Chapter 2 Key Vocab

Question 1

Methodological naturalism

Answer 1

Trying to explain the world based on natural phenomena

Question 2

Hypothesis

Answer 2

Explaining a phenomena based on natural processes

Question 3

Catastrophism

Answer 3

The idea that new structures were formed suddenly different, than the processes that work today

Question 4

Gradualism

Answer 4

New structure form slowly and gradually over long periods of time. The opposite of catastrophism and pairs with uniformitarianism.

Question 5

Uniformitarianism

Answer 5

The geological processes happening today have been working slowly and gradually over a long time.

Question 6

Inheritance of acquired characteristics

Answer 6

The idea that you acquire traits throughout life and they can be inherited. The first hypothesis for the mechanism of evolution (Lamarck). Right idea, wrong mechanism.

Question 7

Natural Selection

Answer 7

Individuals better adapted to their environment become more common in a population over time

Question 8

Population

Answer 8

A group of organisms from the same species that live in the same area and can interbreed, sharing a common set of genes

Question 9

Saltationism

Answer 9

The idea that evolution occurs through large sudden changes from the existing form. The view of Mendilian biologists.

Question 10

Transformational process

Answer 10

The properties of a population change because every member changes

Question 11

Variational Process

Answer 11

The properties of a population changes because natural selection sorts pre-existing variation in the population