ANTH 1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: James Hutton, Robert Hooke, Uniformitarianism
Document Summary
Went on a five year voyage around the world to collect and study the natural world. Formulated questions about the origins of the organisms he discovered. Species: a group of related organisms that an be interbred and produce fertile offspring. Studied galapagos islands and wondered why finches had different beaks depending on which island they lived on. Came up with the theory of evolution and natural selection. Physical characteristics that were different on same species were adaptations of their environment to help them survive. Natural selection: process by which organisms survive and reproduce with favorable feature that allow them to adapt to the environment. Therefore, the frequency of favorable features becomes more common within that species. Adaptive radiation: diversification of an ancestral group of organisms into new forms that are adapted to specific environmental niches. Darwin used geology, paleontology, taxonomy and systematics, demography and evolutionary biology to prove his theory of evolution. Taxonomy: classification of past and living lifeforms.
