* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Darwin_Ecology_and_Evolution
Survey
Document related concepts
Hologenome theory of evolution wikipedia , lookup
Objections to evolution wikipedia , lookup
Sociocultural evolution wikipedia , lookup
Natural selection wikipedia , lookup
Unilineal evolution wikipedia , lookup
Creation and evolution in public education wikipedia , lookup
Genetics and the Origin of Species wikipedia , lookup
On the Origin of Species wikipedia , lookup
Acceptance of evolution by religious groups wikipedia , lookup
Catholic Church and evolution wikipedia , lookup
Koinophilia wikipedia , lookup
Saltation (biology) wikipedia , lookup
Introduction to evolution wikipedia , lookup
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals wikipedia , lookup
Transcript
Darwin, Ecology, and Evolution Big “Rocks” of science • The origin of the universe • The origin of life • The incredible biological diversity of today. Link • The origin of human consciousness. Concepts in this Course • An appreciation of the biological diversity, and how vastly different organisms are related to each other. • The ability to read and write phylogenetic trees to describe evolutionary relationship • Understanding The Population Concept: – populations and species evolve, individuals do not More Concepts in this Course • The scientific nature of evolutionary biology; • The role of chance and probability in evolution. • How speciation by natural selection works – How natural selection works and how to calculate evolutionary change under several different situations. • Where does man fit it? Does evolution affect man today? Points to ponder from your reading • Before Darwin, biology was an offshoot of theology like most science before 1800 Link • Darwin supplied two important ideas that create a pervasive undercurnt that affects all of biology • Evolutionary descent with modification • Direction of evolution by natural selection “Darwin has obsessed, impressed and Frustrated people for some time” • Starting in the 19th century, Darwinism had a great deal of impact on political and social discussions Link • Social Darwinism was an Anglo-American movement that argued for the elimination of the unfit from human society link Darwin was a liberal who hated slavery and was concerned with the suffering of the unfortunate He was neither a communist or a social Darwinist The Myth and the Man • Darwin was mostly a gentleman student during his years in Cambridge. Video Link – His father sent him to a boarding school and paid for a first rate upper class education – A Cambridge Darwin was very much a “gentleman student” – (he was a natural intellectual) The voyage of the Beagle • Darwin sailed around the world with the crew of the Beagle from 1831 to 1836, sending specimens back to London throughout the journey • He filled several warehouses with biological specimens from this trip, for himself a reputation as an extraordinary naturalist) • The detailed study of his collections gave rise to Darwin's’ On the Origin of Species • Video link Origin on the web The Voyage The Galapagos • Ornithologist (John Gould) sent Darwin a note arguing that the mockingbirds of the Galapagos were distinct species. • The finches and mockingbirds appeared to have “transmuted” from species living on the mainland of South America, not far from the Galapagos Direction of evolution by natural selection Was Evolution “new”? • How did his thoughts vary from that of Jean-Baptiste Lamark? • Inheritance of acquired characters Lamarck on Evolution • Animals pass physiological changes on to their offspring • As the longer-legged birds waded deeper, it would be the habit of spreading the toes in order not to sink into the offshore mud, stretching the skin in-between, that would eventually give rise to webbed feet. – Reference link Conversely, the disuse of an organ would cause it to wither and disappear, which explained how snakes lost their legs Darwin the intellectual • Charles Lyell: Principles of Geology – use the cumulative effects of well known processes rather than the invocation of catastrophes and miracles • Malthus: On the principle of population (1798); supplied a semi quantitative ecological modal – reference An “imperfect” Fossil record: One should predict and describe general features of the record in relation to evolution The missing link • How are attributes transmitted from one generation to the next? Darwin's problem • Where was Mendel when you needed him? • In an obscure monastery, with little exposure for his findings What is the Scientific Method in a Darwin world? If you are a naturalist, working with preserved specimens. How do you do experiments? A study of the literature on breeding plants and animals permitted the study of massive amounts of “experimental” data Modern Ecology • In the early part of the 20th century, ecology was largely a descriptive science • Lotka and Volterra became interested in ecology. These theoretical mathematicians – The preditor prey mathematical relationship model was developed independently by Lotka, and by Voterrra – hense the name. • Did you know regressions originated in modern ecology? Gause work in competition Competitive exclusion & the start of experimental ecology • Gause studied population shifts in fruit flies and protozoan's. • Natural selection is more than just predator pressure Much more to come in chapter 12 • Gause work in competition Density Dependent and density independent regulation Abiotic factors – temperature and rainfall were used to predict numbers of thrips Competitive interactions were not very iportant in population regulation All about Thrips From philosophy to science • The move toward materialism: – observations are to be explained in relations to observable process – not spiritual forces • In geology, this was the move away from “catastrophists, and toward gradualists. • Darwin extended the geologists “gradualist beliefs to the realm of biology Natural selection provides the “direction” What is the directional force? Evolution is “messy” 1. Natural selection is neither efficient or swift. 2. It is inconsistent and unfocused, and only over a very long period do we see sustained change in a species • The appendix in humans can cause death when it ruptures • Air-breathing aquatic mammals . Biology and Geology are not separate Central Concept : All live is related Tree of life project Horse evolution • Far from the idea of an unchanging world; Darwin proposed a world where change is inevitable, and constant. • Horse evolution Thoughts to ponder 6. What views did Darwin share with the geologist Charles Lyell? 9 How did Darwin explain the evolution of complex structures like the vertebrate eye? 10 Why were materialism and gradualism important to the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection?