BIOL 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 43: Thomas Robert Malthus, Natural Selection, Selective Breeding
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Differ in beak shapes (adapted for crushing seeds, feeding on cactus flowers, or snagging insects) . Evolution = idea that earth"s many species are descendants of ancestral species that wee different from those living today . Philosophers had suggested that life might change gradually over time . Fossils = imprints/remains of organisms that lived in the past : began to study fossils in mid 1700s. Revealed a succession of fossil forms in layers of sedimentary rock that differed form current life forms. 1800 lamarck suggested idea of evolution to link fossils to current life forms . His theory of how evolution occurs was wrong and made him infamous. Thought animals could change traits but using/not using body parts, and pass on those traits. At age 22, boarded the beagle to sail to the south american coast . Noted that characteristics of plants and animals he found made them well suited for their environment .