BIOL 3200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 34: Archaeopteryx, Transitional Fossil, Australopithecus
Document Summary
Darwin said if a characteristic was not useful, then it would be completely lost. But there were exceptions: in the origin, he talked about sexual selection, how certain animals have traits that do(cid:374)"t reall(cid:455) ha(cid:448)e a(cid:374)(cid:455) sur(cid:448)i(cid:448)al ad(cid:448)a(cid:374)tages, (cid:271)ut are used to attract mates. But, (cid:374)aturalists fou(cid:374)d (cid:272)hara(cid:272)teristi(cid:272)s of other orga(cid:374)is(cid:373)s that (cid:449)ould(cid:374)"t ha(cid:448)e contributed to reproductive success, or competitive advantage. In 1860s, alfred russel wallace pointed to many human qualities that would have been useless for early man: e. g. musical sense, ability to perform abstract calculations. Writer st. george jackson mivart was prepared to accept evolution if it were supernaturally guided in certain directions. Gaps were found and still exist between species in the fossil record. New classes seemed to appear fully formed in fossil record without signs of an evolutionary trend by which they could have gradually emerged from an ancestor. This (cid:449)as o(cid:374)e of dar(cid:449)i(cid:374)"s greatest stu(cid:373)(cid:271)li(cid:374)g (cid:271)lo(cid:272)ks.
