Download 1 Ernst Mayr`s What Evolution Is I. In What Kind of World Do We Live

Ernst Mayr’s What Evolution Is
I.
In What Kind of World Do We Live? (Ch. 1, 3-11)
Read as background. It sets Mayr’s discussion of evolution in historical context a bit.
And it’s pretty short. Why not start the book at the beginning, eh?
II.
What is the Evidence for Evolution on Earth? (Ch. 2, 12-39)
A.
B.
The Fossil Record (13-19)
1.
How does the fossil record provide evidence for the occurrence of
evolution?
2.
How does Mayr try to document the “unimaginable incompleteness of the
fossil record” (14) to explain the numerous gaps and discontinuities
between species one finds in it?
The Thesis of Common Descent (19-39)
1.
2.
3.
Morphological Similarities (22-27)
a.
How does the thesis of common descent explain the morphological
similarities between diverse organisms already noted by
comparative anatomists in the eighteenth century? (22-25)
b.
What does it mean to refer to structures as “homologous” and how
does the thesis of common descent explain homologous structures
in different organisms? (25-27)
Embryology (27-30)
a.
What is recapitulation? (28)
b.
How are the interpretations of recapitulation of von Baer and
Haeckel inadequate? (29-30)
c.
What is the current explanation for recapitulation provided by
experimental embryologists? How does this explanation of
recapitulation depend on the thesis of common descent? (30)
How do vestigial structures provide evidence for the thesis of common
descent? (30-31)
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III.
4.
How does the thesis of common descent explain the geographic
distribution of animals and plants? (31-32)
5.
Molecular Evidence (34-39)
a.
How does the discovery that genes (or, more precisely, the
structure of the molecules of which they consist) evolve provide
evidence for the thesis of common descent? (34-36)
b.
How does the discovery that “some basic genes of higher
organisms can be traced all the way back to homologous genes in
bacteria” (39) support the thesis of common descent?
The Rise of the Living World (Ch. 3, 40-69)
Read as background. It will help with understanding many specific references he makes
in later chapters.
IV.
Variational Evolution (Ch. 5, 83-105; 106-114 excluded)
A.
What is the difference between a genotype and a phenotype? (89-90)
B.
Mechanisms which produce genetic variation. (96-100)
C.
1.
What is a genetic mutation and how does it produce variation? (96-98)
2.
What is gene flow and how is it a conservative factor in evolution? (9899)
3.
What is genetic drift and how can it play a role in producing variation in
“small founder populations, beyond the periphery of the range of a
species”? (99)
4.
What is “nonrandom mating” and how does it contribute to variation?
(100-101)
Sexual and Asexual Reproduction (101-105)
1.
What is asexual reproduction? (101-102)
2.
How does meiosis contribute to variation? (103-105)
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V.
VI.
VII.
Natural Selection (Ch. 6, 115-122, exclude 123-146)
A.
Why does Mayr stress that natural selection is really a process of elimination?
(117-118)
B.
What are the two steps of natural selection and how do they bring in elements of
both chance and necessity? (119-121)
C.
To what extent has the process of natural selection been proven? (121-122)
Speciation (Ch. 9, 174-180, excluding 180-187)
A.
Mayr defines a species as “a group of ‘interbreeding populations reproductively
isolated from other such groups.’” (176) If this concise definition is not clear
enough, please see, at first, Box 8.2 (p. 168) and, if needed, pp. 161-167 for more
discussion.
B.
How does Mayr distinguish “phyletic evolution” from “the multiplication of
species” which is his interest in this chapter? (174)
C.
What is allopatric speciation? (175-178)
D.
How do the two forms which allopatric speciation may take, dichopatric
speciation and peripatric speciation, differ? (178-180)
Macroevolution (188-199 & 203-207, exclude 199-202 & 208-230)
A.
What is the distinction between microevolution and macroevolution? (188-189)
B.
Why, for the Darwinian, must all macroevolutionary processes be composed of
microevolutionary processes (the gradualness of evolution)? (190-191)
C.
Why does Mayr believe that we should not typically expect to see such gradual
change reflected in the fossil record? (190-192)
1.
What does Mayr mean when he speaks of evolution through splitting and
budding of lineages? How do these metaphors correlate with dichopatric
and peripatric speciation? (191-192)
2.
What does Mayr mean he cautions that we should not think of evolution
as a linear process? (192-193)
3.
What does the phrase “evolution by punctuated equilibrium” mean? (1923
193)
D.
What sort of pace does evolution follow in different species and different
lineages? What explanations have been offered for these differing rates of
evolution? Does Mayr consider them a sufficient explanation? (194-197)
E.
What are the two types of explanation for the emergence of evolutionary
novelties? (203-207)
1.
How do the various forms of eyes found in different species illustrate how
the eye could evolve by “intensification of function”?
2.
How does the evolution of new functions by change of function illustrate
the “principle of tinkering”?
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