Evolution

Question 1

What is adaptation?

Answer 1

-a structure, behavior, or physiological process that helps and organism survive and reproduce in a particular environment

Question 2

What types of adaptation is there?

Answer 2

Structural, behavioural, physiological

Question 3

What are mutations?

Answer 3

• a permanent change in the genetic material of an organism (the only source of new genetic information)
• randomly introduces new alleles into a population

Question 4

What is selective advantage?

Answer 4

-a genetic advantage that improves an organism’s chance of survival, usually in a changing environment

Question 5

What is selective pressure?

Answer 5

-environmental conditions that select for certain characteristics of individuals and select against other characteristics

Question 6

What is artificial selection?

Answer 6

-selective pressure exerted by humans on populations in order to improve or modify particular desirable traits

Question 7

What is fossil record and how does it work?

Answer 7

• the remains and traces of past life that are found in sedimentary rock; it reveals the history of life on Earth and the kinds of organisms that were alive in the past
• fossils appear in chronological order in layers
• closer layers share similar species
• different organisms appear in fossil records at the same time

Question 8

What are transitional fossils?

Answer 8

-a fossil that shows an intermediary link between groups of organisms and shares characteristics common to two now separate groups

Question 9

What is biogeography?

Answer 9

• study of past and present geographical distribution of species population
• close environments have related species
• animals found on islands similar to closest continent
• closely related species are almost never found in exactly the same loction

Question 10

What is a homologous structure?

Answer 10

-similar in structure but may have a different function

Question 11

What is an analogous structure?

Answer 11

-similar in function but do not share a common ancestor

Question 12

What is embryology?

Answer 12

-similarities between organisms in the embryo stages point to common ancestor

Question 13

What is evidence from DNA?

Answer 13

-similar DNA sequences point to common ancestors (dog-bear, dolphin & whale with hoofed)

Question 14

What are the 3 types of mutations?

Answer 14

Beneficial: improves reproductive success
Harmful: reduces an individual’s fitness
Neutral: no effect on fitness

Question 15

What is gene flow?

Answer 15

-the movement of alleles from one population to another through the migration of individuals

Question 16

What is non-random mating?

Answer 16

• mating occurs due to the selection based on phenotypes

- inbreeding

Question 17

What is genetic drift?

Answer 17

• the found effect: few individuals leave the old population and create a new one
• bottle neck effect: reduction in population size (disease, over-hunting, natural disaster) resulting in significant genetic drift

Question 18

What is stabilizing selection?

Answer 18

-genetic diversity decreases and population stabilizes on a particular trait

Question 19

What is directional selection?

Answer 19

-extreme phenotype is favored over others causing the allele frequency to shift over time in the direction of that phenotype

Question 20

What is disruptive selection?

Answer 20

-favours extreme phenotypes over intermediate phenotypes

Question 21

What is sexual selection?

Answer 21

-competition between males through combat or visual displays (sexual dimorphism)

Question 22

Types of speciation?

Answer 22

Sympatric and allopatric