Biology 1201A Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: House Mouse, Bonobo, Carl Linnaeus
Document Summary
Vitruvian man: human body was divinely created, perfect and correct (da vinci) Life is more diversified than believed to be. Life on islands is different, similar to mainland continents. If organisms are so perfect, why are there vestigial organs/structures: bones of forelimbs have similar structure, share a common ancestor, homologous. James hutton: earths surface has changed by geological processes that still occur today, geological change is slow and gradual, millions of years to mould the earth"s current landscape. Fossils in different layers are not the same. Fossils of animals that cannot currently be found on earth: organisms today are not the same, some species have gone extinct. Species change in response to their environment: changes are inherited, passed to the next generation, proposed a specific mechanisms that causes evolutionary change. Inheritance of acquired characteristics: an individuals body parts will grow depending on how much they were used. Individual has evolved, new trait inherited by their off-spring: proposed the so-called perfecting-principle.
