BIOL 226 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins, Intelligent Designer
18 Jan 2017
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Created a mechanism for evolution; natural selection. Can conserve energy from hiding rather than trying to escape predators. Organisms are well suited to their environments (great adaptations to surrounding environments) There are many shared characteristics of life. There is a rich diversity of organism. Darwin was fascinated with endless forms most beautiful . Wrote a book with 2 major points: many current species are descendants of ancestral species, natural selection is a mechanism for this evolutionary process. Affinities among organisms all living forms could be arranged on a ladder or scale ( the ladder of life) of increasing complexity (scalea. Watchmaker of life god = analogy (william paley) Natural selection is the designer of life. Fallacy; good design does not imply foresight. Fossils are remains or traces of organisms from the past, usually found in sedimentary rock, which appears in layers or strata. The study of fossils helped to lay the groundwork of darwin.
