Biology 1407 Chapter 22: Descent with Modification

Vocabulary and key concepts from Biology 1407 Chapter 22 lecture notes, focusing on the Darwinian view of life, history of evolutionary thought, and the evidence supporting natural selection.

Lepidopterans

A group of insects, including moths and butterflies, that illustrate the unity of life, the diversity of life, and the ways organisms are suited to their environments.

Charles Darwin

The naturalist who published The Origin of Species in $1859$, establishing the foundation for the modern era of biology.

Evolution

Defined by Darwin as descent with modification; it is both a pattern and a process involving changes in species over time.

Scala naturae

A concept proposed by Aristotle where species are seen as fixed and arranged on a scale of increasing complexity.

Taxonomy

The branch of biology concerned with classifying organisms, founded by Carolus Linnaeus.

Binomial format

The two-part naming system for species, such as Homo sapiens, developed by Carolus Linnaeus.

Fossils

The remains or traces of organisms from the past, typically found in sedimentary rock layers.

Strata

Individual layers of sedimentary rock that house different sets of fossils reflecting different time periods.

Paleontology

The study of fossils, which was largely developed by the scientist Georges Cuvier.

Catastrophism

A theory proposed by Cuvier suggesting that boundaries between strata represent catastrophic events that resulted in the replacement of local species.

Gradualism

The geological principle held by James Hutton and Charles Lyell that Earth's surface changes result from slow, continuous actions still operating today.

Inheritance of acquired characteristics

An unsupported hypothesis proposed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck suggesting that an organism can pass modifications acquired through use or disuse to its offspring.

Natural selection

A process in which individuals with favorable inherited traits are more likely to survive and reproduce than individuals without those traits.

HMS Beagle

The ship on which Darwin traveled from $1831$ to $1836$ as a naturalist, collecting species and making observations that formed his theory of evolution.

Thomas Malthus

The author of an essay on population who influenced Darwin by noting that populations can increase faster than food supplies.

Artificial selection

The process by which humans modify other species over many generations by selecting and breeding individuals that possess desired traits.

Soapberry bugs

Insects that demonstrate rapid evolution of beak length in response to introduced plant species, with changes occurring in less than $35\,years$ in Florida.

MRSA

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a dangerous bacterial pathogen that evolved resistance to penicillin by $1945$ and methicillin by $1961$.

Homology

The similarity in traits resulting from common ancestry.

Homologous structures

Anatomical resemblances that represent variations on a structural theme present in a common ancestor, such as mammalian forelimbs.

Vestigial structures

Remnants of features that served a functional purpose in an organism's ancestors but may no longer be functional.

Evolutionary trees

Diagrams used to reflect hypotheses about the relationships among different groups of organisms.

Convergent evolution

The independent evolution of similar, or analogous, features in distantly related groups adapting to similar environments.

Analogous traits

Features that are similar because of convergent evolution rather than common ancestry.

Biogeography

The scientific study of the geographic distribution of species, providing evidence for the patterns of evolution.

Pangaea

The name of the single large landmass that existed before the continents were separated by continental drift.

Endemic species

Species that are unique to a specific geographic area, such as an island, and are not found anywhere else in the world.