Evolution

Question 1

What is evolution?

Answer 1

Evolution is heritable change in one or more characteristics of a
population or species from one generation to the next

Question 2

what is microevolution?

Answer 2

changes in a single gene in a population over time

Question 3

what is macroevolution?

Answer 3

formation of new species or groups of species

Question 4

what are species?

Answer 4

group of related organisms that share a distinctive form

Question 5

what is a population?

Answer 5

members of the same species that are likely to encounter each other and thus have the opportunity to interbreed.

Question 6

who was the first person to carry out a thorough study of the natural world?

Answer 6

John Ray

Question 7

who said life forms change over time?

Answer 7

George Buffon

Question 8

who proposed the inheritance of acquired characteristics?

Answer 8

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Question 9

what is the uniformitarianism hypothesis from geology?

Answer 9

slow geological processes lead to substantial change and earth was much older than 6000 years

Question 10

who said that only a fraction of any population will survive and reproduce?

Answer 10

Thomas Malthus

Question 11

who is the father of evolution

Answer 11

Charles Darwin (born in 1809)

Question 12

who sent Darwin an unpublished manuscript proposing many of the same ideas?

Answer 12

Alfred Wallace

Question 13

what did natural selection consist of?

Answer 13

more offspring produced that can survive, competition for limited resources, individual with better traits flourish and reproduce.

Question 14

types of evidence of biological evolution?

Answer 14

studies of natural selection, selective breeding, biogeography, convergent evolution, fossil record, homologies, anatomical, molecular

Question 15

what is convergent evolution?

Answer 15

Two different species from different lineages sometimes become anatomically similar because they occupy similar
environments.

Question 16

what are homologous structures?

Answer 16

structures that are anatomically similar to each other because they evolved from a structure in a common ancestor.

Question 17

what is selective breeding?

Answer 17

programs and procedures designed to modify traits in domesticated species. also called artificial selection.

Question 18

what is biogeography?

Answer 18

study of the biogeographical distribution of extinct and modern species.

Question 19

what is endemic?

Answer 19

naturally found only in a particular location

Question 20

what did island fox evolve from?

Answer 20

mainland gray fox

Question 21

what is another definition of biogeography?

Answer 21

evolution of major animal groups correlated with known changes in the distribution of land masses on the earth.

Question 22

what is transitional form?

Answer 22

provides link between earlier and later form

Question 23

what is homology and what are the types?

Answer 23

Homology is the fundamental similarity due to descent from a common ancestor. It may be anatomical (same set of bones in the limbs of modern vertebrates has undergone evolutionary change for many different purposes), developmental (species that differ as adults often bear striking similarities during embryonic stages) or molecular (similarities in cells at the molecular level show that living species evolved from a common ancestor).

Question 24

what are vestigial structures?

Answer 24

anatomical structures that have no apparent function but resemble structures of presumed ancestors

Question 25

what are homologous genes?

Answer 25

two genes derived from the same ancestral gene

Question 26

what are paralogs?

Answer 26

homologous genes within a single species

Question 27

what is a gene family?

Answer 27

two or more paralogs within the genome of a single organism

Question 28

what is horizontal gene transfer?

Answer 28

exchange of genetic material among different species

Question 29

what does evolution at the genomic level involve?

Answer 29

Involves changes in chromosome structure and number