CH 1
Ch. 1
What three principles are essential for science to operate?
1.
Events have natural causes.
(Natural world - no unicorns, bad luck, or angry deities)
2.
Laws don't change over time or distance.
(Basic princess and rules have been the same on earth since the beginning ~ gravity)
3.
Findings are "value neutral" ; ind
Know the difference between a control variable & an experimental variable.
Control variable: Is constant and unchanged throughout the course of the investigation.
Experimental variable: identical to control variable in every respect except one.
How do biologists study life at different levels (examples)?
All matter is formed of
elements.
Elements are made of "atoms.*
Atoms combine to form
molecules.
Molecules provide building blocks for each
cell.
Cells combine to form
tissues.
Tissues combine to form
organs,
which can be united as
organ systems.
Populati
Belief
Previous experience/up bringing, held as true, PERSONAL, no scientific evidence/reasoning, taking something based on faith/confidence/trust.
As scientists, we first try to UNDERSTAND something and then ACCEPT our understanding based on data.
Hypothesis
A tentative explanation about a phenomenon observed in the natural world.
- Must be "falsifiable."
Falsifiability = have data to disprove it or data to show it's incorrect.
- Must be testable.
- Will produce Alt null vs. Alt 1 vs. Alt 2
Explain why falsifiability is so essential to the scientific process.
If a claim cannot be falsified, then it is not scientific because there can be no tests or experiments on the claim's validity.
For example, the Theory of Evolution is falsifiable, but Creationism isn't because it's based off claims on matters of faith/be
Scientific Theory
A
well-substantiated
explanation of some aspects of the
natural world
(can't be supernatural) that is acquired through the scientific method and repeatedly confirmed through observation and experimentation.
The strength of a theory is related to the diver
Scientific Method.
Why is repeatability so essential?
Observation:
of a specific phenomenon. Leads to a question.
Hypothesis:
referring to prior research, thinking, and recalling to prior experiences, we then generate testable predictions and alternatives.
Experimentation:
produces data.
Results:
we examine
Natural Law
A basic principle derived from the study of nature that has never been disproved by scientific inquiry. It describes a predictable phenomenon. Doesn't provide an explanation, but often expressed by mathematical formula.
Example: Gravity, natural selection
The importance of relying on only natural causes and testable predictions.
It's a good science because the goal of science is to discover explanations for observed phenomena that rely on
only natural causes
. Science progresses through the creation and testing of models of nature that explain the observations as simply as possib
Explain how Pseudoscience violates scientific principles.
Pseudoscience is claim, belief, or practice which is falsely presented as scientific. It doesn't adhere to a valid scientific method. Lacks supporting scientific evidence or plausibility, so can't be reliably tested.
It is characterized by the use of vagu
Science
Systematic inquiry - through observation and experiment - into the origins, structure, and behavior of living and nonliving environments.
CH 2
Ch 2
What was the predominant worldview in Western Europe about the origins of life and the planet and how life changed or didn't change before Darwin?
- Heavily influenced by theological ideas. (using biblical references to understand where world came from)
- Life, the plant, and everything were all specially created by an all-powerful deity and remained unchanged.
- Concepts like extinction were foreig
Plato
proposed that each object on Earth was merely a temporary reflection of its divinely inspired "ideal form."
All created, special, and unchanged.
Aristotle
arranged all organisms (living and nonliving) on a linear scale of increasing complexity. This was known at the Ladder of Nature.
Inanimate matter ---> Humans
Comte de Buffon
suggested that life was originally created by God, but that God only made a few "founding species" that then diversified through natural process. So, God set out a few different types and those were allowed to change based on the environment around thm. (
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
was among the first to describe
inherited change
via
"acquired characteristics."
He lacked an understanding of how traits were passes on.
Example: Giraffe Necks
He thought the giraffes had a need to reach up in trees to eat. He felt that this need wasn't
James Hutton
is The Father of Modern Geology. Established the principle of "Uniformitarianism," which was a major step lengthening the geologic history of Earth.
Allowed to see vastness of rock record.
What we see today must have worked the same before.
Canons, cliffs
Charles Lyell
Expanded on Hutton's principles. Laid out more principles of help determine the age of the Earth by bringing up the idea that it took a ling time for rock processes.
Nicholas Steno
was the 1st to identify the Glossopetrae (tongue stones) as fossil shark teeth. He dissected great white sharks... realized that water use to cover land.
Robert Hooke
interpreted fossilized shells and petrified wood as the remains of once living organisms that perished in a disaster.
Charles Darwin
An English naturalist who became convinced during a five year scientific expedition of the surveying and research vassel H.M.S. Beagle, that evolution by natural selection had produced all the species that have lived on Earth.
Published On the Origin of S
Who were the three authors that inspired Darwin and what ideas did they contribute?
1.
Charles Lyell:
geologist, emphasized uniformity through time, so slow gradual change leading to large accumulated change. Example: Earthquakes in South America lifting rocks up so seeing fossils of sea animals.
2.
Adam Smith:
Economist, thought
competi
Describe Darwin's evidence (5 sources) for Evolution by Natural Selection. (How change happens)
Selection:
Humans have been able to selectively breed plants and animals into a multitude of different forms.
Speciation:
Closely related species often occupy discrete geographic regions separated by barriers
Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny:
Animal speci
Compare & contrast homologous & analogous structures. Give an example of each.
Homologous: Presence in two different groups of animals or plants of organs that have the
same ancestral origin
but serve different functions.
Example: Forelimbs in humans, moles, horses, and dolphins have the same bones.
Analogous: Convergent evolution.
What were two objections to Evolution (and prevented Darwin from publishing his idea)?
He thought it was linear fossil record, but it there isn't an rocks to fossilize in then you don't get fossils for the era.
He also didn't know how traits were passes on.
Alfred Russel Wallace
Independently discovered natural selection. He sent his ideas to Darwin. Both of them presented their ideas to Royal Society.
Gregor Mendel
Considered to be the father of modern genetics. His work on pea plants provided independent evidence to support Darwin's theory. Basics for Inheritance.
What is Differential Reproduction?
Since the environment can't support unlimited population growth, not all individuals get to reproduce to their full potential. In this example, green beetles tend to get eaten by birds and survive to reproduce less often than brown beetles do.
So, trait d
What is Artificial Selection and how did it help Darwin?
Artificial Selection is differential reproduction under domestication generated diversity among dog breeds.
Mutation
Migration
Non-Random Mating
Genetic Drift
Selection
Mutation:
spontaneous changes in DNA creating new alleles and it the source for variation.
Migration:
Introduction of new alleles into a population as new individuals arrive.
Non-Random Mating:
Preferential mating by individuals in the population based on
Richard Owen
- Director of British museum
- Nothing done in biology without his approval.
- "Dinosaur"
- Thought Darwin's ideas were dangerous and would disable the society.
Samuel Wilberforce
- Advisory of Huxley.
- Questioned Huxley.
T.H. Huxley
Pushed Darwin to publish book and defended it when it was questioned.
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution
CH 3
Ch. 3
Explain the 4 postulates/requirements for Evolution by Natural Selection.
1.
Individuals in a population vary.
Example: Ladybug shells (spots and color).
2.
Traits are passed from parents to offspring (heritability).
Example: Pollen and pea plant color.
3.
Some individuals fail to survive and reproduce while others don't (diffe
Explain the difference between a selective pattern and a random one.
Under selective, some trait is being selected for.
Under random, something random happened. (no trait is responsible)
Example of random is Peppered Moth.
Explain why Evolution is not always perfect.
Ex: Sickle-Cell & Malaria
Sickle-Cell Anemia is an inherited blood disorder that results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein hemoglobin found in red blood cells.
It is a fatal condition and even in the developed world life expectancies for those affected range btw 40
Explain (with examples) the following source for evidence for Evolution:
The Fossil Record
The field of BIOSTRATIGRAPHY uses the appearance and disappearance of fossils in rock layers to chop up geologic time.
Whale: 4-limbed and dog-like to giant, sea-going mammal.
Horse: Increased body size, limb length, and tooth size. Less toes.
Mammals ear
Coevolution
the evolution of adaptations in 2 species due to their extensive interactions with one another, such that each species acts as a major force of natural selection on the other.
Example: horse and grassland ecosystems. Savannah = bigger and faster for survi
Microevolution and Macroevolution
Macroevolution:
Great transformations in the fossil record. Changes above the species level or major evolutionary change where whole taxonomic groups
evolve over long periods of time.
Microevolution: Changes in
gene frequencies
of changes within a populat
Explain (with examples) the following source for evidence for Evolution:
Comparative Anatomy: Homologies & Analogies
Homologous: Presence in two different groups of animals or plants of organs that have the
same ancestral origin
but serve different functions.
Example: Forelimbs in humans, moles, horses, and dolphins have the same bones.
Analogous: Convergent evolution.
Explain (with examples) the following source for evidence for Evolution:
Comparative Anatomy: Vestigial Structures
These structures don't serve a purpose.
Example: lizard and whale.
Lizard's hind limb gives it the function of locomotion and whales have a similar vestigial bone but it serves no function but this shows inherited bone from a common ancestor.
Explain (with examples) the following source for evidence for Evolution:
Embryological Evidence
Fish, turtles, chickens, and humans develop a tail and gill slits during their embryonic stage. However, those are lost in humans, but this shows they were all descended from a common ancestor.
Explain (with examples) the following source for evidence for Evolution:
Genetics/Biochemistry Evidence (and the role of Hox genes).
Modern biochemical and genetic analyses reveal relatedness among diverse organisms.
Modern technology revealed molecular similarities among organism.
Biochemical similarities among organisms provide perhaps the most striking evidence of their evolutionary
CH 4
Ch. 4
Explain examples/cases of mechanisms for reproductive isolation
- Pre-zygotic
- Post-zygotic
Pre-zygotic:
stops the physical act of mating
Post-zygotic:
stops the embryo from developing/becoming a viable, reproductive, adult
Describe how a modern biologist, a paleobiologist, and a systematist would define species.
Modern biologist: benefit of genetics and direct observation
Paleobiologist: fossil record (appearance, geography)
Systematist: genealogical and evolutionary (trees) relationships ~ naming and assess relationship.
Describe the following species concepts (both pros and cons) and the criteria they employ:
o Biological
o Morphospecies
o Phylogenetic
1. A group of populations whose members have the potential to interbreed in nature and produce viable, fertile offspring; they do not breed successfully with other populations. Can make good/healthy reproductive offspring.
Emphasis: Gene flow/ exchange of
Compare & contrast Allopatric speciation and Sympatric Speciation.
Allopatric speciation:
considered the dominant mode of speciation. It happens in two different places, so populations have been split apart. Occurs when populations are isolated due to some physical barrier and diverge because selection acts on them diffe
Compare & contrast vicariance & dispersal for Allopatric Speciation.
vicariance: physical barrier such as a mountain range or river, resulting in a pair of closely related species.
dispersal: movement of propagules such as seeds and spores.
Compare & Contrast Anagenesis & Cladogenesis.
Anagenesis:
the transformation of an unbranched lineage of organisms, sometimes to a state different enough from the ancestral population to justify renaming it as a new species. You cannot have a descendent species without the lost of the ancestral one.
Georges Cuvier
founding father of paleontology who came up with Catastrophism.
Compare & Contrast how Darwinian Evolution and Catastrophism viewed biodiversity &
the fossil record.
Darwin thought of anagenic model. maybe birth rate was less than death rate.
Catastrophism: the idea that Earth has been subjected to massive, periodic, environmental perturbations.
Explain why extinctions happen.
Extinction can happen when there is failure to adapt to new conditions such as being destroyed, change in unfavorable direction, or out competed.
Or just bad luck like rocks falling out of the sky.
Compare & contrast proximate causes & ultimate causes.
Proximate causes:
one that can explain the cause of an extinction, but might be the product of another process/event.
Example: global cooling/warming, sea-level changing, and marine anoxia.
Actually does the killing
Ultimate causes:
one that causes extinc
Know the "Big 5" Extinctions.
1. Late Ordovician.
2. Middle Devonian.
3. Permian-Triassic (lost 95 - 99 percent of species)
4. Late Triassic
5. Cretaceous-Paleogene (Dinos)
CH 5
Ch. 5
Biodiversity
The variety of different species.
Taxonomy
The branch of biology that is concerned with naming and classifying organisms.
Who is Carolus Linneaus? (Know his system of classification)
Linneaus introduced the 2 -part scientific name to all organisms.
Felt humans were on top and wanted to show off God's glorious creations.
He came up with Binomial Nomenclature.
What is Binomial Nomenclature?
The scientific name of an organism is a 2-part Latin name that designates its genus and species.
Lion = Panthera leo
Genus: a group that includes a # of very closely related species.
Species: within a genus includes populations of organisms that can poten
Holotype
a single specimen that acts as the identifier for the entire species and shows key features.
Systematics
the science of reconstructing evolutionary relationships and describing new species.
To do this, we reconstruct Phylogeny, which is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among individuals or groups of organisms.
Why make evolutionary trees? Why are evolutionary trees hypotheses? What are monophyletic groups?
To make connections through common descent. They are hypotheses because they can be falsified.
Those are groups that show evolutionary relationships with an ancestor and all descendants.
What does it mean to be basal or derived?
Basal:
Derived:
Accumulated more difference than your shared common ancestor with something else.
'Basal' is a term in biology for 'primitive' or 'ancestral'. ... It is used for groups which have evolved from a more basal group. A derived trait is a trait
What are the three Domains of life?
1. Bacteria
2. Archaea
3. Eukarya
CH 6
Ch. 6
Explain the equation for change in populations: ? Pop Size = [#Births-#Deaths]+[#Immigrants-#Emigrants]
#Births-#Deaths = THE NATURAL INCREASE
#Immigrants-#Emigrants = THE NET MIGRATION
Compare & contrast J-curves & S-curves: what do they represent and what are their implications?
J-Curve = a constant, positive growth rate (ever-increasing)
What factors govern biotic potential?
Biotic potential is the max rate at which a population can grow.
It is governed by the age at which the organism 1st reproduces, the number of times it reproduces, how many offspring are produced each time, the length of the organism's reproductive life s
Explain how carrying capacity (K) is regulated and what can happen when a population exceeds it.
carrying capacity (K) - is the max population that can be sustained indefinitely without change to an ecosystem.
What are examples of Environmental Resistance:
o Density-Dependent (what is this)?
o Density-Independent (what is this)?
Density-Dependent: Any factor, such as predation that limits population size to an increasing extant as the population density increases.
Density-Independent: Any factor, such as fires or floods, that limits a population's size regardless of its density.
Survivorship curve interpretations for: Late-Loss, Early-Loss, and Constant-Loss.
Late-Loss: organisms produce few offspring, but invest heavily into care.
Early-loss: organisms have high juvenile morality. Produces lots of offspring with little care.
Constant-Loss: organisms have equal chance of living and dying at any time.
What have humans done to affect their population size (for better or worse)?
Tools and agricultural (increase food and resources).
Medicine (lower the death rate)
CH 7
Ch. 7
Compare & contrast synecology and autecology.
Autecology: (population ecology)
Synecology: (community ecology)
Describe the types of communal interactions; give an example of each:
o Consumer/Prey (Predator/Prey)
o Interspecific Competition
o Mutualism/Symbiosis
o Intraspecific competition
Interspecific Competition: competition between species for resources where both A & B are harmed.
Intraspecific competition: members of the same species compete for limited resources.
Consumer/Prey (Predator/Prey): One side benefits while the other suffer
Describe Competitive Exclusion.
Two species with exactly the same niche cannot coexist indefinitely.
Describe Resource Partitioning.
A phenomenon of dividing up resources due to the co-evolution of different species with some niche overlap.
Describe the coevolutionary systems associated with the evolution of grassland ecosystems.
Herbivore: Since open area now, you can't hide so need to travel faster so increase in body size and longer limbs. Also bigger teeth for grass.
Carnivore: Also needed to get bigger to take on bigger prey.
Describe a keystone species (with an example).
A species whose influence on community structures is greater than its abundance would suggest. If removed, then normal community interactions are changed.
Ex: Wolves in yellow stone stopped deer from over grazing.
Compare & contrast primary & secondary succession.
Primary: A community gradually forms in a location where there are no remnants of a previous community, and often no trace of life at all.
Volcanic eruptions.
Retreat of glaciers.
Flooding accompanied by severe soil erosion.
Landslides.
Nuclear explosions
What happens during succession?
1. Early-stage organisms modify the environment in ways that favor later organisms.
2. End-stage organisms suppress earlier organisms but tolerate one another, producing a stable community.
3. There is a general trend towards more species and longer-lived
CH 8
Ch. 8
What is a rain shadow?
a local dry area, usually located on the downwind side of a mountain range that blocks the prevailing moisture.
Nutrient
Atoms and molecules that organisms obtain from their environment.
Macronutrient vs. micronutrient
A nutrient required by an organism in large quantities (e.g. water, carbon, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen calcium)
A nutrient required in small quantities (e.g. zinc, iron, selenium, iodine, molybedenum)
Energy
The capacity to do work. Energy flows through 1-way.
Climate
patterns of weather that prevail for long periods of time (years-conturies) in a given region.
Weather
short term fluctuations in temp, humidity, cloud cover, wind, and precipitation a region over periods of hours of days.