Evolution and Biodiversity

• Bottleneck effect: When there is a sudden decrease in population size due to environmental factors such as disease outbreaks, droughts, floods, etc., this can lead to genetic drift because fewer individuals means less variation within the remaining population.
• Fossils are preserved remains or traces of organisms from the geological past, including bones, shells, footprints, pollen grains, and DNA fragments.
• Traits arise from adaptations to specific environments.

  Species related will have higher unity.
• Charles Darwin is considered the father of evolutionary biology. He wrote the book "On the Origin of Species, which went against what was believed at the time. He gave a mechanism for evolution.
• Carolus Linnaeus: Father of modern taxonomy, developed the binomial system of naming organisms. Grouped organisms together based on similarities.
• Georges Cuvier - Father of paleontology, the farther we go down a stratum the less similar organisms look compared to current organisms. Proof of gradual shift overtime. Proposed the Theory of Large extinction events.
• James Hutton Scottish geologist who believed that profound change in the Earth’s geological features could happen with slow changes over long periods of time. Proposed the theory of gradualism.
• Darwin's finches were used as evidence for natural selection because they had different beak sizes adapted to different food sources. The larger birds ate seeds while smaller ones ate insects. They also showed variation within species.
• Charles Lyell ultimately proposed that Earth’s surface features are created by natural processes (physical,

  chemical, and biological) occurring over long periods of time. He concluded that the earth must be very old. (Uniformitarianism)
• Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck French biologist who firstproposed a mechanism for HOW organisms change overtime. Based on lines of descent in fossil records. Proposed use and disuse of traits, and inheritance of Acquired traits.
• adaptation is an inherited characteristic which enhancesthe survival and reproduction of an organism in theirenvironment.
• natural selection is the process by which individuals with traits that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce.
• Alfred Russel Wallace was a British naturalist and explorer who contributed to the theory of evolution. He came to the same conclusions as Darwin.
• Descent with modification, descent is the idea that shared ancestry creates shared characteristics, and modification is the idea that organisms will accumulate differences.
• Darwin viewed history of life as a tree. new organisms or groups of organisms branched from the 'trunk' .
• Artificial Selection is the process of selecting for a particular characteristic that is desired by humans. Darwin used this to help persuade people of his theory of evolution.
• overproduction, Darwin's idea stemmed from an essay he read by Thomas Malthus on Human suffering.
• Lamarck's theory of acquired traits was rejected by Darwin's theory of natural selection. The length of a giraffes neck would evolve through natural selection, not through use and disuse.
• Adaptations can pass to progeny and have influence over how the next generation will adapt to their environment.
• Favorable adaptations will accumulate overtime due to predators, lack of resources or environmental stress.
• The more favorable adaptations there are, the better chance they will survive and reproduce. This leads to a higher proportion of offspring with those characteristics.
• homology refers to similarities that come from a common ancestor. can be found as homologous structures or vestigial structures.
• Convergent Evolution: when organisms in different parts of the world develop similar advantageous traits but aren’t closely related.
• shared features in convergent evolution are called analogous
• biogeography: the branch of biology that deals with the geographical distribution of species. it is influenced by continental drift. focuses on endemic species, species found in one place.
• Systematics is a discipline within biology which focuses on classifying organisms (past and present) based on their differences and similarities.
• Systematics encompasses the discipline of taxonomy, the naming and classification of organisms through binomial nomenclature.
• These classification mechanisms and systems allow us to determine an organisms phylogeny.
• Phylogeny is the evolutionary history of an organism or group of organisms.
• Historically, phylogenic classification used to be based on morphology and anatomical features.
• Now, most classifications are based on similarities in DNA sequences.
• Binomial Nomenclature is a system created by Carolus Linnaeus to avoid confusion about what organism was being analyzed.
• A proper scientific name is derived from latin (or is “latinized”), and consists of a genus and species (specific epithet) name.
• Domain – Dear, Kingdom – King, Phylum – Philip, Class – Came, Order – Over, Family – For, Genus – Good, Species – Soup.
• Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species are all categories in Linneaus categorization system.
• A branch point in a phylogenetic tree is the common ancestor between two lineages.
• An evolutionary lineage is a sequence of organisms leading to a particular descendant.
• Sister taxa are groups of organisms which share an immediate common ancestor, that includes no other groups of organisms.
• allopatric speciation: occurs when populations become isolated from each other (geographic isolation)
• Branching points to the left represented the most recent common ancestor (root - rooted).