Evolution
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Created by:
christopher_j_b on January 25, 2011
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51 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Evolution | CHange over time |
| Plato's theory | Real and Illusionary World. True world vs. world percieved by the senses |
| Aristotle's theory | Scale of Nature. Fixed species on a continuum from simple to complex |
| Cuvier's theory | Catastrophism. History of Earth has been marked by flloods, droughts, and great catastrophes, that have resulted in extinctions. |
| Linnaeus's theory | Natural Theology. Knew there was a Creator. But he classified species. |
| Lamarck's theory | Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics. Earliest explanation of what we know as evolution. |
| Hutton's theory | Gradualism. Profound change is the cumulative product of slow but continous processes. |
| Lyell's theory | Uniformitarianism. Geologic processes have constant rates through time. |
| Malthus's theory | Population trends. If population continues to grow unchecked, eventually we will run out of resources |
| Natural Selection | Struggle for existence. Survival of the fittest will live to reproduce. |
| Darwins theory | Natural Selection. There are variances in population. Organisms over produce, so they have some that will live. Different species compete for similair resources.Eahc individual has advantages and disadvantages. Individuals best suited towards an environment will survive, those who don't won't. Species change over time and some have offspring with modifications. |
| Natural Variation | Individual organisisms in nature vary from one another. Some of this variation is inherited. |
| Struggle for Existence | Because more organisms are produced than can survive, members of each species must compete for limited resources. |
| Survival of the Fittest | Individuals best suited to their environment survive and reproduce most succeessfully. |
| Change over Time | Over long periods of time, natural selection causes change in the charecteristics of a species, such as size and form. New species arise and others dissapear. |
| Descent with MOdification | Species alive today have descended with modifications from species that lived in the past |
| Common descent | All organisms on Earth are united into a single tree of life |
| FOssils | Evidence of organisms that lived long ago. Parts or whole organisms are preserved or petrified. Frozen in ice, enclosed in amber, sand or clay that turns into rock |
| Relative Dating | Estimating the time during which an organism lived based on the placement of other fossils. "layers" |
| Radiometric Dating | technique that uses the natural decay of unstable isotopes |
| Isotope | same elemnt/ different number of electrons |
| Half-Life | the amount of time it takes for half of the isotope to decay into a different element. Carbon is often used to date organic substances |
| Fossil Record | Based on how the fossils were layerd in the sedimentary rock. Lower layers are older than upper layers. |
| Comparitive anatomy | Study of structures of different organisms |
| Vestigial organs | Organs that serve absoulutley no purpose |
| Homologous structure | Similair body parts in animals. They may not have the same purpose but are built the same. |
| Comparitive embryology | The study of developing organisms. THe embryos start off similair but as they develop they become more distinct. |
| COmparitive biochemistry | Studies of organisms on a biochemical level |
| Early Earth | The atmosphere contained hydrogen cyanide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and water. |
| Formation of organic compounds | UV radiation and lightening bombarded the atmosphere causing organic compounds to form. "Primordial ooze" |
| Miller-Urey Expirement | A lab model was used to represent the conditions on early earth. THe expirement demonstrated that organic molecules can be made from inorganic materials. They put the elements that were on early earth into a glass ball and shocked it... and they got the building blocks to life |
| Meteorite Hypothesis | The theory that an asteroid Fell near australia and contained 90+ amino acids. |
| Iron sulfide bubbles hypothesis | The theory that hydrothermal vents produce sulfur that mixes with ocean water to make compartments of rocks. Inside these compartments may have been conditions that could have led to early life. |
| Lipid Membrane Hypothesis | The theory that lipid molecules spontaneously form membrane enclosed spheres, "liposomes', which could have led to early cells |
| RNA Hypothesis | A theory that early genetic material was RNA rather than DNA. RNA can replicate itself without enzymes, so this would make sense. Ribozymes are RNA molecules that catalyze chemical reactions making organic molecules |
| First organisms | Evolved from the ocean. Used anaerobic respiration. Were heterotrophs. |
| Later organisms | Autotrophs that use photosynthesis and chemosynthesis to produce and get energy. |
| Oxygen revolution | Photosyntheis produced oxygen. Once oxygen was present, aerobic respiration took place, then different organisms were able to evolve. |
| Adaptation | Products of evolution by natural selection (always good) |
| Variation | Raw materials upon which natural selection acts (can be good or bad) |
| Structural adaptations | Adaptations involving structure |
| Physiological adaptations | adaptations with a chemical basis that is associated with an organisms function |
| Behavioral adaptation | Results from the response of an organism to its environment |
| Geographic Isolation | Geological change that isolates segments of a population |
| Divergent evolution | when one species evolves into two or more species with different characteristics. |
| Convergent evolution | species that are not closely related evolve similar traits |
| Reproductive Isolation | The inability to exchange genes among species |
| Genetic Drift | Rapdi changes in the numbers and kinds of genes in a small, isolated population |
| Adaptive radiation | the divergent evolution and adaptation of species to different roles in new habitats |
| Gradualism | slow steady change in species |
| Punctuated equilibrium | SLow evolution punctuated by short events of rapid evolution |
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