What idea did Lamarck propose about how species change?
inheritance of acquired characters
What idea did Wells, Matthew, Wallace, and Darwin all propose about how species change?
selection of the best adapted forms
Was Darwin the first person to propose evolution?
Nope
Was Darwin the first to propose natural selection?
Not really. It was actually Wallace who first proposed it to Darwin.
What were Darwin's 2 goals in Origins of Species?
1. convince his audience that species changed through time (e.g. demonstrate the fact of evolution)
2. provide a mechanism to explain this change (e.g. natural selection)
although people accepted #1, #2 was quite controversial until Gregor Mendel's genetic inheritance work was finally discovered later on in 1900s. Origin of Species published in 1859.
Gregor Mendel
an Austrian monk who bred garden pea plants as hobby and wrote Experiments on Plant Hybridization in 1865 but went unnoticed until 1901 when finally translated into English from German.
Mendelian Genetics
named after Gregor Mendel who discovered concepts of genotypes and phenotypes. Known as the Modern Synthesis or moder synthetic view on evolution.
Supporting evidence for evolution
Geology & age of earth (due to discoverance of fossils)
5 types of evidence
- observed evolutionary change
- ring species
- vestigial features
- transitional fossils
- homology
Incidental evolution (type of Observed Change as evidence for evolution)
Incidental evolution in response to human activity
bacteria: Alexander Fleming noticed development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics such as penicillin
moths: industrial melanism - peppered moths used to be typically white but due to human industrialism - they became dark colored
bugs: Flat podded golden rain tree introduced to Florida and then Soapberry bugs developed shorter beaks to use the new trees as hosts. Common garden experiments demonstrated that beak length was inherited.
Laboratory breeding experiments (type of Observed Change as evidence for evolution)
- trait alteration: higher leg bristles selected for on bugs so future generations have more and more bristles.
- behavior: female mice selected for doing more revolutions on wheel so future generations do more and more revolutions
Selective breeding outside the lab (type of Observed Change as evidence for evolution)
- domestication of wolves to modern day dogs
- crop domestication
Ring Species as evidence for evolution
ring species are evidence of incipient speciation since species are often delimited by the inability to interbreed, but adjacent populations in a ring species can interbreed except for where distantly related populations meet