BIOL 318 EVOLUTION ALL EXAM 1
LECTURE NOTES
(Virginia Commonwealth University)
, Exam 1: Evolution Chapters 1-3 and 6-9 + blackboard
Evolution: any instance of change through time.
• Process of descent with modification, responsible for the origin, maintenance
and diversity of life
Mechanisms of Evolution:
• Natural selection:
o Not the only mechanism of evolution
o Evolutionary process where beneficial alleles increase in frequency
over time in a population, because of increased survival and
reproductive success of individuals.
o Consequence of variation, inheritance and differential survival
Life History Theory:
• Schedule and manner of investment in survivor ship and reproduction over
the lifetime of an individual
Trade offs:
• Need to produce either larger or smaller off spring/less or more offspring.
Micro Evolution:
• Below or at the species level
Macro Evolution:
• Evolution above the species level
Methodological Naturalism:
• Phenomena are result of natural causes
• Anaximander
Aristotle: experimentation/hypothesis testing
Time and change:
• Empedocles: plants preceded animals
• Avicenna: fossils and their formation
Rate of Change:
• Lyell: historical continuity of geological forces
• Playfair: uniformitarianism-same geological processes in operation today
were also those of the past
o Catastrophism:
▪ Geological theory that explains observed modern geology as
result of extreme events
Origins and Maintenance of Life:
• Redi: spontaneous generation
• Lamark: acquired characteristics
Victorian Science:
• Wallace: co founder of evolution
• Mary anning: fossil collector
• Darwin
o Natural selection operates by environment selecting on natural
variation
o Existing forms are sorted through time according to their fitness
LECTURE NOTES
(Virginia Commonwealth University)
, Exam 1: Evolution Chapters 1-3 and 6-9 + blackboard
Evolution: any instance of change through time.
• Process of descent with modification, responsible for the origin, maintenance
and diversity of life
Mechanisms of Evolution:
• Natural selection:
o Not the only mechanism of evolution
o Evolutionary process where beneficial alleles increase in frequency
over time in a population, because of increased survival and
reproductive success of individuals.
o Consequence of variation, inheritance and differential survival
Life History Theory:
• Schedule and manner of investment in survivor ship and reproduction over
the lifetime of an individual
Trade offs:
• Need to produce either larger or smaller off spring/less or more offspring.
Micro Evolution:
• Below or at the species level
Macro Evolution:
• Evolution above the species level
Methodological Naturalism:
• Phenomena are result of natural causes
• Anaximander
Aristotle: experimentation/hypothesis testing
Time and change:
• Empedocles: plants preceded animals
• Avicenna: fossils and their formation
Rate of Change:
• Lyell: historical continuity of geological forces
• Playfair: uniformitarianism-same geological processes in operation today
were also those of the past
o Catastrophism:
▪ Geological theory that explains observed modern geology as
result of extreme events
Origins and Maintenance of Life:
• Redi: spontaneous generation
• Lamark: acquired characteristics
Victorian Science:
• Wallace: co founder of evolution
• Mary anning: fossil collector
• Darwin
o Natural selection operates by environment selecting on natural
variation
o Existing forms are sorted through time according to their fitness
