BIO120H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Lists Of Invasive Species, Microevolution, Macroevolution

• School: UTSG
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIO120H1
• Professor: Spencer Barrett

Document Summary

Bio120h1 lec 1 intro to evolutionary biology. Scopes of questions: small helps answer bigger questions, large more difficult to answer cannot be answered by conducting one single experiment, unlike small questions (eg. why is most biodiversity in the tropics?) Involves determining ecological function and adaptive importance of a trait. Approaches used in biology: observational, theoretical, comparative, experimental. Definitions: biodiversity variety of life on earth; the number and types of organisms in a certain area / environment, adaptation (state or process) Any trait that contributes to fitness by allowing an organism to adapt to its environment to increase its likelihood of reproduction and survival (noun) Evolutionary process that leads to origin and maintenance of these traits (verb) Evolution = the central unifying concept of biology. Major sub-fields: evolutionary mechanisms microevolution, evolutionary history - macroevolution. Evolutionary mechanisms: ecological and genetic mechanisms responsible for evolutionary change, studies of natural selection, adaptation, and speciation, testing theoretical models in labs.