Important Facts Flashcards
(19 cards)
List the levels of analysis from largest to smallest:
Social, Organ, Neural system, Brain system, Circuit, Cellular, Synaptic, Molecular
reducing a phenomena to its component parts.
reductionism
The Scientific Method
Generate a Hypothesis, Test Hypothesis. If hypo is supported, test again. If not, generate new hypo
What are Tinbergen’s four questions for behavioral research are…
Physiological- how are motor activities activated? [chemistry’s effect on behavior]
Ontological- how does an animal’s behavior change throughout it’s life? [Development]
Function- how does a behavior promote survival and reproduction [adaptation]
Phylogeny- how does an behavior compare with other species? [origins of behavior]
An structure that has lost most or all of it’s ancestral function.
rudimentary organ
Homology
Similarity due to common ancestry
similarity between organs based strictly on common function, not common descent (i.e. wings of bats and butterflies)
analogy
the separate evolutionary development of similar characteristics in different organisms
homoplasy
When did primates originate?
~70 million years ago
When was the big bang?
~13.5 million years ago
When did bacteria and algae appear?
~3.8 bya
When did sexual reproduction evolve?
~1.2 bya
When did humans first appear?
Between 2mya and 50kya
What happened in the Miller-Urey experiment?
Amino acids formed when primitive earth conditions were simulated.
Explain the concept “survival of the stable”
In the primordial soup, molecules that are most stable last the longest and are able to build, multiply and become more complex. Overtime the complex molecules take up more of the resources and dominate.
Explain the competition aspect of “survival of the stable”
The most numerous molecules become those whose properties encourage “tying up resources, pulling apart other molecules and binding those pieces to themselves. Resulting in more of such molecules.
When is a complex molecule alive?
When it replicates itself
Properties of Prokaryotes
- bacteria (single celled microbes)
- same DNA
- protein synthesis
- cell wall, but no walled off nucleus
- no membrane bound organelles
- eventually ingest other bacteria
Properties of Eukaryotes
- protists, fungi, plants and animals
- DNA
- enclosed nucleus
- cytoplasm
- cells up to 10,000 times larger than prokaryotes
- other bacteria incorporated as organelles with own DNA
