Download The evolution of evolution

Course: Syllabus
 Details responsibilities: mine and yours
 A plan, not a contract!
 Text is Campbell, 9th ed.
 Online materials: bradlamphere.com
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 Moodle for discussion boards, grades
Chapter 1
Introduction
The Scientific Method
 A good hypothesis is testable and
falsifiable
Supernatural
explanations are not testable,
so they are outside the bounds of science
Scientific Hypothesis vs. Prediction
 Predictions give the expected outcome of a specific test

Based on hypothesis, but…

Not an explanation
 Hypothesis provides an educated guess for an
explanation for an observed event.

More general than a prediction
Chapter 22
The evolution of
evolution
Lecture 2 Objectives
 Describe how evolutionary fitness differs from the non-
science term “fitness,” and explain why that distinction
matters.
 Explain how previous scientific thought influenced
Darwin’s thinking.
 Distinguish Lamarck’s hypothesis of evolution via
acquired characters from Darwinian evolution. Design
an experiment that would test whether a trait exhibited
Lamarckian or Darwinian evolution.
 List the lines of evidence Darwin used to support his
hypothesis of evolution through natural selection.
Lecture 2 Outline
 History of an idea
 Darwin’s evidence for evolution
 Artificial selection
 Island- mainland
 Fossils
 Four postulates of evolution through natural
selection
 Implications of the postulates
 “Darwin’s
demon”
Why study evolution?
 In common use, synonymous with
“change”
 In science, more specific:
Change in heritable traits over time
 Descent with modification
Same process, different time scales

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light
of evolution” – Dobzhansky
Long before Darwin…
 Aristotle (ca. 350 BC) viewed species
as fixed
“Scala
naturae”
 Linnaeus (ca. 1750)
Founder
of taxonomy
Argued that species are perfect and
unchanging over time
The evolution of evolution
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)
- Important contributions to natural
history
- Individuals evolve via acquired
traits
- Use or disuse of body parts would
lead to changes in morphology that
were heritable
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html
The evolution of evolution
In groups, design an
experiment that would
test Lamarck’s idea that
acquired characteristics
were heritable.