Test #1 Flashcards
Misconception about Darwin
The importance of Darwin himself – people think that only he came up with theory or that all scientists were against him and he revolutionized the idea –> NOT TRUE
- Misconception = that he came up with his ideas suddenly all on hos own –> In reality – his grand idea didn’t come about in a vaccum
***Darwin was just in the right place at the right time to get the credit BUT he was not the only person
What led Darwin to his ideas (overall)
He was alive at the point of intersection of intellectual processes that led people towards this direction
***NOTE: He was NOT the only person to connect the dots at the time of connection
Darwins concluions were…
An inevitable outcome of broader perspectives at the time – the reason that he gets too much credit (it wasn’t as revolutionary as people make it seem)
Persectives in the past (limitations on people)
At Darwins time – it was hard to have sufficient perspectives for one person –> Took time to draw out that perscteive to think about areas that you weren’t around
Understanding Earth’s age
Took time to know that earth is older than what we know –> hard to get that persective
Importance of Empirical Thought
Once scientific empirical thought took hold = increased understanding of earth iteself –> THEN applies this to biological systems
Who set the stage for Darwin’s profound realization
- Nicholas Steno
- William Smith
- James Hutton + Charles Lyell
Darwin (Overall)
Great Naturalist
***He travelled = gave him first hand persective on the variety of the world + how wide the world was
***His ideas did NOT come about in a vacuum
How did Darwin draw his conlusions
Drew conclusions from years of observations of species in their natural envirnments + Fossils + patterns of traits in domesticated animals
- He had first hand expriences of variety of world + how wide the world was from travelling
Key Developments before Darwin
- Antiquity of the world
- The relationships among organisms
Nicholas Steno
Overall: Established the underlying Premise of geology
- Dutch Bishop
- First real academic realization of what FOSSILS are
Example – Shark Teeth – before they didn’t connect that they came from living things
- Notes distirbution of fossil marine animals in terrestial rocks
- Developed idea of straigraohy
- Was only looking at local rocks
- had understanding of geology –> understood that we can study earth via studying rocks
***made a system to study rocks within his region
Stratigraphy
Study of the layers of rocks in terms of chronology
***Idea was developed by Nicholas Steno
Steno + Stratigraphy
He developed idea of straigraohy – he found that the laters reprented chronology – that diffrent layers are diffrent events in geologic history
William Smith
English Surveyer
Overall: Was able to see the big picture of stratigraphy – connected rock formation in diffreent parts of Britain –> Aligned rocks in one area to rock layer in a different areas based on fossils (found the same types of fossils in layers but in diffreent places = knew they had to be from the same time)
- Notes that the strata from across england showed remarlable consistencey in the fossils that they hold
- Found strata can be identofied across wide geographic span by “index fossils”
- Broadened Stratography – NOW not just in one place
- Understood earth on larger scale
***Did his work because looking for mines
Index fossils
Fossils that serve as diagnostics for a particular geologic period
***Index fossils = indicate layer
What did Smith see?
He connected rock formation in diffrent parts of Britain –> Aligned rocks in one area to rocks in layer in different area – saw the same change over time
- Saw that particular layers of rock in different parts of the world can be aligned by fossils in the layers
James Hutton + charles Lyell
Overall: Found that processes that have built and shaped geologic strata are essentially the same as the processes we see at work today
- Understanding geologic processes NOT just patterns anymore
Suggested: that the grdaual nature of these porcesses indicates that earth MUST be expreml;ey old
- Thought about porcesses happening today and how they scale over time to create what we see
- Understood what happened in Past + When we scale up rate of ongoing processes wbnough to see large scale processes we see – wouold mean that earth need to be much older than people thought before
What came from Hutton + Lyell
Created Uniformitarism
Uniformitarism
Natural Laws observable around us now are also responsible for events of the past
- Means that the properties of the universe have not foundationally changed over time –> Same processes for history of earth.
- Means that the same laws of nature are not changing from expeirmnet to expeimnet
**Idea that the present is the key to the past
**Really important in science
***Came out of geology
Why is Uniformitarism important in scinece?
Because it means that the same laws of nature are NOT changing from experiment to experiment – very important in science
Things in geology that affected biology perspective
- Found that the earth is old
- Makes sense of broadening persiectives
- Explains things by sclaing up ongoing processes – don’t need supernatural explinations for things
Relationships among organisms (overall)
Broader view of the living worls arts to take shape around that time – it took leaving small town to broaden persepctive
Linneus
Overall: father of taxonomy + binomial nomenclature – made hiearch –> Tied together all we know about life forms
- Gave comprehensive volume for how living world is connected
- Classified and named over 12,000 species of plants and animals
- Searched for divine plan in relationship among taxa
- Though species are immutable (Do not change) – BUT he still found connction between them
- Found connections between living things
- Set ground of perscetive for people to make DWM
Buffon
Naturalist – started grappeling with ohysical mechanistic explinations of the earth and living world long before Darwin
OVERALL: recoignized the improtnace of patterns in biogeography
- Observing regional differnces among species led some to start thinkning that species might not be immutable
- one of the first naturalists to begin expressing teh ideas that species may change over time
- Paying attentoon to differnece between organisms of the same species
- Thought about the idea that species change through time
Question: How did differences come about – does it show that organisms change across space