biological anthropology week 2

  • evolution - most fundamental of all biological processes

  • humans evolved from species living 6-8 million ya

  • humans don’t share common ancestor w other primates

  • theory - something that has been tested and has evidence to support

  • theory of evolution supported via lots of genetic evidence

  • species created and never changed (early idea in middle ages)

    • opposes theory of biological evolution

  • ancient greeks

    • first efforts to understand natural world and humans role in it

  • aristotle

    • first known life classification

    • immutability of species

    • immutability - that which does not change over time

    • he taught sun and planets existed in series of concentric spheres revolving around earth

  • copernicus

    • challenged idea earth was at center of UNIVERSE

  • galileo

    • supported idea universe was place of motion and sun is at center

  • john ray

    • concept of species

    • groups of plants/animals could be deciphered from others by their mating ability

    • reproductively isolated - organisms of a single category (species)

    • genus - species that share characteristics

  • carolus linnaeus

    • est. basis of taxonomy

    • taxonomy - basis of classifying plants and animals

    • est. binomial nomenclature

      • two terms used to classify species (ex. Homo sapiens)

  • root of modern science

    • rediscovering greeks and romans

    • bettering sense of time and cultural variation (period of realization)

    • study of human anatomy (ex. cadavers)

    • global exploration

      • grab piece of life for study when unfamiliar

      • navigation via star study improved

      • mapping (cartography) expanded with better detail

    • european nationalism

  • road to darwinian revolution

    • comte de buffon - accepted notion of biological change

    • georges cuvier - catastrophism

      • catastrophism - earth’s geography formed from short lived violent events (ex. volcanic eruptions, earthquakes)

    • jean-baptiste lamarck - theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics

      • inheritance of acquired characteristics - traits an organism learns in its lifetime can be passed down to offspring

  • uniformitarianism - theory that same gradual geological process today operated in the past

    • james hutton (1726 - 1797)

    • charles lyell (1797 - 1875)

  • darwinian revolution

    • charles darwin

    • voyage on hms beagle

      • southern hemisphere 1831-1836

    • the galapagos

      • variations of tortoise

      • finch variation

        • finch beaks adapted for different skills

          • opening seeds, nuts, feeding nectar, etc

      • adaptive radiation

      • biogeography

      • natural selection

  • Darwin’s Finches

    • different finches on different islands due to natural selection

    • birds of common ancestry adapted to environment

    • adaptive radiation - evolutionary diversification of single species into many to best fit their environment

  • refining theory of evolution via natural selection

    • obs 1 - all organisms have potential for boom in growth

    • obs 2 - populations roughly stable

      • deduction 1 - must be struggle for existence

    • obs 3 - nature full of variety

      • deduction 2 - some variations favored over others

  • natural selection

    • trait in question must be inherited

    • trait in question must show variety across life

    • environment must exert pressure on the trait

  • Fitness, population, mutation

    • fitness - ability to survive and pass on genes to next gen

    • population - amount of a species

    • mutation - something new in genetic material

  • Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)

    • independently “discovered” natural selection

    • wrote letters/conversed with Darwin

  • Thomas Malthus

    • author of essay inspiring darwin & wallace regarding natural selection

    • argued presence of limits to human population growth

    • argued tendency of animal populations to go up while resources go down

    • population size is controlled by resource availability

  • gregor mendel

    • founder medelian genetics

      • experiments with particulate inheritance

      • discovered dichotomous variation

      • developed postulates of inheritance

      • involved plant colors, pea types, etc

    • selective breeding

      • practice where specific breeds of plants/animals are crossed to produce specific/desired traits

      • those WITHOUT desired traits not allowed to breed

  • mendel’s postulates (Laws of Inheritance)

    • hereditary traits are determined by units (genes) that come in pairs of alleles, one from each parent

  • mendel’s law of segregation

    • REVIEW

  • mendel’s law of indpendent assortment

    • REVIEW