Exam 1 Flashcards
1
Q
What are the three big questions in science?
A
- The origin of the universe
- origin of life
- the origin of the human consciousness and society
2
Q
Tree thinking
A
the ability to read and write phylogenetic trees to describe evolutionary relationships and understand what the trees indicate about the evolution of species and traits
3
Q
Population thinking
A
understanding how a process like natural selection produces the changes in populations that yield the diversity in a phylogenetic tree
4
Q
____ and ___ evolve not the individual
A
populations and species
5
Q
Evolution refers to both ____ and _____ (pp)
A
process and pattern
6
Q
Define evidence (3)
A
- can never prove a hypothesis but can disprove
- consistent with a topic
- eliminates options of a given theory
7
Q
How do we test a theory/model/hypothesis? (2)
A
- experiments
- observations (gathering evidence)
8
Q
How do we gather evidence to test a theory/model/hypothesis?
A
the scientific method
9
Q
Panspermia (origin of life)
A
life came from another planet and then started life on earth
10
Q
Darwinian/Evolutionary model (origin of life)
A
There was one speciation event that every thing on earth came from
11
Q
Special creation (origin of life)
A
every species was created by a creator with one event for every species
12
Q
What model for the origin of life predicts perfect adaptation?
A
special creation and possibly intelligent design
13
Q
What are the null and alternative predictions for Darwinian evolution?
A
Ho: no DE occurs ever
Ha: one life event occurred to make all life on earth
14
Q
Homology (2)
ca
A
- similarity that is a result of common ancestry
- same trait shared by species because inherited by common ancestor (orthologous genes)
15
Q
____ is the basis for all comparative biology.
A
Homology
16
Q
What is a prediction that explains why the organization of species is widely conserved but the size and shape of the parts change frequently?
A
species are built using the same parts as in related species and more fundamental aspects are shared more broadly
17
Q
Give two examples of homology in species
A
- tetrapod limbs
- orchids
18
Q
T or F: Selection can only optimize a feature that it has to work with (i.e. it already exists in the population).
A
True
19
Q
Many cases of poor design in species may be due to ____
A
constraints
20
Q
define constraints in the context of poor design
A
aspects of the genetic or developmental program or manner of construction that preclude certain traits from evolving
21
Q
T or F: It is easy to change the bodily position of a part within a species.
A
False
22
Q
Why is it hard to change the position of something in a species?
A
because it changes the identity of the part that is changed
23
Q
Give three examples of vestigial traits that contribute to poor or arbitrary design
A
- genetic code
- cetacean pelvis
- vagus nerve in mammals
24
Q
poor/arbitrary design: genetic code
A
lack of importance in order yet preserved across all species on earth
25
poor/arbitrary design: cetacean pelvis
the ancestor of dolphins and whales was likely an ambush predator from the edge of waterways that was fully ambulatory; pelvis was preserved but serves no function in species that have it now
26
poor/arbitrary design: vagus nerve in mammals
heart in vertebrates has now shifted down so the vagus nerve is now exceedingly elongated to be able to go under the aorta
27
T or F: Darwin relied on fossil record for much of his research.
False
28
What are the two many aspects of developmental biology that fossil records can help us predict?
- function
-concordance
29
Prediction of function with fossil records
intermediate states of characters maintain or have advantageous functions relative to ancestral states
30
Prediction of concordance with fossil records
ancestral states will tend to appear earlier in the fossil record depending on the completeness of the fossil record
31
What is a special example of evolution supported by fossil record
the transformation of jaw articulation from non-mammals to mammals
32
Biogeography
the distribution of species
33
____ is possibly Darwin's strongest argument for evolution.
biogeography
34
what is the prediciton that biogeography makes?
closely related species will tend to live near each other because dispersal is hard
35
What are the two complementary patterns of biogeography
- species sharing structural homology tend to live near each other
- functionally similar but unrelated species often do not live near each other
36
give some examples of closely related species living near each other (3)
- happy face spiders all live in Hawaii
- Darwin's finches
- giant tortoises in the Galapagos
37
give the big example of functionally similar but unrelated species living in different areas
fish-eating rats and bipedal rodents live across the world from each other with different teeth and internal structures that match those of species them
38
give the prediction of phylogenetic concordance
groups of species sharing a homologous trait will share more homologous traits in common than expected by chance
39
Taxonomy
system of naming and classification of living organisms which ideally depicts evolutionary relationships between groups
40
phylogenetics
scientific process of discovering evolutionary relationships
41
taxa
named groups of organisms (taxon singular)
42
systematics
study of classification of biological diversity
43
Who invented the binomial classification system we use today?
Carl von Linnaeus
44
State the classical hierarchy from top to bottom (7)
- kingdom
- phylum
- class
- order
- family
- genus
- species
45
Analogy (2)
- similarity that is a result of convergent evolution
- not descended from a common ancestor
46
define a character/trait
attribute of an organism
47
define a state of an organism
alternate version of a trait
48
give examples of a character in an organism (4)
- limbs
- wings
- skeleton
- position of a nucleotide
49
give examples of the state of an organism (2)
- cartilaginous skeleton rather than a bony skeleton
- A, T, G, C at same nucleotide position
50
define bottom-up perspective on character development
trait evolved in species and then inherited even if the species diversify
51
define top-down perspective on character development
use shared traits as evidence of those relationships
52
species are grouped based on what?
on the presence of homologous characteristics (derived character states)
53
Give some examples of derived character states that could group a species (6)
- bone skeleton
- lobed fins
- lobed limbs
- amniotic sac
- temporal fenestrae
- mode of reproduction
54
____ is how we determine relationships
Recency of common ancestor
55
Define speciation/cladogenesis
When a population of interbreeding individuals is divided following some form of barrier to gene exchange and then the two groups become reproductively isolated from each other and diverge so that they no longer share the same alleles
56
Phylogenetic tree is a way to show what two things?
descent and branching
57
Phylogenetic tree is a way to show what two things?
descent and branching
58
Phylogenetic tree anatomy: tips
- Represents species or other taxonomic group (ends of branches)
- can be a species, family, or higher taxa
59
Phylogenetic tree anatomy: branches
Represents progression of time after a speciation event (a lineage) that is inferred 99% of the time
60
Phylogenetic tree anatomy: nodes
- most recent common ancestor between two groups
- two separate gene pools evolving independently of each other
61
Chronogenesis
Enough anagenesis occurs that the new species does not resemble the original but no speciation occured
62
Anagenesis
- evolution within a lineage without speciation (can occur along a branch)
- change we see in traits due to happenings within a population
63
Clade (define and aka)
- a group of species that consists of an ancestor and all of its descendants
- monophyletic group
64
Paraphyletic group
Common ancestor and some but not all of descendants
65
Phylogenies show what two things?
- common ancestry with branching (each species traces back to its common ancestor)
- each new trait as it appears and where it leads to other species within that trait (nested sets)
66
Sister species/sister taxa
Two species/taxa that share a more recent common ancestor than they share with any other taxa (close relatives)
67
Polytomy
3+ different groups split from the common ancestor at the same time
68
Soft polytomy
Represents a lack of knowledge when polytomy is present in a tree
69
Hard polytomy
Represents 3 species actually branching from one common ancestor
70
What are the two ways of drawing a phylogenetic tree?
- cladogram
- phylogram
71
Cladogram
Branch length does not matter only the order of the branching to show the relationship of clades
72
Phylogram
Branch length indicates either time or amount of evolutionary change
73
What must occur in a phylogram based on time?
All tips must come to the same point at the bottom
74
What will happen to the branches of a phylogramz when it is based on evolutionary change?
The branches will come out at different points
75
What are the three domains of life that were present at the early years of the origin of life?
- archaea
- eubacteria
- eukarya
76
The rise of what new state of organisms created a new era of organisms in the early years of the origin of life?
Diverse metabolic pathways
77
____ seemed to dominate as the early life form building up large formations as ______.
- prokaryotes
- stromatolites
78
Stromatolites
Bacterial mats of layered deposits
79
What was the most common fossil before the cambrian era?
Stromatolites
80
What did the increase on O2 within the atmosphere do to early earth? (3)
- changed the atmosphere
- changed the chemistry of the ocean
- caused banded iron formations
81
What did the increase on O2 within the atmosphere do to early earth?
Changed the atmosphere and caused banded iron formations
82
What are banded iron formations?
Oxidation of iron from increase in atmospheric O2 caused iron deposits across the world by causing precipitated iron
83
What does sexual reproduction allow for? (3)
- genetic recombination
- more genetic diversity
- formation of more discrete gene pools
84
What was the big first step in complexity among several of the early eukaryotic lineages?
Formation of symbioses
85
Symbiosis
- long term often necessary relationship between two species
- mutualism
86
Describe four examples of symbioses
- bacteria engulfed by purple bacteria leading to mitochondria
- lichen breaking down rocks to make soil
- algae and cnidarian host where algae live in the coral skeleton
- algae live in clams and produce their energy for them via photosynthesis
87
The Cambrian explosion caused what important event in animal history?
Rise of multicellular organisms and increase in diversity
88
What were fossil records like before the Cambrian explosion?
We didn’t see much before cambrian explosion because the organisms were soft and didn’t leave much fossil behind
89
What were the major animal groups that appeared in the fossil record right after the Cambrian explosion?
- Arthropoda
- Chordata
- Annelida
- Mollusca
- Brachiopoda
- Echinodermata
90
The paleozoic era was characterized by...
the slow rise and fall of many groups
91
what are the four recognizable periods of the post-Cambrian world?
- about 100my of increasing diversity
- about 200my of stable diversity
- and-Permian mass extinction
- less than 200my of increasing diversity
92
In the post-cambrian period there are about ___ mass extinction events with the worst being around ____ after the explosion.
-5
- 350my after
93
What happened after the worst of the mass extinction events post-Cambrian
diversity grew and has not stopped or plateaued since
94
What were the mechanisms that allowed for radiation events of life to occur? (4)
- geographic opportunity
- key innovation
- climate change
- extinction
95
mechanisms of radiation: geographic opportunity
- new habitats open up
- plate tectonics open up new continents
96
mechanisms of radiation: key innovation
features permitting the invasion of whole new types of niches
97
mechanisms of radiation: climate change
new habitats are allowed to form
98
mechanisms of radiation: extinction
empties olf niches and allows for less competition
99
Holometabola insects
- insects with whole-body metamorphosis
- most successful animals on earth
- possibly led to mass radiation of these types
- account for all known animal species
100
What happened to mammals after the dinosaurs went extinct?
mammals were able to diversify after dinos went extinct and were able to grow in size
101
icons
representations of something we think of new ways of looking at old data to make it easier to understand or understand period/explain data better
102
Plato (3)
- essentialism
- the fixity of species
- the idea is more important than the real-life manifestations
103
Aristotle (3)
- the great chain of being
- every species on earth fits somewhere on the ladder of life
- single scale to try and organize biodiversity
104
Carolus Linnaeus (3)
- the role of natural science and classification as the elucidator of God's wisdom
- established the classification system used today
- had no idea of evolution but instead was trying to understand the plans of God
105
Materialist science
world is governed by universal laws
106
Age of exploration
european powers increased their exploration of distant lands especially in the diverse tropics and the New World bringing back many new and unusual species and plants
107
Compte de Buffon
accept special creation but each species came from about 1000 species and then evolved to be better adapted to their environment
108
Reverend William Paley
- watch needs a watch maker
- bible and science are in agreeance with each other because biological organizations had to have had an intelligent creator to make them
109
James Hutton and Charles Lyell
taking physics idea of materialist science and applying it to geology to determine how geological features came to be if you give it time to do so
110
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
- spontaneous generation and transformation
- inheritance of acquired characteristics
- over time things become more complex despite every species spontaneously generated
- diagonal lines from time on y axis
111
Georges Cuvier (4)
- anatomist
- demonstrated extinctions in past but denounced evolution or transformation
- father of comparative anatomy
- did lots of research proving homologous traits
112
who created the first extinction theory that was eventually used by darwin to prove his theories of evolution
georges cuvier
113
Malthus "Population" (2)
- population will grow exponentially and lead to either war or famine from lack of resources
- gave darwin AHA moment for natural selection
114
Alfred Russel Wallace (3)
- father of biogeography
- contacted darwin in 1858 about ideas of natural selection
- did a dual presentation at Linnean Society of London 1858
115
Darwin's Origin of Species
marshaled evidence for evolution and provided a mechanism of variation for evolution
116
five main topics of origin of species
- evolution did in fact happen
- common descent
- gradualism
- population speciation
- natural selection
117
gradualism in origin of species
- demonstrated how this as a concept is compatible with life on earth
- evolution doesn't require a catastrophe or huge speciation event
118
population speciation in origin of species
- population thinking
- evolution takes place at the population level
- populations splitting from each other
119
a kay change in iconography after darwin
life is a bush not a ladder
120
Thomas Huxley
more socially assertive than darwin and made his own arguments for him outside the house
121
Ernst Haeckel
introduced the term phylogeny and drew many of the first ones
122
Ernst Mayr
- pointed out the fundamentally different worldview evolution presented and how it is a materialist explanation of the world
- systematics and speciation studying birds
123
typologist
type is real and variation is an illusion
124
evolutionist
type is illusion and variation is real
125
type
platonic idea
126
variation
noise or mistakes in creation
127
Gregor Mendel
explained that life is not just a mixture that is forever mixed but a small number of things that give information that stays from generation to generation and original information can be recovered
128
Modern synthesis of evolution
- confluence of geneticists, systematists, and paleontologists grounded evolutionary biology in modern genetics and developed the mathematics of population genetics
- ideas of evolution became much richer and more solid
129
Ronald Fisher
formal mathematical description of selection
130
George Gaylord Simpson
vertebrate paleontology
131
Motoo Kimura
- neutral theory
- genomics
- chance in population has no effect on selection with too much emphasis on selection
132
Developmental biology
translating genes into organisms
133
Molecular biology
- mechanism of change at a fine level
- structure and regulation of DNA
134
What concept is related to Willi Hennig
phylogenetic systematics
135
What are Darwin's four postulates?
1. individuals within species are variable (heritability)
2. some of the variations are passed on to offspring
3. in every generation more offspring are produced than can survive
4. survival and reproduction are nor random
136
What is the most common mutation type?
point mutation
137
mutation types: missense
change DNA and change the protein
138
mutation types: nonsense
makes a stop codon
139
mutation types: frameshift
shift reading frame
140
mutation types: synonymous substitution
change in DNA doesn't change protein
141
what kind of mutation occurs when the first position is changed?
sometimes the change is synonymous and other times it is nonsynonymous
142
what kind of mutation occurs when the second position is changed?
100% nonsynonymous
143
what kind of mutation occurs when the third position is changed?
100% synonymous
144
What's more common: synonymous or nonsynonymous mutation?
synonymous because there are multiple ways to get the same protein
145
inversion
flip orientation of codon
146
translocation
move codon to another location
147
rearrangement
break and/or put together arms of genes
148
de novo genes
mutations in non-coding region that create a start codon
149
polyploidy
genome duplication
150
how often are transversion mutations repaired
almost always
151
how often are transition mutations repaired
frequently passed over despite being half as likely because they go undetected
152
Describe the correct model for mutational effects
very concentrated around neutral and a lot of lethal but not at same rate as neutral
153
Describe selectionist theory for mutational effects
plateaus before neutral, has a large drop and then there is a small hump containing all neutral and beneficial mutations
154
describe kimura neutralist theory for mutational effects
plateaus until just past neutral and then goes almost to zero
155
describe pan-naturalist theory for mutational effects
bell curve over the neutral point
156
what theory does the correct curve explaining mutational effects look most like?
pan-neutralist
157
what are the evolutionary implications of mutional effects?
