0
Evolution
The scientific theory according to which populations change gradually through a process of natural selection.
5,264 Questions
What is the importance of Lucy in human evolution?
Lucy was one of the very first nearly complete fossils to be found of the species Australopithecus afarensis, a morphological intermediate between more basal species of ape and modern humans.
What is the semantic change in the meaning of the word great?
The word "great" has undergone a semantic broadening, expanding from its original meaning of "large" or "big" to encompass qualities like "excellent," "impressive," or "important." This shift in meaning reflects the evolution of language as speakers find new ways to express positive attributes.
What other process of scientific method to answer questions?
The scientific method is used to explain an observation. For example, the sun revolves around the earth. (This has been proven not to be true, but at one time was said to be true).
These are the steps in this method:
1. hypothesis (The sun revolves around the earth)
2. experimentation (Use of the telescope and other instruments to prove that this is true)
3. refine idea (data says this is not true, but that the earth revolves around the Sun)
4. more experimentation (collect more data to double check)
5.final statement (the Sun does NOT revolve around the earth)
What are behavioral and structural adapatations of a human?
structural- skin which is the largest organ in the human body. the skin protects us from germs or bacteria
behavioral - how we hunt in groups so we can get more meat (just using some critical thinking)
How is homologous structures an example of evolution?
Though the forelimb of your cat or dog does not look much like your arms these are homologous structures that are almost identical bone for bone. This shows the common ancestry of all tetrapods and the closer common ancestry of you and your mammal pets.
How do groups support the theory of evolution?
It's not groups that are the key bit of evidence for common descent, but nested hierarchies.
In all lifeforms known to humankind, be it extant or extinct, the totality of similarities and differences forms a pattern of nested hierarchies - sets within sets within sets, each set having all the defining characteristics of the superset in addition to unique defining characteristics for itself and its subsets.
There is only one testable explanation for such a pattern: common descent.
What was the misinterpretation of Darwin's theories?
The one that comes immediately to mind is the misnamed Social Darwinism.
This was a concept put forward by Herbert Spencer that posited the selection of human societies based on their fitness and is just a form of group selection and a bastardization of the theory of evolution by natural selection which tells us the individual is selected based on reproductively beneficial traits. Human societies do not biologically reproduce and have nothing in the way of the hard mechanisms of inheritance individual organisms do so societies do not compete in a Darwinian fashion.
What are four different ways scientists get information about the history of species?
1. Comparative genomics assays.
2. Comparative morphology assays.
3. Combining comparative genomics and morphology assays.
4. ...?
What Charles Darwin theory did Herbet Spencer argue applies to humans too?
The theory of evolution by natural selection, of course. Herbert Spencer was wrong about many things but he was not wrong about this. Humans are the ultimate, though partial product, body and mind, of naturally selective process over many years in many differing environments.
How did Charles Darwin accomplish the evolution theory?
Pancakes taste good because they are fluffy, and the narrator says he likes fluffy things so he must like dogs because they bark. The dog barking makes the pancakes fluffy, which in turn makes the narrator like children because they cry. The child crying makes the dog bark, which in turn makes the narrator like men because they comfort their babies. The man caring for their babies make pancakes because the baby cries then the dog barks then the pancakes fluff. That is the theory of evolution.
How does comparative anatomy not support evolution?
The comparisons between the anatomies of various organisms show common ancestry which supports evolution.
Are humans more closely related to raccoons or roses?
A- Raccoons, because they are mammals and humans are mammals, they reproduce sexually (most flowers reproduce assexually) just like humans, Raccoons have similar body organs as compared to flowers...and we don't need photosynthesis like flowers do. Neither do raccoons.....
B- this is the weirdest question in the entire world.
What kind of classifications suffer from problems of convergent and parallel evolution?
Phenetic classifications
Charles Darwin studied many different species throughout his life. During the 5 year journey on the beagle in 1831, Darwin collected and catologed many different species from the galopogus islands. The most famous species that he collected and lead him to his theory were the finches.
What proof did Charles Darwin have about evolution?
Darwin collected enormous numbers of fossils and specimens of extant species, and made thousands of observations of changes. His observations clearly documented that species undergo change over time.
Since Darwin's time we have gathered much more data about the processes of evolutionary change, such that the theory of evolution is now considered the foundational concept of modern biology.
How do animals living in the Galápagos Islands help support the theory of evolution?
They are a classic example of adaptive radiation. Most of the animals on the Islands are from South America and came to the Islands, diversified into many species which inhabit different Islands in the chain.
The finches and tortoises are the best example of this adaptive radiation; just evolution over time.
How can comparative anatomy provide support for the theory of evolution?
1. The adherence of anatomical traits to the nested hierarchies of biology confirms common ancestry in general.
2. Assays of anatomical traits can be used to formulate new phylogenies or refine/confirm existing phylogenies.
Who was a confidant of Darwin who introduced the concept of evolution into geological theory?
I think you mean the concept of gradualism and the man is Charles Lyell, whose geological concept proceeded Darwin's biological concept and also gave Darwin his ideas on ages of the earth and gradual processes over time.
I can think of not other geologist that was a confidant of Darwin, though Adam Sedgewick, a geologist, was am early teacher of Darwin. He was a catastrophist though.
How comparative anatomy biology contribute to the evidence for evolution?
Compare the bones in your arm to your dog's foreleg. Bone for bone match-up. You and you dog have a common ancestor somewhere in the depths of time.
Why would a " supreme being " use the same bones in both limbs when a better engineering solution could be found? We have the natural explanation, and, god(s) or not, that is the evolutionary explanation.
What does a rhino have now that it didn't have before evolution?
The answer to the question is: everything.
Evolution didn't start with rhino's. Rhino's evolved from prior organisms, which in turn evolved from yet different organisms, all the way back to the origin of life.
For instance, the rhinoceros share an ancestor with modern tapirs. The horn of the rhinoceros evolved as the ancestors of modern tapirs and rhinoceroses diverged. But rhinoceroses and tapirs share a more distant ancestor with horses, and have developed many more unique morphological characteristics since the onset of that divergence.
Is Darwin's theory same as recapitulation theory?
No. Recapitulation theory is the partly discarded notion that the developmental stages of an organism following its conception accurately reflect its evolutionary history.
But while the embryological development of organisms does conform to the nested hierarchies of life and can be used confirm hypotheses about the evolutionary history of life, the statement that it is an exact image of that evolutionary past was discarded some time ago.
Has Lamarck's theory of evolution been proved?
Scientists do not prove things.
Lamarck's theory is long refuted as acquired characteristics and the use and disuse concepts are not explanations for evolution of populations.
