BIO 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Georges Cuvier, Gregor Mendel
2 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Evolution is the change over time in the characteristics of a population. Population is all the individuals of one species in a particular area. Aristotle - ladder of nature (least perfect perfect) 18th century - evidence that challenged the static view of creation. Naturalists - started to discover new things that questioned the ideas. Observations showed that there was a larger number of species and organisms that people thought. Geographic areas have distinctive sets of species. Some species in an area closely resemble each other but have different characteristics. Patterns were inconsistent with the idea of species changing. Speculation by some scientists that life evolved. These species could change over time through natural processes. Fossils = preserved remains or traces of organisms that had died long ago. Distribution of fossils in rock is important. Noticed certain fossils were always found in the same layers of rock. Organization of fossils and rock layers were consistent across different geographic areas.
