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Evolution Study Guide

  1. Name three men whose ideas contributed to Darwin’s theory (other than Darwin), and tell what they had to say.

Lamarck- species change over time

Malthus- the number of people in the human population increases faster than the food supply

Wallace – proposed a theory a lot like Darwin’s theory of natural selection

  1. What specifically, did Darwin observe on the Galapagos islands that led him to develop the theory of natural selection?

Different species of birds were very similar to each other and to mainland birds, but they were each adapted to use a different food source and live in differing environmental conditions

  1. State the four points of Darwin’s Theory.

a. Variations exist in a population

b. The best adapted to an environment survive.

c. They reproduce and pass on their genes

d. The fossil record supports this idea.

  1. Define:

a. natural selection- the environment “decides” which individuals in a population are best adapted to it because they will survival & successfully reproduce

b. adaptation- any change in physical appearance or behavior that helps the members of a population to survive

c. speciation- formation of a new species from an existing one

d. reproductive isolation- when members of two different species cannot or will not breed together.

e. paleontologist- one who studies fossils

  1. Contrast gradualism with punctuated equilibrium.

Gradualism- a slow change in a population over time

Punctuated equilibrium- a long period of no changes in a population followed by a period of rapid change, producing new species (usually due to a severe change in the environment)

6.  In what way did Darwin’s finches vary from each other? What did Darwin think was the cause of the variations? The birds vary in color and patterns in their feathers and in the type and size of their beaks. Darwin thought this was due to where they lived, but especially to what they ate.

  1. What are two main focuses of natural selection? Survival & reroduction

8.  drop

9.  What is a nonrandom mating type selection? When mates are chosen due to location or some desirable characteristic in the possible mate instead of randomly.

  1. drop
  2. Define:

a. Species- (Look it up!!!)

b. Gene pool- all the genes of all the members of a population

c. Speciation- (Look it up!!!)

  1. Differentiate between allopatric and sympatric speciation.
  1. Drop
  2. Why is sexual reproduction needed for most forms of evolution?

Because it provides a lot of genetic variation & new combinations of genes

  1. Drop
  2. How can we use similarities in DNA to study relatedness between organisms?

The more similarities there are in the DNA and protein sequences, the more closely related two species are and the more recently they shared a common ancestor.

  1. What does the theory of natural selection say?

The best adapted to an environment will survive and reproduce

18.  What is the idea behind cumulative natural selection? Is this a rapid or slow change?

The changes in a species add up over time and will change a population enough to make a new species. This is a slow process.

  1. What do neutral mutations do? What is a “by product”?
  2. What do you think the next major evolutionary development in a life form might be?
  3. Put protein, RNA, and DNA in a list from first formed to last formed.
  4. The development of what molecules made it possible to pass on genetic traits?
  1. What are fossils? What do they show? Preserved remain of organisms that lived long ago.
  2. Name at least two ways in which fossils form.

Mineralization, preservation, cast & mold

  1. Define:

a. extinction- all members of a species die

b. mass extinction- all members of several different species die

  1. Place in the order in which they occurred the following organisms and give the approximate date at which they appeared in the fossil record:
  2. Arthropods, flowering plants jawless fish, fish with jaws, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
  3. To support evolution and to understand the relatedness of species, comparisons are made between two types of chemicals. Which two chemicals are these?

DNA & protein.

  1. What is a vestigial structure? A structure that was larger because it was used more in an ancestor
  1. Compare a homologous structure with an analogous structure.

Homologous structures have a similar organization because the species in which they are found have common ancestors.

Analogous structures have the same function and possibly a similar structuree, but that is because there is a common need To fly, for example)

  1. What are the four factors that are necessary for natural selection to occur?

a. small population

b. gene flow

c. non-random mating

d. selection- artificial or natural

e. mutations

32. Define:

a. convergence

b. divergence

c. sympatric speciation- a new species arises with in an existing population ex- they start eating different food.

d. allopatric speciation- a new species areises because a small population gets separated from the main group and genetic drift, mutation and adaptations eventually change it into a new species

e. adaptive radiation- one species gives rise to several others as some members of the species adapt to different niches- things to eat, places to live, etc

f. stabilizing evolution- natural selection favors the “average members “ of a population; there is little change in the members of that population

g. disruptive evolution- Natural selection favors the more “extreme” phenotypes in a population. Te average types die out, & the species changes into two new species.

h. directional evolution- Natural selection favors only one of the “extreme forms of an individual or extreme forms adapted to a specific environment

33. How do bugs become resistant to pesticides? What is another example of this?

The bugs resistant to a pesticide survive and reproduce. Their offspring are even more resistant.

Antibiotic resistance in germs and bacteria.

34. Darwin thought that there were three things that made farm animals change. He thought they could also be at work in nature to change species. What were they?

Variation

Selection (in farm animals it was artificial selection)

35. What are camouflage and mimicry?

Camouflage- when an organism looks like its surroundings

Mimicry- when an organism looks like a dangerous or undesirable animal to fool predators

36. What are genotype and phenotype? Look it up!!

37. Define:

a)  Allelic frequency- how frequently an allele of a gene ( a particular form of a gene) occurs in the gene pool of a population

b)  Genetic drift- A change it the frequency of a gene or genes

c)  Polyploidy- when organisms have more than 2 sets of chromosomes

d)  Gene pool- all the genes of all the members of a population

e)  Selection- when having a particular trait or set of traits makes an individual more (or less) capable of surviving in its environment