Evidence for Evolution

  1. What is Evolution? (3)
    • -populations evovle not individuals
    • -change is in the proportions of genes in the population's gene pool (total of all the genes in all the individuals of the population)
    • -change takes place across generations
  2. What is Evolutionary Theory? (3)
    • -stipulates the theory of common descent--all life on Earth is descended from one ancestral popluation
    • -stipulates that microevolution (small changes in the frequency of genes in a population) over millions of years accounts for the differences in life forms (microevolution accounts for macroevolution = evolution of new species and new groups of organisms)
    • -stipulates that mutation, genetic drift, migration, and natural selection cause evolution
  3. What is Lamarckian Evolution and who proposed it?
    Jean Baptiste Lamarck 1744-1829

    • 1-intrinsic drive toward perfection
    • 2-acquisition of characteristics through use and disuse
    • 3-inheritance of acquired characteristics
  4. What is Common Descent & who proposed it?
    Erasmus Darwin

    The theory that all living organisms on Earth descended from a single common ancestor that appeared in the distant past.
  5. What are the alternative hypotheses for the Theory of Common Descent?
    -Static-indicating that organisms are recently derived and unchanging.

    • -Transformation-allows for modification of life forms but no separation. (all living organisms were created, perhaps even millions of years ago, and that changes have occurred in these species but brand-new species have not arisen)
    • -Separate types- allows for speciation but from several ancestral types (dif types of organisms for ex. plants& animals with backbones arose separately and since their origin have diversified into numerous species)

    -Common Descent- repeated speciation from a single ancestral type
Author
xiongak
ID
147961
Card Set
Evidence for Evolution
Description
Chap. 9
Updated