Exam One Flashcards
1
Q
What are the 8 fundamental properties of life?
A
- Chemical Uniqueness
- Complexity and Hierarchical Organization
- Reproduction
- Possession of a Genetic Program
- Metabolism
- Development
- Environmental Interaction
- Movement
2
Q
Give an example for each fundamental property 1-4.
A
- Chemical Uniqueness - nucleotides to nucleic acids
- Complexity and Hierarchical Organization - an individual muscle cell cannot contract, but muscle tissue can
- Reproduction - cells divide producing new cells
- Possession of a genetic program - nucleic acids encode the structures of the protein molecules
3
Q
Give an example of each fundamental property 5-8.
A
- Metabolism - digestion and cellular respiration
- Development - the human life cycle
- Environmental Stimuli - moving toward (or away from) light
- Movement - enzymes change shape
4
Q
What is emergence?
A
Each level has properties that are greater than the sum of its parts.
5
Q
What is used by living systems today that arose early in the history of evolutionary life?
A
The most fundamental chemical processes.
6
Q
What is irritability?
A
The property that says that all organisms respond to environmental stimuli (their environments)
7
Q
What is ecology?
A
The study of organismal interaction with the environment.
8
Q
Why is movement one of the fundamental properties of life?
A
Because living systems and their parts show precise and controlled movements that arise from within the system.
9
Q
Why is metabolism one of the fundamental properties of life?
A
Because living things must acquire nutrients from the environment to maintain themselves.
10
Q
What is NASA’s definition of life?
A
basically it boils down to self reproduction capable of variation
11
Q
What are the three major features unique to the animal’s branch of the evolutionary tree of life?
A
- All animals are heterotrophic, which means they are not capable of making their own food and rely on external food sources. Because of this the supermajority of animals have an internal microbiome.
- All animals are eukaryotic, and therefore have a membrane bound nucleus.
- All animal cells lack cell walls
12
Q
Why can Euglena not be considered animal or a plant?
A
They contain chloroplasts but they also have no cell wall
13
Q
Explain how science consists of testing, possibly rejecting, and improving our simplest and best explanations using data “NOT in proving the correctness of a conjecture.”
A
Using the scientific method we first must generate a hypothesis, an educated guess per say, in a form that is “falsifiable” and “testable”. Then, in order to determine whether or not the hypothesis is refuted or supported tests are designed and performed. Because of this, scientists DO NOT use words like prove, correct or true, because there could always be new data that contradicts your hypothesis. In addition, because science is always falsifiable, explanations are constantly refined, which in turn, improves even the most simple and best explanations.
14
Q
What are the steps of the scientific method?
A
- Observation
- Question
- Hypothesis Formation
- Make prediction based on hypothesis
- Empirical test
- Conclusions
- Publication
15
Q
Explain the first major conjecture of Darwin’s evolutionary theory.
A
- Perpetual Change - the living world is neither constant or cycling, but always changing.
Ex. Organisms change from generation to generation.
Ex. Further supported by molecular / DNA evidence
16
Q
Explain the second major conjecture of Darwin’s evolutionary theory.
A
- Common Descent - all forms of life arose from a common ancestor, through branching of lineages.
17
Q
Explain the third major conjecture of Darwin’s evolutionary theory.
A
- Multiplication of species - the evolutionary process produces new species by splitting and transforming older ones
18
Q
Explain the fourth major conjecture of Darwins’s evolutionary theory.
A
- Gradualism - large differences in anatomic traits that categorize much different species originate from tiny changes over very long periods of time.
19
Q
Explain the fifth major conjecture of Darwin’s evolutionary theory.
A
- Natural Selection - process that generates new forms from small variations called adaptations
-an adaptation is any structure, process, or trait that improves an organisms fitness
20
Q
What were the roles of Mendelian genetics and the chromosomal theory of inheritance in aiding Darwin’s original theory?
A
Darwin had a major obstacle in his theory, it lacked a successful theory of heredity. Then Gregor Mendel, as we all know based on his thousands of generations of different organisms, deduced the laws of Mendelian Genetics. Later, the chromosomal theory of inheritance posited that the inherited information was concentrated as genes on chromosomes. It also discovered that diploid individuals have two sets of the same gene, and during gamete production the two genes separate creating a haploid. When fertilization occurs, the offspring will receive one copy from each parent. With this new information, Neo-Darwinism arose which modified Darwin’s theory by incorporating the new data.
21
Q
Give a explanation of taxonomy and what it is used for.
A
Taxonomy is a formal system that names and classifies species by following the principle of common decent.
To do this biologists have organized animal diversity based on shared features.
22
Q
What are the eight taxonomic classifications and what are they individually called?
Did King Philip Come Over For Green Spinach
A
Taxons
1. Domain
2. Kingdom
3. Phylum
4. Class
5. Order
6. Family
7. Genus
8. Species
23
Q
What is systematics and what is it used for?
A
Systematics is the wider science of classifying organisms based on studies of variation in populations that give insight to their evolutionary relationships.
24
Q
What is classification?
A
Process of placing organisms into classes and groups
25
What is an essence?
common feature which is used to define a group.
26
What is systemization?
The process of placing groups of species into units of common evolutionary decent.
27
Why is Carolus Linnaeus' s system of classification important to Taxonomy?
Because he used morphology to develop a classification system that grouped species based on essence into genus and so on, the basic principle is used today, although heavily altered.
28
What is binomial nomenclature, and how is it applied?
It was Linnaeus' system for naming different species.
The entire (genus and species) is in italics or underlined, and the Genus is capitalized and the species is lower case.
All other taxon are only capitalized, not italicized
Ex. "Homo sapien"
29
What is the goal of systematics and how is it accomplished?
The major goal is to infer the evolutionary tree that relates all extant and extinct species.
30
What is homology?
similar characters resulting from common ancestry
examples include the limbs of tetrapods (four parts)
31
What is an analogy?
character similarity with different evolutionary origins
32
What is the ancestral character?
the character state (trait) or variant that was present in the common ancestor of the entire group
33
What is a evolutionary derived character?
Any trait that differs from its ancestral form
34
What is monophyletic group?
A group in phylogeny that contains all the descendants of a particular ancestor and no other organism.
"one cut" "goal of systematics"
35
What is a paraphyletic group?
A group in phylogeny that contains some but not all of the descendants of a particular ancestor.
36
What is a polyphyletic group?
A group that consists of members that do not share the same common ancestor
37
What is an outgroup in phylogeny?
It is a group or species rather that is phylogenetically close but not within the group that is being studied
38
Why would we compare something against the outgroup?
To say that that certain species under consideration have derived character traits (polarity) we must compare them to the outgroup.
39
Any character trait found in the outgroup should be termed what?
ancestoral
40
All character traits found in the study group, but not the outgroup are termed what?
derived
41
How does a hypothesis attain the level of a theory?
It must be very powerful in explaining a wide variety of related phenomenon
42
What were Lamarckism contributions?
He proposed the mechanism of inheritance of acquired characteristics
Because organisms strive to meet demands of the environment, organisms acquire adaptations individually and pass them on
43
What is uniformitarianism and who established it?
The laws of physics and chemistry have not changed throughout the history of the earth, and geological events are natural processes similar to what we see today.
Established by Charles Lyell
44
What major conclusion did Lyell make about rock formation?
That measures of rock formation are much too slow for the earth to be a few thousand years old, rather it should be measured in hundreds of thousands or millions of years
45
What did Malthus say?
Given enough resources populations will exponentially growth
In actuality, populations grow logistically until the carrying capacity is met
When resources start to deplete, individuals will inevitably die
46
How did Lyell's readings that Darwin read on his voyage affect Darwin's thoughts?
Darwin realized that concrete laws of physics and chemistry along with his new understandings about the possible age of the earth supported his developing theory of evolution.
47
What did Darwin realize after he read Malthus?
That the process of selection in nature could be a powerful force in evolution.
48
What is the main premise in darwinian evolution?
Perpetual Change
49
What are the three characteristics that show the clearest trends in horse evolution which was capable with Darwin's theory?
1. Tendency to increase in size
2. Reduction of toes to hooves
3. Elaboration of molars
50
Why did Darwin propose homology as major evidence for common descent?
Because if two or more species share a unique physical feature, they may have all inherited this feature from a common ancestor.
51
Why is homology in embryonic structures very important?
Because they reflect that developmental programs of vertebrates are variations on a similar plan that existed in their last common ancestor.
52
In Darwin's book that posited that apes and humans share a common ancestor was explained by what?
it was explained by the many anatomical homologies.
53
What did Darwin think provided the material from which new species are produced?
Genetic Variation present within a species (especially between geographically separated species)
54
What is an important piece of evidence for common descent regarding the limbs of vertebrates?
that the limbs of vertebrates show the same basic structure modified for different functions.
55
What is the modern synthesis and what fields did it tie together?
Modern synthesis is a continuation of Darwin's theory that was is comprehensive in that it tied together population genetics, paleontology, biogeography, embryology, systematics, and animal behavior.
56
What is the first level of the Modern Synthesis and what does it incorporate?
Microevolution
it involves genetic variation and change within populations, and is measured by changes in allele frequency
57
What is the second level of Modern Synthesis and what does it incorporate
Evolution due to large scale events
New structures / trends / mass extinctions
58
What is polymorphism?
The occurrence of different forms of genes in a population
59
Name the first force of evolutionary change and explain it.
1. Recurring mutation - mutations must be recurring because otherwise it will have little to no affect on the allele frequency
60
Name the second force of evolutionary change and explain it.
2. Genetic Drift - chance fluctuation in allelic frequencies from generation to generation due to a finite population size
smaller populations are greatly affected by genetic drift - variation can be depleted
61
Name the two types of genetic drift and explain each.
1. Bottle necks - large reduction in population size leading to significance of every evolutionary change
2. Founder effect - small group that forms a new geographic population - may lead to formation of new species
62
Name the third force of evolutionary change and explain it.
Migration is the movement of individuals between populations that generally increases genetic variation within a population.
Important because it prevents different populations from being isolated and forming reproductive barriers
Without migration, separate populations can produce evolutionary divergence (BAD) (THINK BIG PICTURE)
63
What is the movement of alleles?
it is called gene flow
64
Name the fourth force of evolutionary change and explain it.
4. Natural selection provides a natural explanation for the origins of adaptations.
65
What are the observations of Natural Selection?
1. Organisms have great potential fertility
2. Natural populations normally remain constant in size except for minor fluctuations.
3. Resources are limited
4. Populations show phenotypic variation among organisms
5. Some variation is heritable
66
What is the inferences of Natural Selection?
Because overpopulation increases competition, struggle for existence happens, so more offspring are born than will survive to reproduce - which favors advantageous traits. Over many generations natural selection generates new adaptations and traits.
67
What does quantitative variation mean?
That measurable traits show continuous variation in a population.
68
Name the three evolutionary responses to quantitative traits and explain them.
1. Stabilizing Selection means that extreme phenotypes are selected against and the average is favored
2. Directional selection means that the variation shifts toward one phenotype
3. Disruptive selection selects against average phenotypes and favors the extremes
69
What are some criteria for the definition of species?
Members of a species descend from common ancestor
Genotype and phenotype within a species are more or less similar
Members breed with each other and not other species
70
What is a reproductive barrier?
They are biological features that prevent different species from interbreeding.
71
Name the two types of reproductive barriers and explain them.
1. Premating barriers are when individuals don't recognize each other as potential mates (genitals or gametes don't fuse)
2. Postmating barriers are are when offspring are impaired in some way
72
What is Allopatric Speciation?
When populations occupy different geographical areas, and evolve reproductive barriers because of the adaptations to different environments which eventually means the two groups cannot interbreed (new species)
73
Name the two causes of allopatric speciation and explain them.
1. Vicariant speciation is when climate or geology causes populations to fragment.
2. Founder effect is when a small number of individuals disperse to a distant place and form new populations
74
What is a hybrid and how does it occur?
Hybrids are offspring of two divergent populations that are able to mate because of loss (or incomplete formation of reproductive barriers)
Ex. Pizzly bears
75
What is Sympatric Speciation?
Sympatric Speciation is when different individuals within a species become specialized/adaptive for different components of the environment.
These new habitats in the same geographical area must be very specific
76
What is one example of Sympathetic Speciation?
Hawthorne flies that were imported to the US, and of these flies some evolved a preference for the habitat inside apples.
77
What is Parapatric Speciation?
Parapatric Speciation is when two species are separated by their geographical ranges but make contact along a borderline that neither species successfully crosses
78
Why does Parapatric Speciation occur?
Because while there may be no extrinsic barrier to gene flow, individuals tend to mate with geographical neighbors more
Parapatric Speciation is is geographically intermediate between allopatric and sympatric speciation
79
What is an example of Parapatric Speciation?
The plants that live near mines where soil is contaminated, and tolerance is selected for, while plants that live in neighboring areas with no contamination have different selection pressures and they while they could interbreed they evolved different flowering times. (cutting off gene flow)
80
What is Phyletic Gradualism?
Gradualism that calls for a series of intermediate forms connecting ancestors to descendants.
(not supported by imperfect fossil record)
81
What is Punctuated Equilibrium?
It is the explanation for discontinuous evolutionary changes through geological time.
Says that phenotypic evolution is concentrated in brief events of speciation followed by long periods of time where the environment is stable and morphological evolution is stable.
82
What "specific" type of speciation provides possible explanation for punctuated equilibrium and how so?
Allopatric speciation by founder effect, because it requires the breaking of genetic equilibrium in a small geographically isolated population, and small founder populations are likely not to be found, while successful founder populations that increase in size are more likely to be found by humans.
83
What makes up a coral animal?
many simplistic organisms (thousands of small polyps)
Polyps have mouth, tentacles and stinging cells
84
How much of the worlds coral has been lost in the thirty years prior to 2017?
50%
85
What is the ecological importance of corals?
They provide vital ecosystems for many many species
25% of marine life relies directly on coral
They can protect ecosystems from tsunamis
86
What is the economic importance of corals?
500 million to 1 billion people rely on corals for income and food
They also protect human civilizations from tsunamis
87
What causes coral bleaching on the small scale?
lack of food availability
88
What causes coral bleaching on the large scale?
Global increase in temperature (oceans)
89
What is coral fluorescence a sign of?
It is a sign of coral producing chemical sunscreen to protect them from heat
Also a sign of near death
90
What were some of the challenges did scientists and film makers run into studying the coral?
To convey the severity of the change that is happening, scientists needed to observe the coral constantly. getting many cameras underwater is a challenge in itself (water doesn't mis well with humans, along with keeping the lenses of the cameras clear of debris and focused. Lastly, specific locations of the limited cameras can be difficult - as, geographically, corals are vast.
91
What is binary fission?
Asexual reproduction common in bacteria and protozoa where parents divide by mitosis into two parts
92
What is multiple fission?
Asexually reproduction where the nucleus divides repeatedly and produces many daughter cells at the same time.
93
What is budding?
Asexual reproduction where an outgrowth of a parent (bud) develops organs and detaches
(cnidarians)
94
What is Gemmulation?
Asexual reproduction where a form of internal budding occurs
amoebocytes (fresh water sponges)
95
What is fragmentation?
Asexual reproduction where a multicellular animal breaks into many fragments that become their own organism
(anemones and hydroids)
96
What is Parthogenesis?
Asexual reproduction where an embryo develops from an unfertilized egg
avoids energy and dangers of bringing sexes together
(male bees)
97
What is Bisexual reproduction?
Sexual reproduction in that two parents unite.
98
What is dioecious?
Individuals are male or female (sexes are separate)
99
What are gonads?
organs that produce germ cells
Female ovum (large) (non motile) made in ovary
Male spermatozoa (small) (motile) made in the testis
100
What is Hermaphroditism?
Form of sexual reproduction in which one individual has both male and female organs.
AKA monoecious
101
What do monoecious organisms prefer?
They prefer to exchange gametes with other members of the same species rather than selfing
102
Name and briefly explain the two types of gametogenesis.
1. Oogenesis is formation of eggs within the ovaries
2. Spermatogenesis is the formation of sperm in seminiferous tubules of the testis
103
Explain the process of oogenesis in more detail.
Oogonia are diploid cells that increase in number by mitosis, but eventually stop dividing and grow to form primary oocytes.
Primary oocytes undergo the first meiotic division and produce one large secondary oocyte and a the first polar body (gets reabsorbed)
The Secondary Oocyte undergoes second meiotic division producing one large ootid and a second polar body.
104
What is an ootid?
It is an haploid cell that is produced by meiotic division, which eventually develops into a functional haploid ovum
105
Explain Spermatogenesis in more detail.
Spermatogonia (diploid) divide by mitosis to become primary spermatocytes.
Primary spermatocytes undergo the first meiotic division and produce two secondary spermatocytes (haploid)
A secondary spermatocyte then undergoes the second meiotic division and produces two spermatids
106
What is the last step of spermatogenesis?
The four spermatids are lastly transferred into spermatozoa (sperm cell)
107
What are the important comparisons between female and male gametes that you don't know?
1. sperm have small cytoplasm and ova have large cytoplasm
2. sperm has few mitochondria and ova have many mitochondria
3. eggs contain yolk and other nutrients while sperm have an acrosome with enzymes to aid in penetration
4. Both contain RNA
108
What is Oviparous mean?
(egg-birth animals) fertilization (internal or external) ex. birds/frogs
some care for eggs others do not
109
What is Ovoviviparous mean?
(egg-live-birth) animals ex. many fish
fertilization is always internal and eggs are retained until they hatch
nourishment from the yolk
110
What does Viviparous mean?
(live-birth) animals ex. most mammals
fertilization is always internal and eggs develop in uterus
embryos derive nourishment from the mother - young are more developed at birth
111
How is sex determined in most vertebrates?
By chromosomes
Gene-dosage dependent in that the presence of the Y chromosome in the male overrides the X chromosome genes when only one is present
XX-XY from XX-XO
112
Walk through the process of sex determination in mammalian males in detail.
On the Y chromosome, the SRY (sex determining region Y) organizes the gonad into testis.
SRY also appears to activates another gene SOX9 which drives the production of Sertoli cells that support protect and nourish developing sperm later down the line
Testis secrete testosterone along with dihydrotestosterone maculinizes the fetus
113
What is the effect of testosterone?
It is indirectly responsible for masculinization of the brain because testosterone is enzymatically converted into estrogen in the brain - organizes male typical behavior.
Female humans must be protected from estrogen entering in the brain (low amount of receptors?)
114
What are some other forms of Sex determination and provide a few examples.
1. Incubation Temp - crocodiles, many turtles, and some lizards
2. Behavior Dependent - in many fish, the social environment is taken into consideration
115
What are the primary organs of the reproductive system?
Gonads
116
What are the accessory organs of the reproductive system?
gonoducts, storage organs, transfer systems, yolk glands and placenta
117
Explain invertebrate reproductive systems in reference to external fertilization.
most aquatic invertebrates use external fertilization by releasing gametes through openings or ruptures
do not require special organs or delivery organs
118
Explain how invertebrates reproduce through internal fertilization.
Sperm travels through the vas deferens and is stored until ejaculation.
Once ejaculated, it is taken by the female and stored in the spermathecum
The females then release mature ova through the oviducts
119
True or false? Vertebrates can have internal or external fertilization.
True
120
What is the urogenital system?
The system that includes the reproductive and excretory systems
121
What is a cloaca?
The common outlet in which the intestinal urinary and reproductive ducts open.
ex. amphibians, reptiles, birds
122
What are the characteristics of monotremes?
They are mammals that lay eggs and have a cloaca
ex. platypus
123
What are the characteristics of marsupials?
They give birth to babies that are not fully formed and they have separate genital openings
124
What are characteristics of placentals?
They give birth to babies that can function on their own, and they have three separate openings
125
What is the amniotic sac?
The sac that surrounds the embryo and contains fluid that cushions and protects the embryo.
126
What are some male and female homologies?
Glans penis and clitoris are highly enervated, mucous and fluids are secreted by a variety of glands.
