GENERAL BIOLOGY 2 REVIEWER FOR
evidence found on rocks.
FINALS EXAMINATION. GOODLUCK!
Module 6: History of Life on Earth
Alexander Ivanovich Oparin – The Russian Chemist who
was first accepted with the Idea of how earth on life
was formed.
Primoridal Soup – Earliest forms of life arose through a
series of reactions that made simple compounds to be
complex.
Spark Discharge – is an experiment which conducted by
Miller And Urey and hypothesized by Oparin and
Haldane.
Proteinoid Mirospheres – Cell-like structures and were
actually large organic molecules. They had a selectively
permeable membrane that allowed certain molecules
to pass through them.
Endosymbiosis – a type of relationship wherein
anorganism lives inside its partner
Endosymbiotic Theory – eukaryotic cells created a
symbiotic relationship with prokaryotic organism – one
group can produce ATP, and the other group can do
photosynthesis.
DNA – Stores genetic information
RNA – Said to have evolved before DNA
SEXUAL REPRODUCTION – Most advanced type of
reproduction
Chloroplast – Evolved from photosynthetic bacteria
Mictochondrion – Evolved from aerobic bacteria
Asexual Reproduction – Type of reproduction mostly
used by prokaryotes.
Paleontology – is the scientific study of the existence of
life, including the origin and eventual destruction or
extinction of different groups of organisms.
Paleontologists – specialized in studying the ecologies
of the past and the evolution of organisms that thrived
in these ecologies through careful observation and
documentation of fossils.
Archaeopteryx – said to have many features of
dinosaurs, which provide a strong evidence of dinosaur
ancestry of birds.
Geology – is the study of life on earth based on
Geologists – are scientists who carefully study the
different materials that make up Earth.
Geologic Timescale – is used to represent evolutionary
time.
Paleozoic Era – began about 540 million years ago, and
lasted for about 300 M years. This is when fossil records
became rich with evidence of many marine organisms.
Mesozoic Era – began about 200 million years ago and
lasted about 180 million years. This era is also called the
Age of Dinosaurs and sometimes, the age of reptiles
because this is when many kinds of dinosaurs existed.
Cenozoic Era- The latest era in geologic timeline which
began from 65 million years ago up to the present. It is
composed of the Quaternary and Tertiary periods,
which are characterized by the presence of primitive
mammals and modern human civilization.
Periods – are further subdivision of eras.
Protozoic Eon – composed of the Vendian/Ediacaran
period. Prokaryotic organism began to appear during
this period. However, life in this period only thrived
underwater, and only a few fossils existed because the
animals were all soft-bodied.
Paleozoic Era – is divided into the Cambrian,
Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and
Premian periods.
Cambrian Period – Hard body parts such as shells and
outer skeletons. The first known representative of most
animal is phyla evolved during this period.
Trilobites – hard-shelled, segmented creatures and the
most dominant macroscopic life-forms in Cambrian
period.
Ordovician and Siluran period – early forms of
cephalopods (which include octopi and squids)
appeared. The first vertebrates, animals with backbones
to appear in this period were jawless fishes which had
suckerlike mouths.
Devonian Period – age of fishes.
Carboniferous and Premian period- Reptiles (animals
with scaly skins that lay eggs with tough leathery shells
evolved from amphibians.)
Triassic Period – Survived the mass extinction during
the Permian period.
Jurassic Period – dinosaurs became the dominant
animals of land 150 million years ago.
Dicraeosaurus – was one of the largest dinosaurs during
this period.
Archaeopteryx – one of the earliest known birds, also
appeared in this period.
Cretaceous period – the time when reptiles are
dominant vertebrates on earth.
CENOZOIC ERA IS DIVIDED INTO TERTIARY AND
QUATERNARY PERIODS.
Tertiary period – The period started with the
emergence of primitive mammals.
Quaternary Period – coined as the “age of man.”
Epochs – are finer subdivisions shown in the Cenozoic
era and parts of the Mesozoic era. They are only done
for the most recent portion of geologic timescale
because old rocks in the late portions of the timescale
have been buried deeply, causing them to intensely
deformed and severely modified by long-term Earth
processes.
Module 7: Mechanisms of Evolutionary Change
Biological Diversity – the number and kinds of
organisms living on earth at a particular time.
Evolutionary Theory – is the scientific explanation of
the diversity of life.
Evolution – or change over time, is the process of how
present-day organisms have descended from ancient
ones.
Theory – well-supported, testable explanation of
natural phenomenon.
Natural Selection – a key factor for an organism to
thrive and reproduce depends on how well suited the
organism is to the environment.
Fitness – the ability of an individual to survive and
reproduce in a specific environment.
Descent with modification – wherein species descend
through generations with several changes over time.
Common descent – which means that all organisms
share common ancestry.
Directional Selection – when a change in the
environment causes a change in the observable
spectrum of phenotypes.
Stabilizing Selection – when intermediate phenotypes
are more likely to survive the environment.
Disruptive or Diversifying selection – occurs when
extreme phenotypes are more likely to adapt the
environment.
Artificial Selection – nature provides the variation
among different organisms so that humans can select
the variation that are useful to them.
Nonrandom Mating – this is described as the selected
probability of mating with another individual in the
population.
Inbreeding – is when individuals are more likely to mate
with their close relatives.
Outbreeding – happens when individuals select distant
relatives than close relatives.
Genetic Drift – is caused by unpredictable changes in
allele frequencies due to small population sizes.
Population Bottleneck – occurs when a sharp decline in
the population (usually from natural disasters such as
volcanic activities and strong weather disturbances)
results in a drastic reduction of the total genetic
diversity of the original population.
Founder effect – happens when there is a loss of
genetic variation because of the migration of a small
subgroup in a population.
Mutation – is the change in the structure of a gene
caused by alterations in the DNA.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUTATION
Substitution – which occurs when the genetic codon
has one altered nitrogenous.
Insertion – which is characterized by the addition of an
extra set of base pairs to the genetic material.
Deletion – occurs when a set of base pairs in the
genetic material is omitted.
Neutral Mutation – affects the organism’s phenotype
but has no impact on its survival or reproduction.
Beneficial Mutation – affects the phenotype of
organisms, resulting an increase in their chances of
survival or reproduction.
Recombination – is simply a rearrangement of genes.
Gene Flow- is also known as migration.
Emigration – happens when organisms leave their
habitat.
Immigration – happens when organisms enter another
habitat and live in it.
MODULE 8: THE THEORIES OF
EVOLUTION AND THE EVIDENCE
SUPPORTING THEM
John Ray (1621-1705) – established the modern
concept of a species, noting that members of one
species do not interbreed with members of another
species. He first used the term species as the basic unit
of taxonomy. He also studied fossils and recognized
them as remnants of organisms that were once alive.
Carl Linnaeus, also called Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1798)
– He developed the modern taxonomic system that is
still used today.
Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) –
He wrote a 36-volume Histoire Naturelle (Natural
History) series. He contributed to the debate on the age
of Earth, suggesting that our planet had initially formed
in molten state and that is gradual cooling must have
taken far longer than 70 000 years. He also considered
the role of vestigial organs, creating a possibility of
species descending from earlier organisms.
Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) – He was Charles Darwin’s
grandfather. He was aware that the modern organisms
are different from fossils scientists have collected. He
believed that the offspring inherited features from their
parents, and the organisms today descended from a
common ancestor.
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) – He studied and wrote
books on comparative anatomy, which were extremely
useful in interpreting the remains of fossils. He classified
animals based on their body plans. His classification
eventually became important in analyzing relationships
among organisms. His studies about fossils contributed
and gave rise to the science of paleontology. Finally, he
recognized that particular groups of fossil organisms
were associated with certain rock strata.
Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) – He proposed that
individuals were able to pass on their traits to their
offspring.
James Hutton (1726-1797) – He made a significant
contribution regarding the understanding of the
geological processes that shaped Earth. He recognized
that Earth is extremely old (more than million years),
and that there was no need for global catastrophes to
shape the surface of the Earth. He was the proponent of
uniformitarianism, which states that the present
geological features of Earth are the results of gradual
processes such as erosion and sedimentation. It was
through Hutton that Charles Darwin was able to adapt
the principles of gradual change to his model of how
species evolved.
Charles Lyell (1797-1875) – He considered the shaping
of Earth’s surface as a result of gradual long-term
natural changes. He also collected many pieces of
evidence to support the principal of uniformitarianism
and wrote about them in his book Principles of Geology,
which was also influential to the creation of Charles
Darwin’s theory.
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) – He came up with
the idea that the best-adapted organisms are those that
can survive to breed and pass on their traits to their
offspring. One of his highlighted contributions was the
development of his theory of evolution by natural
selection as a coherent explanation for the form and
distribution of species in different locations.
Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913) – Although he made
an independent study on the origin of organisms,
Wallace arrived at the same conclusion as Darwin’s:
that organisms with favorable traits are those that carry
on to the next generation. Thus, Wallace had
contributed to some of the postulates of Darwin’s
theory of evolution
Charles Darwin – contributed significant ideas on our
current understanding of evolution.

Galapagos Islands – composed of many small islands

located 1000 km west of South America. He islands
have differing climates despite the proximity of the
islands with one another.

On the Origin of Species - Darwin wrote and published

this book in which he proposed the now famous theory
of evolution by natural selection.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and His Theory of Evolution.

- Jean-Baptiste Lamarck is a French naturalist, was one
of the first scientists to recognize that living things have
changed over time. He proposed that all species
descended from other species.

Theory of Use and Disuse – organisms could alter the

size, shape or structure of particular body parts or
organs by continuously using them in new ways.

Theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics –

states that organisms inherited their traits from their
parents and they may also pass them on the next
generation of offspring.

Biogeography – is the study of the distribution of plants

and animals on Earth. The distribution of organisms is
an environment can be used as an important tool for
explaining evolution.

Fossil Record – Contains preserved remains or evidence

of ancient organisms.

Homology - Study and comparing certain body parts of

different animals.

Embryology – involves similarities in the early

development of various organisms.

DNA/Protein Sequences – Is important for identifying

the evolution of organisms on Earth. In fact, DNA
sequencing is the most advanced tool or evidence for
evolution.