Lec.1 Flashcards
What is the Holocene?
Current geological epoch , i.e. the last 11.5 thousand years.
What is the Pleistocene?
Geological epoch before holocene, from 2.5 million years to 11.5 thousand years, (often referred to as the ice age).
What is convergent evolution?
The independent evolution of similar phenomena = parallel evolution.
Why did Linneus name a group of organisms after female body features?
His opposition to the practice of wet-nursing led him to name mammals after
“mammae” (teats/breasts).
Where did the genus Homo originate?
Africa
How old is our species Homo sapiens?
at least 200,000 years.
What is the original meaning of diet?
Way of life.
What parts of the onion plant form the onion bulb?
Modified leaves
Give an example fo edible plant resin.
Gum arabic
What do most vegetables look radically different from the ancestral plants from which they descend?
Over 10 years of massive artificial selection by humans have altered most crops.
Name two species of grass eating primates
Humans and Gelada baboons of Ethiopia.
What two crucial reproductive services are provided to plants by animals?
Pollination and seed dispersal.
Plants exploit animals for seed dispersal via the fruit they make. Can you think of an animal that exploits colorful seeds for its own needs?
Bower birds in Papua New Guinea and humans who make bees out of plant seeds.
Where are the flowers of fig trees located on the plant?
Inside the figs (syconia).
How do fig trees signal to animals that their fruit are ripe?
Color change (turn yellow, orange or red)softness, and sweetness.
