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Bio 112 - Final

Terms in this set (18)

Evolution
Descent with modification, or changes in a population's genetic composition over time.
Aristotle
Proposed that all forms of life were permanent and perfect and could be arranges on a scale of nature of increasing complexity. "Scala Naturae"
Linnaeus
Developed both a binomial system for naming organisms (genus and species) and a hierarchy of classifications grouping his named species.
Fossils
Remnants or traces of past organisms, usually found in sedimentary rocks formed through the compression of layers of sand and mud into superimposed layers called strata.
Cuvier
Started Paleontology and maintained that the extinctions and differences in fossils found in different strata were the result of local sudden catastrophic events and were not indicative of evolution
Hutton
Proposed that immense changes in Earth's genealogy are the cumulative result of slow but continuous processes
Lyell
Was a contemporary of Darwin and proposed that geologic processes operate at a uniform rate and continue in the present.
Darwin
Wrote "On the Origin of Species", defined evolution, and took two ideas from the observations of Hutton and Lyell: Earth must be very old, and very slow processes could produce substantial changes in species
Lamarck's hypothesis of evolution
explained the mechanism of evolution using two principles: the uses and disuse of body pars, leading to their development or deterioration, and the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Proposed the key idea that evolution is the best explanation for both the fossil record and the adaptation of organisms to the environment.
adaptations
inherited characteristics that contribute to an organism's survival and reproduction in a specific environment
natural selection
process in which individuals with beneficial characteristics produce more offspring than others because of those characteristics.
1) results in evolution of population, not individuals
2) affects only traits that are heritable and that differ in a population
3) depends on the specific environmental factors present in a region at a given time
Three points of natural selection
homology
similarity resulting from common ancestry
homologous structures
containing the same skeletal elements regardless of function or external shape.
vestigial structures
may be of little/no value to the organism, historical remnants of ancestral structures
convergent evolution
independent evolution of similar characteristics
analogous structures
arise as a result of evolutionary adaptations to similar environments
biogeography
study of geographic distribution of species
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