Biology 1001A Chapter Notes - Chapter 17.1-17.4: Macroevolution, Microevolution, Population Genetics
16 Nov 2016
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Evolution (biological) evolution means the gradual change of populations or organisms over time. Time is measured in generations, not years. Helps explain the variation within and among the populations of a given species. Not all gradual change= evolution: changes that occur over a lifetime of an organism is not evolution, ex. Copernicus, galileo, rene descartes, newton promoted increased awareness of change. Comparative morphology: morphology- anatomical structure of organisms. Scientists found interesting similarities/differences: george-louis leclerc. Puzzled by body parts that had no apparent function. Suggested that some animals must have changed after being created: vestigial structures. Leclerc suggested that they were once functional in ancestral organisms. Layers of fossils represented organisms that lived in the past, in sequential order. Abrupt changes in the fossil layers marked dramatic changes in the environment: catastrophism. Each layer of fossils represented the remains of organisms that had died in a local catastrophe.
