the greek philosophers fixed ladder of complexity of organisms
humans naturally at the top, and invertebrates on the bottom
founded taxonomy
while god created things, Linnaeus classified them
laid groundwork for darwin
found in sedimentary rock layers, strata
classified by the chronologized layers of earth
french naturalist in the 18th century
developed paleontology
advocated catastrophism suggesting that each layer of the earth represented a catastrophe in history
was cancelled because he suggested there were more catastrophes in earths history than Noah's ark needed to explain the diversity of life
scottish geologist in the 16th century
along with Lyell, perceived that changes in earths surface can result from slow, continuous processes that still operate today
challenged the church by developing the concept of deep time, or geological time so he also got cancelled
english geologist
along with hutton, perceived that changes in the earths surface can result from slow, continuous processes still operating today
principle of uniformitarianism
mechanisms of change are constant over time
strongly influences darwin
developed by charles lyell
first evolutionist
hypothesized that species evolve through use and disuse of body parts and the inheritance of acquired characteristics
his work was not exactly correct so he's largely disregarded, but he was on the right track
explains the adaptations of organisms and unity and diversity of life
february 12th 1809
always interested in nature and animals
university of edinburgh for medicine
cambridge university studying theology
captain of the HMS Beagle
written by charles lyell, influenced darwin on his journey on the beagle
islands where beagle spent 5 weeks
home of the galapogos finches
helped darwin establish the environmental adaptations organisms make
published 1859 by Charles Darwin
explains 2 major ideas
1) descent with modification explains the unity and diversity of life
2) natural selection is the cause of adaptive evolution
veiw that all organisms descended from a singular common ancestor
represent tree of life
branches represent modification in the organism ie a new species
came up with the same theories as darwin just later on, so their work was published at the same time so to not discredit one another
father of biogeography
darwin examined how farmers created desirable crops and animals and experimented himself with pigeons
1. populations have diverse traits
2. traits are inherited
3. species are capable of creating more offspring than what the environment can support
4. because of the lack of support from the environment, many excess offspring die off
1) individuals with favorable traits survive and reproduce more
2) the unequal distribution of survival leads to desirable traits prevailing over others
noted the potential of humans to increase population faster than the environment could keep up
darwin took this idea
if some heritable traits are advantageous, they will accumulate in a population and become frequent in individuals in that population
the process of adaptation
1) individuals must vary in reproductive success
2) some variation in the trait must be heritable
3) trait must be correlated with reproductive success
true
populations evolve over time
1) evolution
2) common descent
3) multiplication of species
4) gradualism
5) natural selection
gradualism
a well verified explaination based on a body of facts that have been well tested
explains why something happens
more algorithmic than a theory
explains how something happens
makes life easier for scientists
compresses the data of the world
1) evolution is directly observable
2) homology
3) fossil record
4) biogeography
homology
evolution is directly observable
biogeography
an example of homology
evolution of similar or analogous features in distantly related groups