Ch 19 Flashcards
_____ refers to changes in heritable characteristics of a population over time.
Evolution
empirical
In the 1600s, scholars using ______ thought rather than religion or philosophy began to rely on observation to look for the basic rationale behind a process
Who were the first scholars to suggest that the Earth is well over 6,000 years old?
Lyell and Hutton
Malthus, an economist, made a valuable contribution to the growth of biological thought by suggesting
that not all members of a population will survive and reproduce.
What group of islands was home to organisms such as finches with distinctive traits observed by Darwin on the voyage of the Beagle?
Galapagos Islands
Heritable change in traits of a population from one generation to the next is called
evolution
While the Galápagos finches have descended from a common ancestor, the striking differences in their beaks evolved due to
increased ability to survive and reproduce based on changes over time in beak size and shape.
What type of thought relies on observation to form an idea or hypothesis about a natural phenomenon?
Empirical
Darwin’s theory of evolution is also known as
descent with modification through variation and natural selection.
True or false: According to Hutton and Lyell, proponents of uniformitarianism, the Earth was only 6,000 years old.
False
According to Darwin’s ideas, two factors interact to bring about evolutionary change: genetic change and
natural selection
Why was Malthus’ work instrumental to Darwin’s formation of the theory of evolution by natural selection?
He suggested that limited resources affect population growth.
Some of the offspring produced by each generation may not survive and reproduce because
resources are often limited.
During the voyage of the Beagle, Darwin was particularly struck by the distinctive traits of
island species.
Consider a population of seed-eating finch species that colonizes an island. Due to genetic variation, some of the birds in the population have larger beaks than others. If the island contains only tree species that produce much larger seeds than those found in the previous habitat of the bird, what changes are likely to occur in this population over time?
- The average beak size of the finch population will increase with time.
- Individuals with smaller beaks will not be able to crush the large seeds and will have a smaller chance of survival and reproduction.
- Individuals with larger beaks that can eat bigger seeds will reproduce more frequently.
It is now known that Darwin’s Galápagos finches
evolved from a single species similar to a finch commonly found along the Pacific Coast of South America.
Darwin’s observation that there were Patagonian hares but no rabbits in South America would be considered ______ evidence of evolution.
biogeographical
Darwin expressed his concept of evolution as “the theory of ___ with ____ through the variation and natural selection.”
descent & modification
A(n) form displays features of both an ancestral form and the form of its more modern descendants.
transitional
Darwin believed that evolution occurs from generation to generation due to which two interacting factors?
Natural selection
Genetic variation
Select the features present in fossils of T. roseae, also known as fishapod.
Some of its fins had a primitive wrist with five finger-like bones.
It had a broad skull.
Its eyes were on the top of the head.
Not all of the offspring produced by an organism will survive and reproduce. Why?
- Organisms produce more offspring than the environment can support.
- Environmental resources are often limited.
the study of the geographic distribution of modern and extinct species.
Biogeography
Shell size and shape in a species of snail varies, with two shapes being most common: thin walled with a pointed spire, and thick walled with a low, rounded spire. If a species of crab that eats snails by crushing their shells moves into an area with roughly equal numbers of snails with the two shell shapes, what do you predict will happen over the course of the next 50 generations of snails?
Thick-shelled snails will survive better and leave more offspring, and will become more numerous in the population.
Most endemic island species have close relatives
on the nearby islands or mainland.
All of the following can provide evidence of biological evolution EXCEPT:
Reproduction
What features does a transitional form display?
Both features of its ancestral forms and its descendants.
evolution occurs when two species from different lineages independently evolve similar characteristics because they occupy similar environments.
Convergent