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Biology 1114 > Adaptations > Flashcards

Adaptations Flashcards

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1
Q

What is an example of an evolutionary anachronism?

A

Many neotropical plants with large, tough seeds are not adapted for seed dispersal now because they relied on large herbivore dispersers that are now extinct

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2
Q

How can adaptation be a part of sexual selection?

A

Mate attraction or competition. Adaptations to draw in a mate or to fight to get access to mates

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3
Q

What data supports the human eye being a complex adaptation?

A

Computer simulation showed it took 400,000 generations for an eye to evolve to a complex vertebrate eye

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4
Q

Linkage among traits

A

Pleiotropy

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5
Q

What is poor design evidence of?

A

Natural selection

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6
Q

What is an example of a genetic constraint to adaptation?

A

Heterozygote advantage

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7
Q

Things from a different time that existed due to selective pressures then that don’t exist now

A

Evolutionary anachronisms

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8
Q

How are adaptation, fitness, and natural selection related?

A

All three are linked to each other

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9
Q

Why is it not advantageous to get rid of vestigial structures?

A

Flightless bird wings are a good example. Getting rid of the wings gets rids of the genes and getting rid of the genes is a bad idea

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10
Q

What is needed to show a correlation is an adaptation?

A

Fitness data is needed to support it

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11
Q

What is the only known explanation for adaptations?

A

Natural selection. Natural selection leads to adaptations

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12
Q

Share the same development patterns but are modified for specific species through selection

A

Homologous structures

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13
Q

Are complex adaptations related to the best solution?

A

No. Complex doesn’t mean best and simple doesn’t mean worst

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14
Q

Feeding specializations and crypsis (allowing organisms to blend in) are examples of what?

A

Adaptations (noun)

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15
Q

Can individuals adapt?

A

No

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16
Q

What are adaptations the result of?

A

They are the result of evolution by natural selection

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17
Q

Why do developmental constraints exist for adaptations?

A

Certain morphologies are impossible developmentally

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18
Q

What are products of convergent evolution?

A

Analogous structures

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19
Q

An existing structure modified to serve a new function

A

Preadaptation

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20
Q

What do trade offs lead to?

A

Stabilizing selection. Finding the balance between what you’re selecting for and the other function compromised as a result

21
Q

What can a significant shift in phenotype cause for an organism?

A

It could push the organism off and over the adaptive peak

22
Q

Example of a trade off

A

Longer legs = faster but more fragile bones

23
Q

How is poor design proof of selection?

A

Mutation is random and selection can only act on what exists so if the mutation is poor but functional, selection will still act on it

24
Q

Something is this if it scales with size

A

Allometry

25
Q

Adaptation for one function may compromise another function

A

Trade offs

26
Q

The process by which features that enhance fitness are fixed in a population or species

A

Adaptation (verb)

27
Q

What happens when you go up a peak (“decide” on a solution) in the fitness landscape?

A

You cant go back down to get to an optimal peak, you are stuck with the one you have

28
Q

Functionally similar but structurally and historically different. Have independent evolutionary origins

A

Analogous structures

29
Q

Why is it difficult to determine what selection has selected for, thus making it hard to determine whether something is an adaptation?

A

Linkage of traits (pleiotropy) and passage of time

30
Q

What is heterozygote advantage?

A

The form with the highest fitness cant breed true. A heterozygote crossed with a heterozygote doesn’t produce all high fitness heterozygotes, it produces 50% homozygotes that are lower in fitness

31
Q

Valleys in the fitness landscape represent this

A

Low fitness

32
Q

What are two types of constraint to adaptation?

A

Genetic and developmental

33
Q

When are adaptations most apparent?

A

Most apparent from comparisons of related species specialized for different niches

34
Q

What is an example of poor design in humans but selection still acting on it?

A

The eye. The blind spot and having muscles stretch to focus are not optimal. The male urogenital system also is not optimal.

35
Q

Way of visualizing adaptations in potential solutions

A

Fitness landscape

36
Q

An adaptation that has arisen via preadaptation

A

Exaptation

37
Q

What makes adaptation unique from usually occurring selective evolution?

A

Adaptation occurs gradually with directional selection over several generations

38
Q

These two are the effects of differences in fitness

A

Differential reproductive success and survival

39
Q

What two things must be present for something to be considered an adaptation?

A
  1. Improve fitness such that organisms with the trait have higher fitness than those without (all other things being equal)
  2. Show correlation between the presence of the feature and the hypothesized selective pressure (ex: larger beaks survive food shortage from drought)
40
Q

Structures with little or no current function but are retained due to common ancestry

A

Vestigial structures

41
Q

Peaks in the fitness landscape represent this

A

High fitness

42
Q

Specialized features that enhance fitness

A

Adaptations (noun)

43
Q

How does selection act in an adaptive landscape?

A

Selection cant look across the landscape and choose the path to the highest peak. Selection operates on existing variation and chooses the local peak, it probably won’t cross a non-adaptive valley

44
Q

What can be products of divergent evolution?

A

Homologous structures

45
Q

How does adaptation occur over time?

A

It is usually gradual. Slight adjustments over multiple generations

46
Q

What is an example of a developmental constraint to adaptation?

A

Allometry. Animals with antlers, selection exists for large body size but large body size comes with large antlers which are unfavorable (neck cant support it) so it is against it

47
Q

Structurally similar but can be functionally different. Have evolutionary shared ancestry

A

Homologous structures

48
Q

What is an example of convergent evolution in cave dwelling animals? How does this occur?

A

Loss of sight and pigmentation is the convergent evolution. This occurs due to the absence of selective pressures for these things

Biology 1114 (10 decks)

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