Lecture 1

Question 1

What is The Great Chain of Being?

Answer 1

a hierarchy created by early Greek philosophers; organized from lowest to highest forms of life

Question 2

What is Natural Theology?

Answer 2

the idea that god’s plan was the cause for similarities between complex anatomical structures

Question 3

How does Linnean classification organize living things?

Answer 3

through taxonomy - science of identifying, describing, naming, and classifying organisms
does not include systematics

Question 4

List the taxa used in Linnean classification from largest to smallest.

Answer 4

domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
dear king Phillip cried out, “for goodness sake!”

Question 5

What is systematics?

Answer 5

naming organisms as well as determining the evolutionary relationships between species

Question 6

What theory did George Buffon have about evolutionary patterns in nature, and where did this theory derive from?

Answer 6

when life first emerged, it was already divided into a number of distinct types of “internal molds”
as species moved to new habitats, their organic particles changed, which meant that its original mold could change as well
created by studying fossils

Question 7

What theories did Jean-Baptiste Lamarck have about evolutionary patterns in nature?

Answer 7

life was driven from simplicity to complexity, and humans and other large species had descended from microbes
bacteria is still being constantly spontaneously generated
Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics

Question 8

What is Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics?

Answer 8

if an organism changes during life to adapt to its environment, those changes are passed on its offspring. for example, a giraffe may stretch its neck in order to reach leaves higher up on a tree, so its offspring will inherit a longer neck.

Question 9

What are the two main features of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?

Answer 9

1. Descent with Modification - overtime homologous characteristics (traits similar to one another due to shared ancestry) accumulate and eventually form a new species; basic structures are the same although function may be different
2. Natural Selection - mechanism that causes certain phenotypes of individuals to be more suited to surviving and reproducing compared to others. these organisms with favorable phenotypes will leave more offspring behind that likely carry the favorable trait, which eventually causes the trait to become more common in the population over the course of generations.

Question 10

What are selective pressures?

Answer 10

environmental conditions that influence natural selection; can change over time as an environment is changed

Question 11

What is artificial selection?

Answer 11

when humans choose to breed organisms with favorable traits

Question 12

What are the observations and inferences of natural selection?

Answer 12

• Organisms have great potential fertility, which permits exponential growth of populations
• Natural populations normally do not increase exponentially but remain fairly constant in size
• Natural resources are limited
  Inference: A struggle for existence occurs among organisms in a population
• Variation occurs among organisms within populations
• Variation is heritable
  Inference: Varying organisms show differential survival and reproduction, favoring advantageous traits
  Inference: Natural selection, over many generations, gradually produces new adaptations and new species