Intro to Evolution Flashcards

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1
Q

paleontology definition

A

the study of fossils, largely developed by Georges Cuveir

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2
Q

Catastrophsim definition

A

speculating that each boundary between strata represents a catastrophe

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3
Q

Uniformitarianism definition

A

states that the mechanisms for change are constant over time

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4
Q

What did James Hutton and Charles Lyell perceive?

A

They perceived that changes in Earth’s surface can result from slow continuous actions still operating today

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5
Q

Lamarack’s Hypothesis of Evolution?

A

He hypothesized that species evolve through use and disuse of body parts and inehritance of acquired cahracteristics

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6
Q

Was Lamarack’s Hypothesis of Evolution correct or incorrect?

A

INCORRECT

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7
Q

What were the two main ideas Darwin developed?

A

Descent with modification and Natural Selection

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8
Q

What is descent with modification?

A

with modification, summarized Darwin’s view of the unity of life, referring to the view that all organisms are related through descent from an ancestor that lived in the remote past

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9
Q

What is Artificial selection?

A

When a species evolves in a controlled manner - humans modify other species by selecting and breeding individuals with desired traits

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9
Q

How many observations did Darwin make and how many inferences?

A

4 Observations and 2 Inferences

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10
Q

What was the first observation that Darwin made?

A

Members of a population often vary greatly in their traits

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11
Q

What was the second observation that Darwin made?

A

Traits are inherited from parents to offspring

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12
Q

What was the third observation that Darwin made?

A

All species are capable of producing more offspring than the environment can support

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13
Q

What was the fourth observation that Darwin made?

A

Many of these offspring to not survive by lack of food or other resources

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14
Q

What was Darwin’s first inference?

A

Individuals whose inherited traits give them a probability of surviving and reproducing in a given environment tend to leave more offspring than other individuals

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15
Q

What was Darwin’s second inference?

A

The unequal ability of individuals to survive and reproduce will lead to the accumulation of favourable traits in the population over generations

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16
Q

where are most fossils found?

A

sedimentary rock

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17
Q

What are the four types of fossils?

A
  • whole animal/plant
  • petrifaction
  • imprints
  • mould/casts
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18
Q

what is a whole animal/plant fossil + examples?

A
  • preservation of soft and hard body parts very rare
  • insects entombed in amber (preserved so well, to be studied as though they had just died-intact DNA)
  • frozen Mammoth carcass and human remains (even after 40 000 years)
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19
Q

what is a petrifaction fossil + examples?

A
  • remains of the organism are turned to stone
  • organic substances (soft parts) decay, but water containing minerals soak into the cavities and pores of hard structures (bones, shells, eggs, etc.)
  • water slowly dissolves original hard parts and replaces them with minerals (turns to rock)
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20
Q

what is an imprint fossil + examples?

A
  • outlines of feaves, feathers, footprints
  • significance of footprints :depth, size and distance between
  • provide information about weight, length and bone structure
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21
Q

What is a mould/cast fossil?

A
  • living organism is buried in mud/clay which eventually hardens (eventually to rock)
  • body dissolves away, leaving a cavity within the hard material
  • cavity is filled with stone in the shape of the original creature
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22
Q

What can fossils can tell?

A
  • Body size
  • weight
  • age
  • location
  • migration
  • cause of extinction
  • diet
  • common origins (missing links)
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23
Q

How can age be determined?

A
  • can be determined by the location of the fossil deposits
  • assuming chronology for strata and sequence of location of fossils in the layers
  • absolute age can be found by radioactive dating
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24
Q

What is biogeography?

A

species tend to be more closely related to other species from the same area than to other species with the same way of life but living in different areas

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25
Q

What are analogous structures?

A

body parts that have the same function but different structures

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26
Q

What are vestigial structures?

A

strucutres present in a species that is of either marginal or no apprent use to the organisms of that species

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27
Q

What are the three major domains?

A

Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota

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28
Q

Clade definition

A

A groupd of organism s that includes a common acestor and all the descendants - both living and extinct.

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29
Q

What is comparative embryology?

A

Comparing embryo formation

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30
Q

What is modern Synthesis?

A

Consensus of the following two theories:
- Gradual evolution results from small genetic cahnges that are acted upon by natural selection.
- The origin of species and higher taxa, or macroevolution, can be explained in terms of natural selection acting on inidivudals or microevolution

31
Q

What are the 5 evidences for evolution?

A
  1. Fossils
  2. Biogeography
  3. Comparative embryology
  4. Evolutionary Change as Observed Through Artificial selection
  5. Molecular Biology as Evidence of Evolutionary Relationships
32
Q

What is relative dating?

A

a technique used to determine which of two fossils is older. Uses the age of sedimentary layers to determine relative age.

33
Q

What is an uncomformity?

A

a gap in the rock sequence

34
Q

Why do uncomformities occur?

A
  • agents of erosion (water, wind, glaviers) more layers or parts of layers away
  • no deposition occurs in that area
  • Earthquakes movement has caused ground to be uplifted
35
Q

what is the parent atom?

A

the original atom?

36
Q

What is the daughter atom?

A

The new form of the atom

37
Q

What are the 4 mechanisms of change?

A
  • mutation,
  • migration
  • genetic Drift
  • Natural Selection
38
Q

What is mutation?

A

the genetic makeup of organisms change from one to the next

39
Q

What is migration?

A

some individuals from one population move a reproduce with species from another population

40
Q

What is genetic drift?

A

not actually evolution, some things happen randomly

41
Q

Where do mutations need to occur to be passed onto the next generation?

A

In reproductive cells (sperm and egg) NOT SOMATIC

42
Q

gene flow definition

A

any movement of genes from one population to another and is an important source of genetic variation

43
Q

What are the three modes of selection?

A
  • directional selection
  • disruptive selection
  • stabilizing selection
44
Q

What is directional selection?

A

Favors individuals at one end of the phenotypic range

44
Q

What is disruptive selection?

A

favors indivuduals at both extremes of the phenotypic range

45
Q

What is stabilizing selection?

A

favors intermediate variants and acts against extreme phenotypes

46
Q

What is adaptive Radiation?

A

A single species rapidly adapts to fill available niches in an environement

47
Q

What is microevolution?

A

consists of adaptations that evolve within a population confined to one gene pool

48
Q

What is macroevolution?

A

It refers to evolutionary change above the species level

49
Q

What is the biological Species concept?

A

The biological species concept states that a species is a group of populations whose members have the potential to interbreed in nature and produce viable, fertile offspring; they do not breed successfully with other populations.

50
Q

What is reproductive isolation?

A

the existence of biological factors (barriers) that stop two species from producing viable, fertile offspring

51
Q

What are hybrids?

A

offspring of crosses between different species

52
Q

What are prezygotic barriers?

A

Barriers that prevent a zygote from being formed

53
Q

What are 3 examples of prezygotic barriers?

A
  • stopping different species from attempting to mate
  • prevent the successful completing of mating
  • hinder fertilization if mating is successful
54
Q

What is habitat isolation?

A

Two species live in different habitats so they encounter each other rarely or not al all.

55
Q

What is temporal isolation

A

When species breed at different times of the day/season/years/ so their gametes cannot mix

56
Q

What is behavioural isolation?

A

When coutrship rituals and othe behaviours are unique to species such that they are an effective barrier

57
Q

What is mechanical isolation?

A

Morphological differences that prevent mating

58
Q

What is gametic isolation?

A

when the sperm can’t fertilize the egg

59
Q

What is a postzygotic barrier?

A

something that prevents the hybrid zygote from developing into a viable fertile adult

60
Q

What is reduced hybrid viability?

A

genes of the different parent species may interact and impair the hybrid’s development

61
Q

What is hybrid fertility?

A

even if hybrids are healthy, they may be sterile

62
Q

What is hybrid breakdown?

A

some first-generation hybrids are fertile, but when they mate with another species or with either parent, offspring of the next generation are feeble or sterile

63
Q

What can the biological species concept NOT be applied to?

A

It cannot be applied to fossils or asexual organisms (all prokaryotes)

64
Q

What are the two ways speciation can occur?

A

Allopatric speciation and sympatric speciation

65
Q

What is allopatric speciation (“other country”)?

A

Gene fow is interrupted or reduced when a population is divided into geographically isolated subpopulations. Seperate populations may evolve independently through mutation, natural selection and genetic drift

66
Q

What is evidence for allopatric speciation?

A

regions with many geographic barriers typically have more species than rgions with fewer barriers

67
Q

What is sympatric speciation (“same country”)?

A

speciation takes place in geogrpahically overlapping populations.

68
Q

population definition

A

a loxalized group of individuals capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring

69
Q

gene pool definition

A

consists of all the alleles for all loci in a population

70
Q

What is a fixed locus?

A

when all individuals in a population are homozygous for the same allele

71
Q

What is the Hardy-Weinberg principle?

A

it describes a population that is not evolving - it states that frequencies of alleles and genotypes in a population remain constant from generation to generation

72
Q

What is Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

A

It describes the constant requency of alleles in such a gene pool

73
Q

What are the 5 conditions for non-evolving populations?

A
  • no mutations
  • random mating
  • no natural selection
  • extremely large population size
  • no gene flow