GEOL 1003 Chapter : GEOL 1003 7
Document Summary
Adaptations: specialized features of animals and plants that perform one or more useful functions. Evolution: also known as descent with modification, is any change in heritable traits within a biological populations over successive generations. Darwin"s contributions: proposed the concept of evolution in 1859, the voyage of the beagle provided geographic evidence for evolution, large flightless birds different in sth. Teeth, leaves talked before, front toes of mammal, fingers of human, wing bones of bats: species had originated and evolved in nature (versus being scattered over the planet by an external agent, proposed a mechanism: natural selection. Mechanism of evolution: natural selection- survival of the fittest, success or failure of individuals in nature is determined by advantage that certain individuals had over others, not by accident. Other mechanisms: mutation, random changes in genes, provide much of variation on which natural selection operates, speciation/ genetic drift, the origin of new species from a preexisting species, mainly, work on isolated small population.
