Biology 1201A Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Uniformitarianism, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte De Buffon, Georges Cuvier
15 Apr 2016
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Chapter 17 - evoluion: the development of theory. Biological evoluion is gradual change of populaions of organisms over ime. *aging is not evolving, evoluion is measured in generaions rather than years. Believed that living organisms and inanimate objects had ixed characterisics. Created classiicaion system from simplest to most complex -> scala naturae, great chain of being. People believed that all creatures existed as they were created by god, and could never become exinct, new creatures could never form. Noiced vesigial structures, suggested that they must have funcioned in species" ancestors then changed over ime. Suggested theory of catastrophism, species dies in a local catastrophe and new species recolonizes. Suggested that earth changed in a slow and coninuous physical process, e. g. water slowly erodes land. Land changed in reacion to volcanic erupions, earthquakes, erosion, etc. Raioned that earth must be millions of years old to have been formed in such a way.
