Biology 1201A Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Uniformitarianism, Catastrophism, Gradualism
3 May 2016
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What is a theory: an explanation of a set of natural phenomena based upon proven testable hypothe- ses and observation, repeatedly tested - evidence to support. Early evolutionary though: static classification & characterization. Everything was created as it is, and is unchanging: aristotle & scala natura. Created ladder like classification from simplest to most complex: 1600"s importance of observation, experimentation & finding evidence to suppor theories, new disciplines arose. Biogeorgraphy: study of the world and distribution of plants and animals, global exploration15th-17th centery raised questions due to discovery of thou- sands of plants and animals. Comparative morphology: discovered similarities and differences in anatomical structire of organisms, compete de buffon - puzzled by vestigial structures. Geology: cuvier found fossils - suggested abrupt changes marked dramatic shifts in en- vironment, catastrophism - each layer or fossil represented the remains of organisms that died in a catastrophe. Different species came in and colonized region, and pat- tern repeats.
