BIOL 1107 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Flattening, Smooth Muscle Tissue, Homeostasis
Document Summary
Anatomy is the study of an organism"s physical structure. Physiology is the study of how the physical structures in an organism function. Adaptations are heritable traits that allow individuals to survive and reproduce in a certain environment better than individuals that lack those traits. Adaptation results from evolution by natural selection. Charles darwins hypothesis: organisms have descended, with modification, from common ancestors. Based on evidence from paleontology, geographic species distributions, comparative anatomy, embryology, genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology: the chief cause of modification is natural selection acting on heritable variation. Laws of physics (e. g. drag or locomotion) make some adaptive solutions more likely than others, many times leading to convergent evolution (similar adaptations in distantly related organisms, or analogous structures). Complex: animals with complex internal organization have evolutionary adaptations that enable all cells to be bathed in fluid and have access to oxygen, nutrients, and other resources. A tissue is a group of similar cells that function as a unit.
