Evolutionary Processes and Natural Selection (Vocabulary Flashcards)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the lecture notes on evolution and natural selection.

Natural Selection

Differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to heritable variation, leading to changes in a population's genetic makeup over time.

Descent with modification (Evolution)

Idea that lineages change over time, accumulating differences to form new species.

Fitness

Relative reproductive success of individuals based on heritable traits.

Allele

A variant form of a gene.

Allele frequency

Proportion of a specific allele in a population's gene pool.

Peppered moths (Biston betularia)

Classic example of natural selection; color morph frequencies shift in response to environmental changes like soot.

A1 allele

One variant allele used in the peppered moth example.

A2 allele

Another variant allele used in the peppered moth example.

Genotype

The genetic constitution of an individual (e.g., A1A1, A1A2, A2A2).

Struggle for existence

Competition among individuals for limited resources, leading to differential survival.

Heritable

Traits that can be passed from parents to offspring through genes.

Lamarckian Evolution

Early idea that organisms acquire traits during life and pass them to offspring; includes drive toward complexity and adaptive force.

Drive toward complexity

Innate tendency for lineages to become more complex over time.

Adaptive force

Innate tendency to adapt to needs, with changes transmitted to offspring.

Spontaneous generation

Idea that simple life arises from nonliving matter.

Malthus

Thomas Malthus; argued that populations tend to grow faster than food supply, leading to checks like famine.

Population growth

Increase in the number of individuals in a population.

Uniformitarianism

Geological principle that present processes operated in the past at similar rates, implying an old Earth.

Gradualism

Slow, continuous change; another term for uniformitarianism.

James Hutton

Geologist who proposed uniformitarianism and gradualism.

Charles Lyell

Geologist whose Principles of Geology popularized uniformitarianism; Darwin read it on the Beagle.

Principles of Geology

Lyell's influential geology book.

Catastrophism

Idea that Earth's features are shaped by sudden, short-lived catastrophes; advocated by Georges Cuvier.

Georges Cuvier

French naturalist who argued catastrophism and species extinctions.

Mass extinctions

Widespread die-offs of species due to catastrophic events.

Scala Naturae

Ladder of nature; arrangement of organisms from simple to complex (Great Chain of Being).

Great Chain of Being

Another name for the Scala Naturae concept in natural order.

Natural Theology

Idea that Earth and life reflect design by a designer; associated with Paley.

Watchmaker Argument

Paley’s argument that complex organisms imply a designer, like a watchmaker.

On the Origin of Species (1859)

Darwin's seminal book proposing natural selection as the mechanism of evolution.

Darwin

Charles Darwin, British naturalist (1809–1882); proposed natural selection and traveled aboard the Beagle.

Alfred Russel Wallace

Naturalist who independently conceived natural selection; prompted Darwin to publish; jointly presented in 1858.

H.M.S. Beagle

The survey ship Darwin sailed on (1831–1836).