Chapter 8

• A scientific theory is able to explain and make successful predictions about a wide range of observable phenomenon.
• Local 'catastrophies' such as volcanoes, drought, and flood have killed off everything.
• Species from nearby areas have moved in to repopulate the area.
• Charles Lyell was a geologist who proposed the process of uniformitarianism.
• Most geologic change is slow and continuous, according to Charles Lyell.
• Geological processes such as erosion and uplift proceed at the same rate now as before, according to Charles Lyell.
• Lamarck was on the right track that living things can change over time.
• Lamarck's idea on how the change happened is incorrect.
• Lamarck did contribute to Darwin's work a bit.
• Charles Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundations of evolutionary theory.
• Darwin's life-changing experience was being the naturalist on HMS Beagle, a Navy ship tasked to map poorly known stretches of South America.
• The Beagle set sail in December 1831, when Darwin was 22 years old.
• Darwin returned from the Beagle voyage after five years.
• The mission of the HMS Beagle was to survey and map coastal waters of South America.
• Darwin's role on the Beagle was to observe, record, and collect.
• Species around the globe were distinct from those further away but similar to those nearby.
• Species around the globe were distinct from those further away but similar to those nearby.
• Darwin’s finches are a group of species that vary slightly between islands.
• Each species of Darwin’s finch is adapted to eating a different type of food.
• Fossils of some extinct animals resembled those of living animals.
• Sexual reproduction enhances variation within a population.
• It is possible for desirable traits in parents to be inherited by offspring.
• Sexual reproduction mimics a similar selection process in Nature.
• Darwin took almost 20 years to formulate the theory of evolution by natural selection, which he referred to as descent with modification.
• Darwin realized that everything evolves, from the tiniest microbe to the most complex organism.
• Darwin understood that evolution occurs everywhere, from the depths of the ocean to the highest mountains.
• Darwin recognized that evolution happens constantly, from the birth of a new species to the death of an old one.
• Darwin understood how evolution works, with nature choosing the fittest.
• The fossil record is the remains/traces of past life found in sedimentary rock.
• Species in younger rock layers are more similar to today’s organisms.
• Transition Fossils show intermediary links between groups of organisms.
• Archeopteryx might be a transition fossil between reptiles (dinosaurs) and birds.
• Archeopteryx had the teeth, claws and a bony tail of a reptile but was covered in the feathers of a bird.
• The fossil record represents only a fraction of the life that has ever existed.
• Fossilization is not a guaranteed occurrence.
• Species that do not possess hard tissues (bones or shells) rarely become fossilized.
• In rare circumstances, a whole organism may be preserved intact, such as in tar pits, volcanic ash, peat bogs, permafrost, and amber.
• Many observations of Darwin and Wallace were based on Biogeography - the study of the past and present geographical distribution of organisms.
• A basic body plan can be modified for different functions.
• Homologous structures are those having similar structures but (possibly) different functions.