Evolution Gems

Question 1

what are the three gems from the fossil record

Answer 1

1) land living ancestors of whales
2) from water-land
3) the origins of feathers

Question 2

what are the four gems from habitats

Answer 2

1) natural selection in lizards
2) a case of co-evolution
3) a selective survival in wild guppies
4) evolutionary history matters

Question 3

what is the one gem from molecular processes

Answer 3

Toxin resistance in snakes and clams

Question 4

Briefly outline the paper looking at land living ancestors of whales

Answer 4

• Roellid indohyosis are similar to whales in structures such as ears, pre-molars, desnity of limb bones and composition of teeth

Question 5

Briefly outline the paper looking at water to land

Answer 5

an intermediate between fish with fins and tetrapods with limbs providing unique insights into how and in what order important tetrapod characteristics arose

Question 6

Briefly outline the paper looking at the origins of feathers

Answer 6

two dinosaur specimens that had intersting structures provided infomation about the origins of feathers

Question 7

Briefly outline the paper looking at natural selection in lizards

Answer 7

presence of male lizards with increased leg length and females with larger body sizes were favoured in selection

Question 8

Briefly outline the paper looking at a case of co-evolution

Answer 8

dominant stages of both water fleas and microparasites are conserved in lake sediments providing an archive of past gene pools, reconstructing these coevolutionary dynamics in natural showed that parasites rapidly adpated to host is a time period of only a few years

Question 9

Briefly outline the paper looking at selective survival in guppies

Answer 9

manipulared a number of coloured guppies in 3 natural populations to estimate survival rates and found that individuals with rare phenotypes had increased survival advantage over individuals with common phenotypes

Question 10

Briefly outline the paper looking why evolutionary history matters

Answer 10

mechanisms in the morays pharyngeal jaws resembles that of snakes showing an instance of convergence

Question 11

Briefly outline the paper looking at toxin resitsance in snakes and newts

Answer 11

identification of a molecular structure of sodium channels in snake skeletal muscles allows them to be resistant to the toxin produced by newts allowing them to have a new prey type