Chap 13 Evidence of Evolution

Question 1

What is paleontology?

Answer 1

the study of past life

Question 2

What provided the original evidence for evolution?

Answer 2

fossils

Question 3

What are fossils?

Answer 3

the remains of ancient organisms

Question 4

What are transition fossils?

Answer 4

links that demonstrate common ancestry

Question 5

Transition fossils can reveal what>\?

Answer 5

step-by-step, the evolution of one species into another

Question 6

What does relative dating do?

Answer 6

estimates fossil age using rock layers (it puts fossils in order from oldest to most recent)

Question 7

What does relative dating assume?

Answer 7

that lower rock layers have older fossils than newer layers

Question 8

What does absolute dating do?

Answer 8

estimates fossil age using chemistry

Question 9

How does absolute dating work?

Answer 9

measuring using radioactive isotopes as a “clock”, since they decay at a steady, known rate

Question 10

Fossils are dated by measuring which isotope?

Answer 10

carbon 14

Question 11

What does carbon 14 decay into?

Answer 11

N14

Question 12

What is the half-life of carbon 14?

Answer 12

5,730 years

Question 13

What do scientists measure when using isotopes for dating?

Answer 13

the ratio of C14 to C12

Question 14

What sheds light on evolutionary events?

Answer 14

biogeography

Question 15

What is Wallace’s line?

Answer 15

a deep trench separating animals, for millions of years, allowing them to evolve independently

Question 16

What is the result of Wallace’s line?

Answer 16

a unique variety of organisms on each side of the line

Question 17

What can anatomical relationships reveal?

Answer 17

common descent

Question 18

What is homologous structures?

Answer 18

structures inherited from a common ancestor

Question 19

What are vestigial structures?

Answer 19

structures that have lost their function

Question 20

What are analogous structures?

Answer 20

structures that evolved independently

Question 21

When are anatomical structures analogous?

Answer 21

if they are superficially similar but did not derive from a common ancestor

Question 22

What does embryonic development patterns do?

Answer 22

provide evolutionary clues

Question 23

How do early vertebrate embryos appear?

Answer 23

they appear alike

Question 24

What controls embryonic development?

Answer 24

homeotic genes

Question 25

What are needed for body structures to develop normally?

Answer 25

homeotic genes

Question 26

Small differences in what might make the difference between a limbed and limbless organism?

Answer 26

gene expression

Question 27

What reveals relatedness?

Answer 27

molecules

Question 28

What determines evolutionary relationships in unprecedented detail?

Answer 28

comparing DNA and protein sequences

Question 29

What are inherited from common ancestors?

Answer 29

sequence similarities

Question 30

What are based on random DNA mutations?

Answer 30

molecular clocks

Question 31

Does DNA accumulate random mutations at a regular rate, as long there is no selection for or against the mutation?

Answer 31

yes

Question 32

Are there more and more random mutations over time?

Answer 32

yes

Question 33

Is it more likely that two unrelated species would evolve the same DNA of that the similarities were inherited from a common ancestor?

Answer 33

that they were inherited