BIO120H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-2: Gradualism, Tiktaalik, Retrodiction
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BIO120H1 Full Course Notes
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William paley: every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature. Also questioned the perfect adaptations of species. Was the first to convince people that evolution was true. Theory of evolution: life on earth evolved gradually beginning with one primitive species (maybe self-replicating molecule) that lived ,more than 3. 5 m years ago. it then branched out into new species. The mechanism for most (not all) evolutionary change is natural selection. Species undergoes genetic change over time and evolves into something different because of changes in dna that originate as mutations. Although all species evolve, they don"t do so at the same rate. E. g humans evolved rapidly, horseshoe crabs and gingko trees haven"t changes in millions of years: gradualism. It takes many generations to produce a significant evolutionary change (e. g birds to reptiles) When natural selection is strong (organism colonizes new environment), change is faster.
