Describing and Arranging Organisms Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Describing and Arranging Organisms Deck (50)
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1
Q

Why are common names less useful than scientific names?

A

They are less specific, with multiple species sharing the same name based on appearance despite varied biological qualities.

2
Q

What was the view of species before evolutionary thinking?

A

Essentialism, where each species has a different set of “essential characteristics”.

3
Q

What concept describes the idea of species once evolutionary thinking came about?

A

Population thinking, where species are defined by their common ancestors and their ability to interbreed, rather than simply morphology.

4
Q

What differentiates an artificial grouping from a natural one?

A

Artificial: based on a group-defining attribute without other considerations
Natural: group-defining attributes correlate with other common attributes

5
Q

What is an example of an artificial grouping? What about a natural grouping?

A

Artificial: all organism which are green
Natural: all organisms which have canine characteristics, are descended from a common ancestor, and are able to interbreed

6
Q

Why were botanists and zoologists forced to take their scientific inquiry beyond what they read in ancient literature?

A

Ancient literature knew nothing of Northern European species or species from the Americas.

7
Q

With regards to plant systematics, what were zoologists primarily concerned with?

A

Function and adaptation.

8
Q

With regards to plant systematics, what were botanists primarily concerned with?

A

Identification and classification.

9
Q

Who were Theophrastus and Diascorides?

A

The most famous ancient botanists, both were pupils of Aristotle. Each was responsible for discovering 500-600 plants.

10
Q

What is John Gerard known for? What controversy surrounds this?

A

Publishing “The Herball”, a compendium of many plant species. He didn’t write it though he stole it from Rembert Dodoens.

11
Q

How many plants did the botanists of the 16th century describe which had been unknown to the Greeks?

A

~500, of both medicinal and non-medicinal use.

12
Q

What is a herbarium? Who invented this?

A

Invented by Luca Ghini, an Italian. Basically a library of dried and pressed plants.

13
Q

Why was information-management an issue for 17th century botanists? How many species were known at the time?

A

~18,000 plants had been described but there was no way of organizing this information or easily accessing it when needed.

14
Q

What famous writing is Buffon known for authoring?

A

A 36 volume work titled “Natural History” (8 more volumes were added after his death).

15
Q

What organization was Buffon at the head of?

A

He was the director of the Royal Botanical Garden, which he turned into the greatest natural history museum in the world.

16
Q

What are the 4 basic types of beliefs with respect to religion?

A
  1. Theism
  2. Deism
  3. Pantheism
  4. Atheism
17
Q

What were Buffon’s religious views? How did they change throughout his life?

A

It’s thought that he was an atheist in his youth, but believed in deism in his later years.

18
Q

Describe theism.

A

One or more gods with ongoing involvement in the world/humanity as well as morality.

19
Q

Describe deism.

A

A divine creator who is no longer involved in the world. “First Cause” of creation, but then they peaced out.

20
Q

Describe pantheism.

A

No gods or supernatural realm, but the natural order of the world is divine in and of itself.

21
Q

Describe atheism.

A

Non-belief/disinterest in a “higher power”.

22
Q

What were some of the topics covered in Buffon’s “Natural History”?

A

Any of:
geology, minerals, origin of life, embryology, physiology, biogeography, functional anatomy, systematics, mammals, birds, anthropology, sociology, cultural history, etc…. (holy crap it’s so much).

23
Q

Why did Buffon get into trouble with religious organizations?

A

For his religious skepticism and writings which did not include commonly held religious beliefs.

24
Q

What did Buffon believe regarding higher classifications for organisms above the species level?

A

They had no basis in biological reality and were artificial methods of categorization.

25
Q

How did Buffon suggest that species were organized?

A

Developed the biological species concept, but this did not become commonly accepted until the 20th century.

26
Q

What scientific field is Buffon often credited with inventing? Briefly describe this.

A

Biogeography, which studies not just the distribution of species but also the history of their distribution.

27
Q

Before spontaneous generation or evolution, what was the prevailing theory which described the distribution of organisms?

A

Species radiated out from Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat after the “great flood”

28
Q

What was Buffon’s belief regarding the origin of life and the distribution of species?

A

Believed in separate genesis (spontaneous generation) for different geographical areas.

29
Q

What is meant by the “interior mould” which Buffon proposed?

A

A single unchangeable body plan (reminiscent of Plato’s ideal forms). However, outer parts can undergo limited adaptation.

30
Q

What does Buffon’s Law stipulate?

A

Different regions that have similar environments will have different plants and animals.

31
Q

Buffon considered descent from common ancestors but ultimately rejected it, why?

A

On the scientific grounds that if this were the case the intermediate forms would still be present. Also, no new species had arisen since human history began.

32
Q

What is central to Buffon’s idea of an “Arrow of Time”?

A

That there is a single process driving all change that progresses in a linear fashion over time. Used this idea to propose the gradual but constant cooling of the Earth.

33
Q

What were the 7 periods in the history of life according to Buffon’s “The Epochs of Nature”?

A
  1. Comet hits the sun, ejecting debris
  2. Debris cools to form planets (including Earth)
  3. Oceans form, marine life spontaneously generated
  4. Oceans retreat and continents form
  5. Animal life generated on land
  6. Continents fragmented
  7. Humans appear and take over
34
Q

What experiments did Buffon undertake to try to prove the age of the Earth? What theory was this based on?

A

Heated metal balls and observed their rate of cooling in an effort to model the cooling of the Earth according to his idea of an overarching “Arrow of Time”.

35
Q

What did Buffon conclude about the age of the Earth from his cooling experiments?

A

That the Earth was far older than religion suggested (but not nearly as old as it ACTUALLY is).

36
Q

What were some of Buffon’s important contributions to later evolutionary thought? (5 examples given)

A

Introduced:

  • Common descent (didn’t really believe this though)
  • limited adaptation in response to environment
  • Long history of the Earth
  • Biological species concept
  • Biogeography
37
Q

How did Carl Linnaeus and Buffon disagree?

A

Basically opponents in regard to the ability to classify organisms in natural groups.

38
Q

What 2 main roles describe Carl Linnaeus?

A
  1. Compiler of botanical information

2. Student of biological relationships

39
Q

How did Carl Linnaeus influence modern scientific naming?

A

He was the first to use binomial nomenclature consistently. This set it as the standard for the naming convention we still use today.

40
Q

What differentiated scientific names from before Linnaeus and those which he had a hand in naming?

A

Before: compound descriptive names
ex - Canna Foliis Untrinque Accuminatus Nervosis (reed leafy bag sharp sinewy)
After: Unique non-descriptive binomial name
ex- Canna Indica

41
Q

Why do many scientific species have a letter in brackets following their binomial names?

A

This was an initial and indicated the individual who had named the species.

42
Q

How did Linnaeus’ classification system differ from Aristotle’s?

A

Linnaeus’ was a nested, hierarchal system while Aristotle’s was linear and reflected form dominance.

43
Q

While the modern taxonomic classification system contains Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species, Linnaeus didn’t have all these categories. What did he have?

A

Just Class, Order, Genus, and Species.

44
Q

How did Linnaeus group organisms (plants) into Class and Order? Why did his taxonomy not contain solely natural groups?

A

Class: organized by number of stamens (artificial grouping)
Order: organized by number of pistils (artificial grouping)
Included artificial groups because he didn’t think he knew enough about plants to form strictly natural ones.

45
Q

While Linnaeus didn’t travel much, he did inspire others to travel and catalogue biodiversity. What were these people called? What classic image did they inspire?

A

“Linnaeus’ Apostles”, established the idea of the scientific explorer (ex: Darwin, von Humboldt, Douglas).

46
Q

What implications did Linnaeus’ classification system have for evolutionary thought?

A

Implied that species boundaries were unbridgeable, with no continuum or intermediates. Also gave rise to the idea that certain organisms are more closely related.

47
Q

How did Darwin explain away the need to present evidence of species intermediates in order for his theories to work?

A

Didn’t need to provide evidence for intermediate species because they all died (golly that’s convenient!).

48
Q

Who invented the idea of the biological key which is still in use today?

A

Lamarck.

49
Q

What is the purpose of a biological/dichotomous key? How are they used?

A

To identify a specimen of a known species quickly and efficiently by answering a series of twofold questions.

50
Q

Place these important figures from the history of biological classification in order from oldest to most recent: Lamarck, Theophrastus/ Diascorides, Luca Ghini, Carl Linnaeus, George-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon

A
  1. Theophrastus/Diascorides
  2. Luca Ghini
  3. George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
  4. Carl Linnaeus
  5. Lamarck