History

Question 1

Aristotle did what two types of classifications of animals

Answer 1

Binary classification which was divided into two parts
1. functional - based on what they do ex. swim
2. empirical - based on observation, not ideals

Question 2

What did Aristotle’s term scala naturae mean

Answer 2

a series of increasing perfection

Question 3

what did Aristotle’s term vis plastica mean

Answer 3

spontaneous generation of living things by formative power in the earth - fossils as unsuccessful efforts or sports of nature

Question 4

What is catastrophism

Answer 4

the idea that the earth is affected by various sudden, short, violent events

Question 5

What did Nicolas Steno/Neils Stenson contribute

Answer 5

• said that glossopetrae are teeth of sharks
• *that remains of once living organisms are called fossils
• *superposition –> proposed the idea that sedimentary rocks are in layers with the oldest layers at the bottom

Question 6

What did Pliny the Elder contribute

Answer 6

Said glossopetrae were tongue stones (that fossils fell to earth during the lunar eclipse)

Question 7

Who was the founder of systematics

Answer 7

Carolus Linnaeus

Question 8

What were Linnaeus’ achievements

Answer 8

• Binomial system of naming organisms

Question 9

What did Lamarck Do

Answer 9

• Theory of evolution by means of acquired characteristics. A feature acquired during an individuals life could be passed on to offspring
• Father of evolution

Question 10

Who is the father of evolution

Answer 10

Lamarck

Question 11

What did Georges Cuvier do

Answer 11

• father of comparative anatomy
• argued for 4 great periods of life, and that species were periodically wiped out in an area, to be replaced by migrants from other areas

Question 12

What did Karl Ernst von Baer do

Answer 12

• father of comparative embryology
• demonstrated that embryos become less similar to each other as they develop (idea of diverging developmental pathways)
• this argues against a single scala naturae

Question 13

What did Charles Darwin do

Answer 13

• went to the Galapagos islands and studied finches
• his work also laid the foundations for biogeography

Question 14

What were Alfred Wallace’s two famous essays

Answer 14

• his law essay (every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a preexisting, closely allied species) and sarwak law (earth and life evolve together)

Question 15

What are the background assumptions for phylogenetic trees?

Answer 15

continuity and gradualism

Question 16

What was Darwin’s contribution to systematics

Answer 16

He reframed in terms of shared ancestry and the tree of life rather than as idealized types with greater or lesser similarity to one another

Question 17

Who were the opponents of Darwin’s world view

Answer 17

• Richard Owen
• Louis Agassiz

Question 18

Who were the defenders of Darwin’s world view

Answer 18

• Joseph Hooker
• Asa Gray
• Alfred Wallace
• Thomas Henry Huxley

Question 19

What were Ernst Haeckel’ contribution

Answer 19

• did biogenetic law - the idea that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
• did the first family tree of actual organisms

Question 20

What are the 3 schools of systematics

Answer 20

1. evolutionary or synthetic classification
2. Phenetics
3. Cladistics

Question 21

Describe evolutionary or synthetic classification (school of systematics)

Answer 21

• classification is based on phylogenetic relationships

Question 22

Describe Phenetics as a school of systematics and the problems with it

Answer 22

• a system of classification based on overall similarity, not based on evolutionary relationships
• problems: different answers were obtained by using different similarity indices or computer algorithms, in principle it was judged “not natural” by most biologists because it ignored phylogeny (it just looked at morphology)

Question 23

Describe cladistics as a school of systematics

Answer 23

• this conflicted with phenetics and synthetics
• advocates for strict phylogenetic or cladistic classification where groups are defined only by synapomorphies (shared derived characters)
• advocates application of the principle of parsimony to reconstruct phylogenies

Question 24

Describe Alfred Wallace’s law essay

Answer 24

every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a preexisting, closely allied species

Question 25

Describe Alfred Wallace’s sarwak law

Answer 25

earth and life evolve together