5.1 Evidence for Evolution

Question 1

Evolution definition

Answer 1

the process of cumulative change in the heritable characteristics of a population

Question 2

microevolution

Answer 2

small changes that may lead to a new breed or strain

Question 3

macroevolution

Answer 3

large changes that result in new species and even phylum

Question 4

Law of Fossil Succession

Answer 4

fossils occupy different rock layers with the fossils of organisms that were the most recent in the upper layers

Question 5

Transitional fossils

Answer 5

while fossils provide clues for evolutionary relationships, the fossil record is incomplete
Transitional fossils demonstrate the intermediary forms that occurred over the evolutionary pathway taken by a single genus

Question 6

Selective breeding

Answer 6

Selective breeding is a form of artificial selection, whereby man intervenes in the breeding of species to produce desired traits in offspring

Question 7

Adaptive radiation

Answer 7

whereby several new species rapidly diversify from an ancestral source, with each new species adapted to utilise a specific unoccupied niche

Question 8

Homologous stuctures

Answer 8

Anatomical features that are similar in basic structure despite being used in different ways

Question 9

Pentadactyl limb

Answer 9

Mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles all share a similar arrangement of bones in their appendages based on a five-digit limb. Despite possessing similar bone arrangements, animal limbs may be highly dissimilar according to the mode of locomotion

Question 10

Convergent evolution

Answer 10

where different species evolve to resemble each other due to similar selection pressures

Question 11

Analogous structures

Answer 11

structures that have separeate evolutionary origins but are superficially similar because they have both experienced natural selection that shaped them to cary out the same thing

Question 12

Divergent evolution

Answer 12

one (or more) species evolve from a common ancestor

Question 13

Speciation

Answer 13

the process by which new species form whereby the new species is genetically distinct and is unable to reproduce successfully with the ancestral or other species

Question 14

Reproductive isolating mechanisms

Answer 14

factors that prevent populations from reproducing successfully

Question 15

Species Grade

Answer 15

show gradual change in phenotype across a geographic are

Question 16

Cline

Answer 16

continuous gradual change

Question 17

Adaptive radiation

Answer 17

where organisms diverge rapidly from a common ancestor