Evolution Fathers
Naturalist aboard the HMS beagle
Who is Charles Darwin
This rule states that organisms produce more offspring than can survive, leading to competition.
What is overproduction?
This form of evidence examines early developmental stages; similarities among embryos indicate a shared ancestry.
What is embryology?
This evolutionary mechanism involves the movement of genes between populations through migration.
What is gene flow?
This occurs when a species completely disappears from Earth and no individuals remain alive.
What is extinction?
This naturalist believed a giraffe could stretching its neck & pass on this trait to it's offspring.
Who is Lamarck?
This rule describes how organisms compete for resources like food, space, and mates because not all offspring can survive.
What is the struggle for survival?
This type of indirect evidence compares DNA or protein sequences to show how closely related species are.
What is biochemical evidence?
This term refers to the total collection of all the alleles in a population.
What is the gene pool?
This type of evolution happens when related species accumulate differences and become more distinct over time.
What is divergent evolution?
This scientist believed organisms change because they want or need to adapt to their environment
Who is Lamarck
This principle explains why individuals best adapted to their environment leave more offspring than others.
What is survival of the fittest?
These structures have similar origins but different functions, providing evidence of divergent evolution from a common ancestor.
What are homologous structures?
This genetic drift event happens when a small group breaks off from a larger population, creating a new population with reduced genetic variation.
What is the founder effect?
This process occurs when two species influence each other’s evolution, often seen in predator-prey or pollinator-plant relationships.
What is coevolution?
This theory states that evolution happens when individuals with advantageous traits survive and reproduce.
What is Darwin’s theory of natural selection?
According to this rule, accumulated differences over long periods can cause one population to evolve into an entirely new kind of organism.
What is the origin of new species?
These structures have similar functions but different evolutionary origins, showing convergent evolution in organisms facing similar environments.
What are analogous structures?
This type of non-random mating occurs when individuals choose mates with traits similar to themselves.
What is assortative mating?
This form of speciation occurs when a population is geographically separated, leading to the formation of new species.
What is allopatric speciation
According to this theory, traits acquired during an organism’s lifetime
What is Lamarck’s theory of acquired characteristics?
This rule explains why only genetic traits—not acquired ones—can be passed on to the next generation.
What is inheritable variation?
These structures no longer serve their original function—like the human appendix—and show remnants of evolutionary history.
What are vestigial structures?
This type of natural selection favors individuals at both extremes of a trait, potentially leading to two distinct phenotypes.
What is diversifying selection?
This form of speciation happens without physical separation, often through behavioral or ecological differences within the same area.
What is sympatric speciation?