NS201 Exam 2

paleontology

the scientific study of life prior to recorded human history

fossils

the preserved remains or traces of organisms from prehistoric times

catastrophism

the theory that Earth has been affected in the past by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope; sporadic and potentially very large changes

Georges Cuvier

Person who supported Catastrophism

Uniformitarianism

the theory that Earth's geologic processes acted in the same manner and with essentially the same intensity in the past as they do in the present; slow, uniform, small changes

Charles Lyell

Person who supported uniformitarianism

Georges-Louis Leclerc

French scientist that speculated that species could have descent with modification via environmental change

Buffon's Law

Environmentally similar but isolated regions have distinct assemblages of mammals and birds

Erasmus Darwin

Thought all living things came from a common ancestor and considered how organisms could evolve through mechanisms such as competition

Etienne St Hilaire

Believed that all vertebrates arose from one archetype and developed the concept of homology

homology

Similarity in characteristics resulting from a shared ancestry

Homoplasy

The separate evolutionary development of similar characteristics in different groups of organisms.

Jean Baptiste de Lamarck

believed complicated structures were descended from less complex structures, linked variation in traits to the environment, first to detail the mechanisms for change, acquired traits passed on to the next generation

Lamarckian inheritance

Continuous use/disuse of an organ causes it to grow/shrink within limits of development. Trait changes due to use/disuse are passed to offspring

Watchmaker Argument

an argument for God's existence that compares the design of a watch to the design of the universe and God is the intelligent designer of the watch that is the universe

William Paley

made the watchmaker argument

Beagle Voyage

Darwin visited the Galapagos islands and observed living organisms, studied geological formations, and collected fossils, making discoveries that lead to his evolution theory

Thomas Malthus

A socio-economist who argued that increases in population would outgrow increases in the means of subsistence

Alfred Russel Wallace

scientist who came up with a theory of evolution by means of natural selection at the same time that Darwin was developing his theory

Three premises of natural selection

Creatures produce more offspring than can survive, There is great variation within a species, Some of that variation is passed on to future generations

natural selection

the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations

blending theory of heredity

False theory that inheritance is a mix of the mother's and father's traits, offspring end up with an intermediate characteristic

pangenesis

Early concept of heredity proposing that particles carry genetic information from different parts of the body to the reproductive organs.

gemmules

As proposed by Darwin, the units of inheritance, supposedly accumulated in the gametes so they could be passed on to offspring.

Gregor Mendel

A monk who, through his work on pea plants, discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance

character

heritable feature that can exist in more than one state

trait

distinct state in which a character is expressed (that may be inherited or environmentally determined)

dominant

a trait that, when present is always expressed

recessive

a trait that, when a dominant trait is also present, is hidden

homozygous

Having two identical alleles for a given trait

heterozygous

having two different alleles for a given trait

phenotypic ratio

9:3:3:1

genotypic ratio

1:2:1:2:4:2:1:2:1

Law of Segregation

Allele pairs segregate during gamete formation (meiosis) and the paired condition is restored by random fusion of gametes at fertilization

law of independent Assortment

Each pair of alleles segregates into gametes independently of other gene pairs

law of dominance

Some alleles are dominant and some are recessive

cell theory

All life forms are made from one or more cells, Cells are the fundamental unit of structure, physiology, and organization in all living things, Cells only arise from pre-existing cells by cell division

Walther Flemming

studied dividing somatic cells (mitosis) , described chromosomes, did not associate with heredity

Edouard van Beneden

observed that numbers and shapes of chromosomes are constant in the somatic cells of a species, gametes contain half the number of chromosomes found in somatic cells (haploid)

august weismann

Observed formation meiosis, came up with the germ plasm theory and Weismann barrier

germ plasm theory

inheritance only takes place by means of germ cells

weismann barrier

mutations in somatic cells are not passed to offspring

chromosome theory of inheritance

chromosomes are the basis of all genetic inheritance

Walter Sutton

Studied grasshoppers, showed that during meiosis chromosomes occur in matched pairs, suggesting each gamete has one full set of chromosomes

Theodor Boveri

studied sea urchins, observed that all the chromosomes had to be present for proper embryonic development to take place

Reginald Punnett

English geneticist who discovered some very basic principles of genetics including the determination of sex and linkage

codominance

Contributions of both alleles are visible in the phenotype

sex chromosomes

sex is determined by genotype for the sex chromosomes (X and Y)

autosomes

non-sex chromosomes

Darwinian Conclusion

Life changed in accordance to local climate and food presence, geographic diversification

Darwin's and Wallace's Three Principals

Creatures produce more offspring that can survive, there is great variation in a species, some variations are passed on

More offspring

Competitive struggle for survival

Gametogenesis

The process cells undergo during meiosis to produce gametes

Locus

A position on a chromosome

common sense

common sense has led us astray. science is not democratic and should only be based on evidence and evidence only

epistemology

the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope

empiricism

the view that knowledge originates in sensory experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation

carl sagan

wrote the demon haunted world and said that science can be the golden road out of poverty and backwardness for emerging nations. raies the old issue of science versus religion under the guise of science versus pseudoscience

fact

-simple nothing more than low-level hypothesis

-there are no "facts" in the everyday sense as understood by most people

nature of science

-humans asking questions about the natural world "seeking and asking"

-knowledge explaining the natural world all around us

how many extant species are there?

8.7 million

what are the criteria used to define species?

members of the same speices must have the potential to interbreed

aristotle

-formally classified organisms

-known for one of the earliest models of classification

-diff anatomy = diff place in the classification

-ranked organisms from simple to complex: the scala naturae

aristotles calssification scheme

seperated into blooded and bloodless

scala naturae

all living organisms arranged in a linear order from simple to complex

-inanimate objects are included

-arises from platos essentialism - everythig created for a specific place

-ideas transformed into "chain of being"

anicent world beliefs

-the earth had arisen from an undifferentiated and indeterminate substnce that was covered in water at one stage

-plants and animals emerged from the mud; humans arose much later from fish (fossils)

age of enlightenment

-individualism over authority

-intellectual revolution

-emphasized use of empirical evidence, mechanical world view

-scientific revolution

john ray

-english botanist and priest

-defined species

-believed in natural theology

natural theology

-the knowledge we can have about God and his attributes simply through using reason, apart from revelation

-species created by god

-study of nature would reveal the divine order of creation

species

organiss that share natural physical characteristics

carolus linnaeus

-swedish botanist

-classified biodiversity by hierarchical ranks

-binomial nomenclature (genus and species)

-believed in natural theology

-originally belived in fixity of species

binomial nomenclature

forml naming of species with two parts: genus (larger group) and species (smaller species)

systema naturae

-work by carolus linneus

-binomials for 4,400 animals and 7,700 plants

-1758

historical classification of biodiversity

-we were resistant to believe that environments and species change over time

garret hardin

-published "The Tragedy of the Commons" in the journal Science in 1968; argued that rational people will exploit shared resources

-american ecologist and scientist who warned of the dangers of over population

-known for hardins first law of human ecology

hardins first law of ecology

-you cannot do only one thing