TB Reading

1 - In Wonderful Life Gould hypothesizes on cultural values, assumptions, and what kind of logic are evident in the original interpretation of the Burgess Shale, and then the change in thinking that led to its recent re-interpretation. What model of biodiversity and evolutionary change does Gould argue resulted in the earlier error in classifying the Burgess Shale animals? What is the original cultural/historical source of that model, or what he calls “iconography”? Gould Hypothesizes that we have been linking the chain in a series of evolutionary improvements. Fossils of the Burgess Shale were arranged to fit into more modern groupings that were inaccurate  The source of "Iconography" comes from “The Great Chain of Being” by A.O. Lovejoy. 2 - Notice that much of Gould’s argument centers on discussing evolutionary tress (phylogenies) of the kind you constructed on a small scale. At the end of the chapter we see he is interested in the overall shapes (“topology”) of the phylogenies. Why? What does he claim that the shape of phylogenies imply about how evolution happens over long stretches of time that had been neglected by biologists? What kinds of causal factors alter the course of evolution, the shape of phylogenies, and the eventual designs of organisms that we see today? A tree has many branches and twigs and so does the evolutionary history of a species. The further down and the more branches in a tree, the longer the species has grown to adapt to habitat or environmental change. Just as trees grow larger as the survive, so do species in their evolutionary traits. What is important to understand is that just because an animal is further down on the trees branches does not make them more complex. A branch ends when a species no longer adapts to survive in the conditions. 2b - Related: What does it mean to “replay the Tape of Life” and why is this an interesting idea to Gould? Relate Gould’s preferred model with the views of early Catastrophists – what would Cuvier (if alive) like and not like about Gould’s interpretation? Gould is questioning that If we were to rewind time, would the results of evolution be the same in different environmental occurrences? Gould argues that there is too much chance to accurately recreate the same exact evolutionary history.Cuvier would probably agree with Gould because the catastrophes may affect different species drastically.  3 - What is “disparity” versus “diversity”? Give an original example (one not given in the reading). Diversity is a large verity in a species (more branches). Disparity is a smalle amount of verity in a species (less branches) An example of a diverse species would be the butterfly or the dog since there are many different types of butterflies and dogs (breeds).... A disparate species could be the hippo. 4 - In the reading Evolution by Walking what is so interesting about how the American Museum of Natural History has changed their mammal display? Why is it significant in how we think about biodiversity in his opinion? The display change because it began looking more accurately at how species have branched off and was exhibited in a way to show this. The human was not the end point of evolution anymore which shows that everything is continuing to evolve. The chronologic display was deserted.