BIS 2B Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Carl Linnaeus, Georges Cuvier, James Hutton

• School: UC-Davis
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIS 2B
• Professor: Mark Schwartz; Sharon Strauss

Document Summary

Theory of evolution foundations of the theory (what darwin had to work with) two insights: Carolus linnaeus created latin binomial naming system classify organisms by resemblance. Boundaries between fossil strata caused by floods, earthquakes, etc. fossil record shows changes over time within particular locations: catastrophism. New species appeared in more recent layers by re-populating from elsewhere. Earth is continuously modified (volcanoes, erosion, sedimentation, wind, earthquakes) "the present is the key to the past": past geological processes are same as in present day; change is very slow. Extinctions were commonplace the earth is old (much older than biblical estimates of 5000-9000 years. = selection works on historical contingency / pre-existing traits; sometimes tradeoffs lead to imperfect solutions. [jean-baptiste de] lamarck"s proposal / lamarckian notion (1744 - 1829) Charles robert darwin (1809 - 1882) sure evolution was accepted, but the mechanism was unresolved.