Shared by AP Bio teacher extraordinaire, David Knuffke, with slight modifications
1. Introduction to Evolution
Questions to ponder:
1. Explain how the work of the following folks contributed to the development of the Theory of Natural Selection:
a. Thomas Malthus
b. Georges Cuvier
c. Charles Lyell
2. Explain how evolution as it was conceived of by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck differs from natural selection.
Draw a diagram illustrating the process of natural selection. Make sure your diagram includes all of the following features:
a. overproduction of offspring
b. variation among individuals
c. limited resources
d. competition
e. differential reproductive success (“fitness”)
f. adaptation
3. Explain how each of the following demonstrate Darwinian selection. For each, indicate the source of selection, the criteria that determine fitness in the environment, and the end result of the selective process:
a. Artificial selection
b. Galapagos finches
c. The evolution of resistance in a population of insects or bacteria (you pick).
4. How has modern science refined our understanding of evolution since Darwin/Wallace’s publication?
Things you should make sure you understand:
· How the work of Charles Darwin was shaped by the contributions of other scientists from a variety of disciplines, and the events of his life.
· How evolution suggests an ancient Earth, and common ancestry of all living things, and how these two thoughts are, in turn, supported by a wide variety of evidence.
· Why evolution is still so controversial in certain parts of American society.
2. Evolutionary forces
Questions to ponder:
1. Explain what the “modern synthesis” is. How is it different from Darwin’s original theory of evolution?
2. Why does evolution have to involve the change of the genetic makeup of a population over time?
3. Explain each of the following modes of evolution in a population. For each one, describe the cause of change in the genetic makeup of a population and how the population evolves as a result of that change, and provide one “real world” examples of the process in action:
a. natural selection
b. genetic drift
c. gene flow
d. sexual selection
4. Why is evolution an emergent property of populations of organisms? Why are individuals unable to evolve?
5. Compare the effects of disruptive, directional and stabilizing selection on the genetic makeup of a population.
Why do traits have to be heritable for evolution to affect them?
Things you should make sure you understand:
· How to identify a particular mode of evolution in a population if given details of how the environment and genetic makeup of the population are changing over time.
· How the different modes of evolution affect a population of organisms in similar, and different ways.
3. Evidence of evolution
Questions to ponder:
1. Explain how each of the following specifically support some aspect of evolutionary theory:
a. The fossil record (generally)
b. Transition fossils (specifically)
c. Homologous anatomical structures
d. Analogous anatomical structures
e. Vestigial anatomical structures
f. Comparative embryology
g. Molecular Homology (DNA and proteins)
h. Artificial Selection
i. Biogeography
j. Observed Evolution (pick one)
Things you should make sure you understand:
· How the major aspects of evolutionary theory are similar to all other scientific thoughts in terms of how they have developed, and how they depend upon evidence.
· How alternate ideas related to the origin of life on Earth are not supported by science.
4. Measuring evolution
Questions to answer:
1. How is variation generated in a population? How is it maintained?
2. How is it possible that individuals with two different genotypes can have the same phenotype?
3. Explain how each of the following features of a (hypothetical) population in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium leads to that population not evolving over time:
a. large population size
b. random mating
c. no immigration/emigration
d. no net mutation rate
e. a constant environment
4. If no real population of organisms is in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, why is it a useful tool to study the effects of evolution?
Things you should make sure you understand:
(feel free to ask questions about them in class)
1. The meanings and relationships of all of the following terms:
a. alleles
b. genes
c. gene pool
d. genotype
e. phenotype
f. homozygous
g. heterozygous
2. How violation of any of the conditions of HW equilibrium would affect the evolution of a population.
5. Speciation
Questions to answer:
1. Explain what the “biological species” definition is. Describe its strengths and weaknesses.
2. Why does a biological species have to be reproductively isolated from other organisms?
3. Compare allopatric and sympatric speciation.
4. Briefly explain the following species barriers
a. habitat isolation
b. temporal isolation
c. behavioral isolation
d. mechanic isolation
e. gametic isolation
f. reduced hybrid viability
g. reduced hybrid fertility
h. hybrid breakdown
5. Compare the concepts of gradualism and punctuated equilibrium.
Things you should make sure you understand:
· Alternate definitions of “species”, and why they are necessary.
· The evidence that supports that speciation is an ongoing process.
6. Brief history of life
Questions to answer:
1. With a ruler, draw a line 20 cm long. Divide the line into five, 4-cm segments. On a scale of each segment representing one billion years, label the following events in the history of earth:
a. formation of the earth
b. origin of life
c. evolution of photosynthesis
d. evolution of eukaryotes
e. evolution of multi-cellular life
f. the Cambrian explosion
g. first vertebrate land animals
h. evolution of dinosaurs
i. evolution of human beings
2. Explain the hypothesis, procedure and results of the Miller-Urey experiment.
3. Why is it hypothesized that the evolution of RNA preceded the evolution of DNA?
4. Explain the concept of “adaptive radiation”. Why have adaptive radiations proceeded mass extinction events?
5. What do homeobox genes do in animals?
Things you should make sure you understand:
· How science can be used to investigate events that no one was around to witness.
· Why some folks feel we are currently living through the sixth “Great Extinction”, and the cause of this extinction event.
· How relatively minor changes in an organism’s genome can lead to major changes in that organism’s development.