BIO 345 STUDY GUIDE
Evolutionary biology is - Answers -concerned with explaining and understanding the
diversity of living things and their characteristics: what has been the history that
produced this diversity, and what have been the causes of this history
patterns of evolution - Answers -- divergent evolution
- convergent evolution
- parallel evolution
- coevolution
- adaptive radiation
ultimate causes - Answers -the evolutionary and historical reasons
proximate causes - Answers -immediate, mechanical causes
Empedocles (492-432 BCE) - Answers -theorized that animal parts arose
independently, and then wandered around until they met their other respective parts
Aristotle (367-347 BCE) - Answers -assigned all creatures a place in his "scala
naturae" or "Great Chain of Being", placing plants at the bottom and systematically
moving up through more and more "complex" organisms, finally placing humans at the
top of the chain
Charles Lyell (1797-1875) - Answers -explained how geological forms like large
canyons could arise over a long stretch of time. Charles Darwin read Lyell's subsequent
treatise entitled "Principles of Geology," Lyell's theories of geological change over time
helped pave the way for modern evolutionary thinking
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) - Answers -hypothesized that complex species
arose over time from less complex species, however, he proposed erroneously that
traits acquired during the lifetime of an organism could be passed onto offspring
Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) - Answers -established the framework of modern
taxonomy in his Systema Naturae (1735), won worldwide fame for his exhaustive
classification of plants and animals, undertaken in the hope of discovering the pattern of
the creation. Linnaeus classified "related" species into general, "related" general into
orders, and so on. To him, "relatedness" meant propinquity in the Creator's design
James Hutton (1726-1797) - Answers -geologist, advocate for uniformitarianism and
'deep time'
Uniformitarianism (Lyell and Hutton) - Answers -mechanisms of change are constant
over time, same geological processes are operating today as in the past, and at the
same rate
,Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829) - Answers -hypothesized that different organisms
originated separately by spontaneous generation from nonliving matter, starting at the
bottom of the chain of being. A "nervous fluid" acts within each species, he said,
causing it to progress up the chain. Species originated at different times
inheritance of acquired characteristics (Lamarck) - Answers -hypothesis that organisms'
bodies change during their lifetimes by use and disuse and that these changes are
inherited by their offspring
Lamarckism - Answers -evolutionary theory (proved false by Darwin) stating that
species change over time by the use and disuse of structures and the inheritance of
acquired traits
two main questions that Darwin asked - Answers -- how do organisms change over
time?
- how are organisms specially adapted to suit their environment?
Darwin is most famous for - Answers -- "survival of the fittest" (natural selection)
- all living things share common ancestors
On the Origin of Species (1859) - Answers -Charles Darwin contains two major
theories:
- descent with modification
- natural selection
descent with modification - Answers -all species, living and extinct, have descended,
without interruption, from one or a few original forms of life; species that diverge from a
common ancestor are at first very similar but accumulate differences over great spans
of time, so that they may come to differ radically from one another
natural selection - Answers -chief cause of evolutionary change a process in which
individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher
rates than other individuals because of those traits
frequency of a variant form - Answers -increases within a population from generation to
generation
Darwin's theory of evolution includes five distinct components - Answers -1. Evolution
2. Common descent
3. Gradualism
4. Populational change
5. Natural selection
evolution - Answers -is the simple proposition that the characteristics of organisms
change over time. Darwin was not the first to have this idea, but he so convincingly
, marshaled the evidence for evolution that most scientists soon accepted that it has
indeed occurred.
common descent - Answers -Darwin was the first to argue that species had diverged
from common ancestors and that species could be portrayed as one great family tree
representing actual ancestry (see the above figure of Darwin's hypothesis represented
by a phylogenetic tree)
gradualism - Answers -Darwin's proposition that the differences between even radically
different organisms have evolved by small steps through intermediate forms, not by
leaps ("saltations").
populational change - Answers -Darwin's hypothesis that evolution occurs by changes
in the proportions (frequencies) of different variant kinds of individuals within a
population (see the above figure on Darwin's hypothesis represented by giraffes). This
profoundly important, completely original idea contrasts with the sudden origin of new
species by saltation and with Lamarckian transformation of individuals. For Darwin, the
average was a statistical abstraction; there exist only varied individuals, and there are
no fixed limits to the variation that a species may undergo
adaptation - Answers -features that appear "designed" to fit organisms to their
environment characteristic that enhances the survival or reproduction of organisms that
bear it, relative to alternative character states
blending inheritance - Answers -theory that the phenotype of an offspring was a
uniform blend of the parent's phenotypes
particulate inheritance - Answers -the concept of heredity based on the transmission of
genes (alleles) according to Mendelian principles
neo-Lamarckism - Answers -includes several theories based on the old idea of
inheritance of modifications acquired during an organism's lifetime
orthogenesis (straight-line evolution) - Answers -held that the variation that arises is
directed toward fixed goals, so that a species evolves in a predetermined direction by
some kind of internal drive, without the aid of natural selection
mutationists - Answers -theories were advanced by some geneticists who observed
that discretely different new phenotypes can arise by a process of mutation and mutant
forms constituted new species and that natural selection was not necessary to account
for the origin of species
evolutionary synthesis or modern synthesis - Answers -anti-Darwinian ideas were
refuted in the 1930s and 1940s by the geneticists, systematists, and paleontologists
who reconciled Darwin's theory with the facts of genetics
Evolutionary biology is - Answers -concerned with explaining and understanding the
diversity of living things and their characteristics: what has been the history that
produced this diversity, and what have been the causes of this history
patterns of evolution - Answers -- divergent evolution
- convergent evolution
- parallel evolution
- coevolution
- adaptive radiation
ultimate causes - Answers -the evolutionary and historical reasons
proximate causes - Answers -immediate, mechanical causes
Empedocles (492-432 BCE) - Answers -theorized that animal parts arose
independently, and then wandered around until they met their other respective parts
Aristotle (367-347 BCE) - Answers -assigned all creatures a place in his "scala
naturae" or "Great Chain of Being", placing plants at the bottom and systematically
moving up through more and more "complex" organisms, finally placing humans at the
top of the chain
Charles Lyell (1797-1875) - Answers -explained how geological forms like large
canyons could arise over a long stretch of time. Charles Darwin read Lyell's subsequent
treatise entitled "Principles of Geology," Lyell's theories of geological change over time
helped pave the way for modern evolutionary thinking
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) - Answers -hypothesized that complex species
arose over time from less complex species, however, he proposed erroneously that
traits acquired during the lifetime of an organism could be passed onto offspring
Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) - Answers -established the framework of modern
taxonomy in his Systema Naturae (1735), won worldwide fame for his exhaustive
classification of plants and animals, undertaken in the hope of discovering the pattern of
the creation. Linnaeus classified "related" species into general, "related" general into
orders, and so on. To him, "relatedness" meant propinquity in the Creator's design
James Hutton (1726-1797) - Answers -geologist, advocate for uniformitarianism and
'deep time'
Uniformitarianism (Lyell and Hutton) - Answers -mechanisms of change are constant
over time, same geological processes are operating today as in the past, and at the
same rate
,Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829) - Answers -hypothesized that different organisms
originated separately by spontaneous generation from nonliving matter, starting at the
bottom of the chain of being. A "nervous fluid" acts within each species, he said,
causing it to progress up the chain. Species originated at different times
inheritance of acquired characteristics (Lamarck) - Answers -hypothesis that organisms'
bodies change during their lifetimes by use and disuse and that these changes are
inherited by their offspring
Lamarckism - Answers -evolutionary theory (proved false by Darwin) stating that
species change over time by the use and disuse of structures and the inheritance of
acquired traits
two main questions that Darwin asked - Answers -- how do organisms change over
time?
- how are organisms specially adapted to suit their environment?
Darwin is most famous for - Answers -- "survival of the fittest" (natural selection)
- all living things share common ancestors
On the Origin of Species (1859) - Answers -Charles Darwin contains two major
theories:
- descent with modification
- natural selection
descent with modification - Answers -all species, living and extinct, have descended,
without interruption, from one or a few original forms of life; species that diverge from a
common ancestor are at first very similar but accumulate differences over great spans
of time, so that they may come to differ radically from one another
natural selection - Answers -chief cause of evolutionary change a process in which
individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher
rates than other individuals because of those traits
frequency of a variant form - Answers -increases within a population from generation to
generation
Darwin's theory of evolution includes five distinct components - Answers -1. Evolution
2. Common descent
3. Gradualism
4. Populational change
5. Natural selection
evolution - Answers -is the simple proposition that the characteristics of organisms
change over time. Darwin was not the first to have this idea, but he so convincingly
, marshaled the evidence for evolution that most scientists soon accepted that it has
indeed occurred.
common descent - Answers -Darwin was the first to argue that species had diverged
from common ancestors and that species could be portrayed as one great family tree
representing actual ancestry (see the above figure of Darwin's hypothesis represented
by a phylogenetic tree)
gradualism - Answers -Darwin's proposition that the differences between even radically
different organisms have evolved by small steps through intermediate forms, not by
leaps ("saltations").
populational change - Answers -Darwin's hypothesis that evolution occurs by changes
in the proportions (frequencies) of different variant kinds of individuals within a
population (see the above figure on Darwin's hypothesis represented by giraffes). This
profoundly important, completely original idea contrasts with the sudden origin of new
species by saltation and with Lamarckian transformation of individuals. For Darwin, the
average was a statistical abstraction; there exist only varied individuals, and there are
no fixed limits to the variation that a species may undergo
adaptation - Answers -features that appear "designed" to fit organisms to their
environment characteristic that enhances the survival or reproduction of organisms that
bear it, relative to alternative character states
blending inheritance - Answers -theory that the phenotype of an offspring was a
uniform blend of the parent's phenotypes
particulate inheritance - Answers -the concept of heredity based on the transmission of
genes (alleles) according to Mendelian principles
neo-Lamarckism - Answers -includes several theories based on the old idea of
inheritance of modifications acquired during an organism's lifetime
orthogenesis (straight-line evolution) - Answers -held that the variation that arises is
directed toward fixed goals, so that a species evolves in a predetermined direction by
some kind of internal drive, without the aid of natural selection
mutationists - Answers -theories were advanced by some geneticists who observed
that discretely different new phenotypes can arise by a process of mutation and mutant
forms constituted new species and that natural selection was not necessary to account
for the origin of species
evolutionary synthesis or modern synthesis - Answers -anti-Darwinian ideas were
refuted in the 1930s and 1940s by the geneticists, systematists, and paleontologists
who reconciled Darwin's theory with the facts of genetics
