BIOL 1500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Macroevolution, Biogeography, Microevolution
12 Dec 2015
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Document Summary
Son of a wealthy physician, dropped out of medical school for university and developed a curiosity for the natural world accredited to professor john henslow (botanist) 1831 - age 22, darwin set out of the voyage of the hms beagle. Beagle"s mission was to chart the coasts and harbors of south america. Darwin was recommended to be unpaid assistant naturalist and dinner companion to the captain. Hypothesis that organisms change over time was not new when darwin embarked on his voyage. Anaximander: first western philosopher to postulate that humans evolved from fish that had moved onto land. Strongly influenced by a stop in the galapagos (small archipelago of volcanic islands off cost of ecuador) Noticed that many of the birds and reptiles he observed appeared to be unique to each island. All the islands had populations of tortoises but the type of tortoise found on one island was different from the types found on other islands.
