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What is evolution according to Darwin and what are important aspects?
The process of organismal change and diversification through generational time from shared common ancestry.
Important aspects:
Change
temporal aspect
ancestry
transgenerational
Whats Anagenesis ?
Evolutionary change without multiplication of forms
What’s Cladogenesis ?
Splitting of species
What’s a common intuitive challenge in evolution ?
Irreducible complexity
e.g. Eye (how would this develop step by step)
Solution:
Microevolution of submodules
Which 3 terms should not be used synonymously ?
evolution
natural selection
adaptation
Name some evidence for evolution
Homology
similar features accross species
vestigial characters
ear, appendix, goose bumps
Suboptimal design
can only work with what ancestor provides
geographic distributions
species in geographic proximity are more similar
What was Aristoteles Scala Naturare ?
A Scale that attributes values to different species and objects
ladder of life
What was the new “ladder of life” in the middle ages ?
Great Chain of Being
Thomas Aquinas:
natural theology
everything stems from devine design
Whats the core idea behinds Jean Baptiste Lamarck evolutionary theory ?
Ancestors adpat themselves to their envrionment during their life time
Ancestors pass on their actively gained adaptations
Whats a key improvement of Darwins theory over Lamarcks ?
Could explain the mystery of mysteries
How do well adapted new species originate from a single ancestor
Name the core ideas of Darwin’s and Wallace’s ideas
Heritable variation in the trait (some trait that can be inherited)
Over reproduction, but fixed resources lead to selection
Variation in lifetime reproductive success is linked to the trait
What’s the difference between transformational and variational evolution ?
Variational evolution (Darwin):
certain individuals are favored by natural selection
Transformational evolution (Lamarkian):
all indiviudals are chagned through time
What the positions of Mendelists vs. Biometricians ?
Mendelists: Mutations are main driver of evolution (strong imediate chagnes)
Biometricians: polygenic mutations are the driver that bring advantages
By adding more loci both theories can be merged
Whats The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution ?
Theory that most evolutionary changes are not caused by Darwinian selection but due to random drift
Even slightly disadvantageous mutations are allowed
Last changed2 months ago