n) ________ is a comprehensive, coherent body of interconnected statements, based on reasoning and evidence, that explain some aspect of nature.

creationist movement

The ________ believes in Gods creations and opposes the teaching of evolution in public schools, or at least demands equal times for creationist beliefs.

individual's phenotype

A(n) ________ is an organism's observable traits.

Hypothetico deductive method

________ is the method where hypotheses are tested and are rejected, modified, or provisionally accepted.

Charles Darwin

________ (1809- 1882) is the main historical figure in any discussion on evolution; he is most known for theorizing natural selection.

Neo Darwinism

________ is the theory of natural selection of inherited variations, that denied that acquired characteristics might be inherited; often used more broadly to mean the modern theory that natural selection, acting on randomly generated particulate genetic variation, is the major, but not the sole, cause of evolution.

Speciation

__________ , the origin of two species from a single ancestor species, usually occurs by the genetic differentiation of geographically isolated populations.

Evolutionary synthesis

________ (or modern synthesis) is the reconciliation of Darwin's theory with the findings of modern genetics, which gave rise to a theory that emphasized the coaction of random mutation, selection, genetic drift, and gene flow.

Frequency

________ of a variant form is the proportion of individuals with that variant feature.

Particulate inheritance

________ is Gregory Mendel's theory that proposed inheritance is based not on blending fluids, but on particles that pass unaltered from generation to generation, so that variation can persist.

Natural selection

________ is the idea that although many individuals are born, not all survive; certain individuals with superior features are more likely to survive and reproduce than individuals with inferior features.