Biology 1201A Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Evolution, Natural Theology, Biogeography
24 May 2016
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Document Summary
History of evolution definitions from the textbook. Biological evolution: gradual change of populations or organisms over time, measuring time in generations rather than years. Not all gradual change is biological evolution. Changes that occur over the lifetime of a single organism are not evolutionary. Gradual change is also a feature of the environment. Natural theology: a belief that knowledge of god may be acquired through the study of natural phenomena. Biogeography: the study of the geographic distributions of plants and animals. Vestigial structures: an anatomical feature of living organisms that no longer retains its function. Catastrophism: the theory that earth has been affected by sudden, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope. Homeobox: a region of a homeotic gene that corresponds to an amino acid section of the homeodomain. Gradualism: the view that earth and its living systems changed slowly over its history.
