Evolution Flashcards
Who first conceived the theory of evolution?
Charles Darwin
What are the 4 basic principles of evolution/life
- traits must be heritable
- variation / genetic mutation must exist
- variations of a trait must provide an advantage for evolution to occur
- competition for limited resources
Combining the 4 principles of evolution, what is the theory of evolution?
the DIFFERENTIAL SUCCESS of certain VARIATIONS of a HERITABLE trait because of COMPETITION for limited resources
how does constitution of a new species occur?
organism accumulates so many new traits, that it is very different from the ancestor –> new species
How is it possible for a new species to evolve without the extinction of the ancestor?
small population of the ancestral species branches off because it is exposed to new environmental conditions that favoured new traits
What determines if a trait will be successfully passed on to later generations?
NATURAL SELECTION: competitive selective process by which detrimental traits are discarded and advantageous traits are retained (i.e. how well a trait improves an organism’s reproductive success)
How are organisms grouped together?
based on their most recent shared common ancestors
What is an example of dinosaurs that have been grouped together?
ornithischia: hadrosaurs, pachycephalosaurs, ankylosaurs, stegosaurs
What species did the dinosauria evolve from?
amniote tetrapod
What is a character?
any heritable trait that can be described and labeled
What is a shared derived character?
- character that may present in 2 or more groups and their common ancestor
- not present in any more distantly related groups
What is another name for a shared derived character?
synapomorphy
What is an example of synapomorphy in ornithischians?
predentary
What is the biggest challenge to determining evolutionary relationships?
convergent evolution
What is convergent evolution? provide an example.
- evolution of similar traits in 2 different lineages/species
- example: spinosaurus (theropod, saurischian) and ouranosauraus (igaunodont, ornithischian) both have a sail on their backs
When does convergent evolution usually happen?
when 2 lineages must adapt to similar environments and to similar modes of lige
What is an example of the convergent evolution of wings in flying vertebrates?
birds, pterosaurs, bats all evolved wings from the FORELIMBS but in different ways
pterosaurs: membrane wing, one long finger
bats (mammals): membrane wing, several fingers
birds: feathered wing, fused hand bones into single unit
the ouranosaurus has a sail like what dinosaur
Spinosaurus
which dinosaur does the ouranosaurus have the most common traits with and what are they
iguandonts
- grinding teeth and beak
-back facing pubis
- predentary bone
define parsimony
the idea that “all other things being equal, the simplest answer is usually the right one”
occam’s razor is also known as
parsimony
describe the processes involved in making phylogenic trees
- use computer program to determine evolutionary relationships between species
- analyze the list of characters -> character matrix
- application of the principle of parsimony to arrange organisms in a way that there are fewer instances of convergent evolution
- family tree is made
phylogenic trees are made of ___ and ____
nodes and branches