1.1: Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection

Question 1

Which biological fields does the theory of evolution through natural selection unify?

Answer 1

Human behavioural ecology
Primatology
Palaeoanthropology
Genetics
Evolutionary Psychology

Question 2

Essentialism

Answer 2

God created all living things on the 13rd October 4004BC (Bishop Ussher -1668)

All species are unchanged and immutable

Question 3

Transmutation

Answer 3

Species change through time

Question 4

When were apes first discovered and fossils of the first human ancestors found?

Answer 4

17th Century

1800s

Question 5

Evolution

Answer 5

Descent with modification

Question 6

What did Count de Buffon propose in 1776 ?

Answer 6

Species originated form common ancestors
Evolution is positive and constant changes
Scriptures are unreliable

Question 7

How do things evolve according to Lamarkism?

Answer 7

Inheritance of acquired characteristics

Question 8

How do things evolve according to Darwin and Russel Wallace?

Answer 8

Individuals compete for survival
Resources are limited
Natural selection
Variation created

Question 9

Conditions necessary for natural selection to occur (3)

Answer 9

Variation
Competition
Heredity

Question 10

Two factors by which fitness is determined

Answer 10

Survival

Reproductive success

Question 11

Define natural selection

Answer 11

The fittest individuals with the ‘fittest traits’ (variation) who out-compete others (competition) will survive and reproduce and pass their traits onto the net generation (heredity), leading to adaptations

Question 12

Examples of adaptations (2)

Answer 12

Camouflage

Mimicry

Question 13

Is natural selection about individual or group fitness?

Answer 13

Natural selection is about individual fitness, not the group, but evolution is revealed in the population

Question 14

4 common misconceptions about evolution by natural selection. Give examples that prove they are misconceptions.

Answer 14

Natural selection produces perfect adaptations (babies heads vs. mother’s vagina)

Evolution means greater complexity (lizards lost legs to become snakes)

Some species are more evolved than others (all species are equally evolved to their environment)

Evolution means ‘progress’ (evolution is about diversifying, progress is circumstantial, you could be more evolved to one environment than another)

Question 15

Which two mechanisms are debated to be most important for evolution?

Answer 15

Natural selection: plays a small roll in shaping diversity

Chance: plays a larger role in shaping diversity

Question 16

Phylogeny

Answer 16

The tree of life that maps all existent and extinct organisms as genetically related through evolutionary history and speciation

Question 17

Speciation

Answer 17

Different species arise from previous forms (ancestral species) via descent

Question 18

What are evolutionary constraints

Answer 18

Evolution doesn’t have infinite possibilities; there are limits to design

Question 19

Give an example of an evolutionary constraint

Answer 19

Phylogenetic constraint: phylogenetic history of a lineage may prevent an anticipated course of evolution in that lineage

Question 20

What is contingency in evolution

Answer 20

Existence of each species is entirely dependent on the existence of our evolutionary ancestors, therefore entirely dependent on the CHANCE that that ancestor existed

Question 21

Example of contingency in evolution

Answer 21

If Pikaia (a chordate ancestor) had not survived, minearalised skeletons, muscularised appendages, image-forming eyes, teeth, bipedalism, endothermy, placenta, social behaviours, etc. would not exist

Question 22

Convergent evolution (Simon Conway Morris)

Answer 22

Different species evolve independently through natural selection to adopt the same anatomy/behaviour/physiology

Similar solutions to similar problems – it is not random, it maximises fitness

Question 23

Example of convergent evolution

Answer 23

Jellyfish, octopus and mammal eyes evolved through natural selection independently across species

Question 24

How common is convergent evolution?

Answer 24

Out of 78 traits, 70% evolved more than once through convergent evolution (Vermeji, 2006)

Question 25

Four examples of complex human phenotypes

Answer 25

Bipedalism
Large brain
Sociality
Language

Question 26

Did Wallace agree that humans’ complex phenotypes evolved through natural selection?

Answer 26

No, he argued that humans have unique organs of speech, calculation of numbers, ideas of symmetry and justice

Question 27

Did Darwin agree that humans’ complex phenotypes evolved through natural selection?

Answer 27

Yes, he argued that humans are not unique

Question 28

Three examples of how human phenotypes are not unique

Answer 28

Killer whales have specific calls for each individual (language and names)

Symmetry in humans is an indication of good genes and health for survival, it is found attractive in different cultures

Monkeys show sense of fairness