Evolution Making Sense of Life Chapter 2

Many of them saw species as being arranged on a scale from lower to higher forms—a concept that eventually came to be known as the ________________.

Great Chain of Being

taxa (taxon)

refers to groups of organisms that a taxonomist judges to be cohesive units, such as species or orders.

Taxonomy

is the science of describing, naming, and classifying species of living or fossil organisms.

Stratigraphy

is the study of layering in rock (stratification).

Uniformitarianism

is the idea that the natural laws observable around us now are also responsible for events in the past. One part of this view, for example, is the idea that Earth has been shaped by the cumulative action of gradual processes like sediment deposition and erosion.

adaptation

is an inherited aspect of an individual that allows it to outcompete other members of the same population that lack the trait (or that have a different version of the trait); are traits that have evolved through the mechanism of natural selection.

Heredity

is the transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring.

Genetic drift

is evolution arising from random changes in the genetic composition of a population from one generation to the next.

What would Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles Darwin have agreed on?

a. One generation can pass on its traits to the next.

b. Individual animals and plants can adapt to their environment.

c. Life is driven from simplicity to complexity.

d. Both a and b.

a. One generation can pass on its traits to the next.

What set Darwin and Wallace’s concept of natural selection apart from earlier ideas of evolution?

a. Their concept explained why organisms were related to each other.

b. Their concept depended on a process that is observable.

c. Their concept depended on the inheritance of characteristics from one generation to the next.

d. Their concept suggested that change was very gradual.

b. Their concept depended on a process that is observable.

Which scientist proposed that species change due to use and disuse and inheritance of acquired traits?

A. Charles Darwin
B. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
C. Georges Cuvier
D. Charles Lyell

B. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Which idea is most associated with Georges Cuvier?

A. Species evolve gradually over time
B. Earth is shaped by slow, continuous processes
C. Extinction occurs due to catastrophic events
D. Organisms adapt through competition

C. Extinction occurs due to catastrophic events

James Hutton contributed which major idea?

A. Inheritance of traits
B. Earth is very old and shaped by gradual processes
C. Population pressure leads to competition
D. Artificial classification systems

B. Earth is very old and shaped by gradual processes

Which concept from Thomas Malthus influenced Darwin?

A. Species do not change
B. Populations grow faster than resources
C. Organisms inherit acquired traits
D. Earth is only a few thousand years old

B. Populations grow faster than resources

Which best describes Charles Darwin’s finches?

A. They show convergent evolution between continents
B. They demonstrate adaptive radiation from a common ancestor
C. They are examples of genetic drift only
D. They show no variation

B. They demonstrate adaptive radiation from a common ancestor

True or False: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon suggested that species could change over time.

True

True or False: Charles Lyell argued that Earth was shaped by sudden catastrophic events only.

False

A system that groups organisms based on evolutionary relationships is called __________ classification.

phylogenetic

The idea that Earth is shaped by slow, continuous processes is called __________.

uniformitarianism

The theory that populations grow faster than resources is called __________.

Malthusian theory

DNA similarity between species suggests __________.

Common Ancestry