- What is the definition of evolution?
A change in genetic frequencies
- What is the definition of natural selection? (our class definition)
The mechanism of evolution and how it occurs
- Which statement does not describe the natural selection example discussed in class (the one about the black and brown mice)?
Not always genetics, natural selection can happen through predators and “survival of the fittest”.
You will have more black mice because it is harder to see black mice on the landscape rather than the brown mice.
- According to the video Natural Selection, if there are organisms which are considered the same species, which statement describes one of the things they can do?
they can breed with each other and they pass down their DNA to their offspring
- According to the video Natural Selection, what does fitness mean in the biological sense?
how many offspring they have.
- What is artificial selection?
When humans pick the genes they want expressed
- Fossils provide direct evidence of evolution. How does one make a fossil?
First, the organisms has to be buried in sediment
Second, the calcium in the bone or other hard tissues must mineralize
Third, the surrounding sediment will have to eventually harden to form a rock
This usually has to be applied under a great deal of pressure
- What is a difference between relative and absolute dating of fossils?
Relative Dating - looking at rock positions
Absolute Dating - looking at radioactive decay of something over a period of time
(it can be calculated)
- What is the definition of a homologous structure?
Structures with different appearances and functions that all derive from the same body part in a common ancestor
- Anatomical evidence for evolution is extensive and persuasive. How do the presence of homologous structures on certain species support this statement?
We are deuterostomes, an embryonic structure
- What is the definition of a vestigial structure?
A body part or structure that is no longer used by an organism and can be explained as a holdover from the past
- Which statement describes an examples of a vestigial structure?
The pelvic bone of the whales is also present in humans and other mammals. Although this is true, in many mammals such as whales, this bone is not useful, nor used at all.
- According to the video Molecular Evolution: Genes and Proteins, when scientists compare the entire genome of backer’s yeast and a worm, what did they find?
They found that yeast had similar genetic sequence
- According to the video Molecular Evolution: Genes and Proteins, how can the genome of cytochrome C tell us how organisms are related?
The mutations tell the geology of the owners. For example, humans and chimps have exactly the same amino acid sequence through this
- What is a difference between= convergent and divergent evolution?
Convergent Evolution - occurs when species have different ancestral origins but have developed similar features because they’re living in a similar location
Divergent Evolution - occurs when two separate species evolve differently from a common ancestor
- Which statement describes an example of convergent evolution?
Sharks, corpus, tunas, dolphins
- All contain fish
- They are streamlined to move through water
- They are not closely related; they just have similarities
- Which statement describes an example of divergent evolution?
Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos.
Only one finch species came to the Galapagos & overtime by random chance they ended with about 20 different species of finch
- Which statement accurately describes the current theories for where life originated on earth four billion years ago?
- Which theory is regarded as the most viable (currently) for where and how life originated on Earth? Why?
- What is the definition of a mass extinction?
You have an extremely large decline in species
- Which of these is not a mass extinction which occurred in the past?
- Ordovician-silurian Extinction
- Devonian Extinction
- Permian-triassic Extinction
- Triassic-jurassic Extinction
- Cretaceous-tertiary Extinction
- The most severe extinction occurred at the end of the ___________ period approximately 250 million years ago (96-98% of all plant and animals went extinct). Fill in the blank.
Permian
- We are currently in the sixth mass extinction called the ________________. Fill in the blank.
Anthropocene
