Chap 12 Forces of Evolutionary Change Flashcards
Evolution occurs in…?
populations
Evolution does not occur in…?
individuals
Why does evolution not occur in individuals?
because an individuals alleles do not change
In a population what changes from one generation to the next?
allele frequencies (some become more common, some less common)
Whose voyage provided evidence for evolution?
Darwin’s
What were the ideas of evolution Darwin came up with?
descent with modification
natural selection
What changes allele frequencies?
artificial selection
What gave Darwin the idea for natural selection as an evolutionary force?
artificial selection/selective breeding
How do humans alter allele frequencies?
artificially
What happens in artificial selection?
a human chooses desired features, then allows only the individuals that best express those qualities to reproduce. This increases the frequency of the desired alleles in the population
Darwin proposed what as a mechanism for evolution?
natural selection
What were the observations of nature?
genetic variation
limited resources
overproduction of offspring
What were the inferences from observations?
struggle for existence
unequal reproductive success (natural selection)
descent with modification
What is descent with modification?
over many generations, a population’s characteristics can change by natural selection, even giving rise to new species
What is overproduction of offspring?
more individuals are born than survive to reproduce
What are the common misconception of evolution theory?
explains the origin of life
it is a random process
in all changing environments all individuals in a population simultaneously develop beneficial adaptations
What is the answer to the misconception that biological evolution explains the origin of life?
biological evolution did not begin until life existed
What is the answer to the misconception that evolution is a random process?
some mechanisms of evolution, such as mutations, do occur randomly. Natural selection, however, is nonrandom because the environment selects against poorly adapted individuals.
What is the answer to the misconception that in all changing environments all individuals in a population simultaneously develop beneficial adaptations?
adaptations become “fixed” in a population over multiple generation, as individuals with beneficial adaptations are most likely to survive, reproduce, and pass their genes to the next generation
What molds evolution?
Natural selection
Natural selections doe not…?
create alleles (instead, it strongly selects for alleles that arise by chance)
What enhances reproductive success?
adaptations
What are adaptations?
heritable features that improve an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce (e.g. some people produce more gametes than others)
What does not constitute evolution?
short-term changes in an individual
What creates natural selection for resistant bacteria?
antibiotics (bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics have an adaptive trait that nonresistant bacteria lack. When antibiotics are present, the resistant bacteria can survive and reproduce better then the others)
What eliminates poorly adapted phenotypes?
natural selection (as environmental conditions change, the phenotypes that natural selection favors will also change. Adaptations that seem “perfect” in one environment would be completely wrong in another)