Midterm # 3

Question 0

Define Natural Selection

Answer 0

The differential success in reproduction; the result is the adaption of organisms to their environment: tends to increase the genetic diversity of a species.

Question 1

Define Fitness

Answer 1

Producing fertile offspring that also reproduce. The more fit the organism, the more offspring it will produce. Because traits are inherited, the more fit organisms will contribute more of their traits to the next generation, and thus, to the population.

Question 2

Define Artificial Selection

Answer 2

Selecting for traits for the benefit of humans: tends to lead to a reduction in genetic diversity.
Ex: selecting traits for larger cows, thicker coats on sheep
(eventually the breeding of animals/plants has led to those hybrids showing less and less similarities to their wild ancestors.

Question 3

Define Species

Answer 3

Two individuals are members of the same species if they can naturally mate and leave fertile offspring.
(this definition works better for animals than for plants)

Question 4

Define Population

Answer 4

A group of interbreeding individuals of the same species.

Question 5

Define Evolution

Answer 5

A change in the genetic composition (allele frequencies) of a population.

Question 6

Define Biogeography

Answer 6

Study of the distribution of species. Darwin noticed that species were adapted to different environments, and that these adaptations were similar, (even for dissimilar species) to similar environments. Yet the species themselves, seemed to show more relationships to each other.

Question 7

Define Homologous Structures

Answer 7

Structures derived from a common ancestor or SAME evolutionary or developmental origin.
(evidence for divergent evolution and common ancestry)

Question 8

Define Convergent Evolution

Answer 8

The PROCESS whereby organisms not closely related, independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.

Question 9

Define Analogous Structures

Answer 9

structures of different species having similar or corresponding function but NOT from the same evolutionary origin.
(Evidence for convergent evolution)
Ex: wings of insects and birds used for flying
- fins, fish, and flippers of whales

Question 10

Define Vestigial Structures

Answer 10

A structure in an organism that has lost all or most of its original function in the course of evolution.
Ex: Human Appendixes.

Question 11

Carolus Linnaeus

Answer 11

• The founder of Taxonomy
• Constructed a heirachial system for grouping organisms based on shared relationsips.
• swedish botanist and physician

Question 12

Charles Lyell

Answer 12

• believed in geological gradualism (can observe contemporary processes shaping the earth as being responsible for creating the older landforms)
• Uniformitarianism
• these rates of change showed that the earth is actually orders of magnitude older than was thought at the time

Question 13

Charles Darwin

Answer 13

• published On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection

- 5 year voyage on survey ship HMS Beagle

Question 14

Thomas Malthus

Answer 14

• believed that species reproduce geometrically, more individuals are born than can be supported by available resources, thus not all live to reproduce.

Reasons: limited amount of resources

• disease
• stochastic events
• Those with more adaptive traits will have a better chance of surviving to produce offspring. Those individuals will contribute more of their alleles to the next generation.. populations are thus always evolving.

Question 15

What are the main points on the origin of species

Answer 15

1) Evolution is responsible for the diversity of life
- species evolved from ancestral species and were not specially created

2) Natural Selection is the mechanism for the accumulation of adaptive characteristics
- selects for favorable traits
- filters out less favorable traits

Question 16

Define Uniformitarianism

Answer 16

• The theory that changes in the earths crust during geological history have resulted from the action of continuous and uniform processes.

Question 17

Whats the genotype for Homozygous Dominant

Answer 17

Genotype - BB

Question 18

Whats the Phenotype for Homozygous Dominant

Answer 18

Phenotype - Brown

Phenotype = Outward characteristics

Question 19

What is the genotype for Heterozygous Dominant

Answer 19

Genotype- Bb

Question 20

What is the phenotype for Heterozygous Dominant

Answer 20

Brown

Phenotype = outward characteristics

Question 21

What is the Genotype for Homozygous RECESSIVE

Answer 21

genotype = bb

Question 22

What is the phenotype for Homozygous RECESSIVE

Answer 22

Blue

Phenotype = Outward characteristics

Question 23

What is BBxBB

Answer 23

Homozygous Dominant

Question 24

What is BB x Bb

Answer 24

Homozygous x Heterozygous

Question 25

What is BBxbb

Answer 25

Homozygous Dominant x Homozygous Recessive

Question 26

Define Comparative Embryology

Answer 26

The branch of embryology that compares and contrasts embryos of different species.
- used to show how all animals are related

Question 27

Define Ontogeny

Answer 27

The development of an organism form zygote to adult.

Question 28

Define Phylogeny

Answer 28

The evolutionary history of an organism. Relationships to other organisms based on shared characteristics.
Ex: tail, 2 valve hearts, gill arches

Question 29

What is the Principal of Superposition

Answer 29

In any succession of strata not later deformed, the oldest strata lies at the bottom, with successively younger ones above. This is the basis of relative ages of strata and the fossils they contain.

Question 30

Define Animism

Answer 30

Animism is the belief that animals, plants, rivers, mountains, and other entities in nature contain an inner spiritual essence.
Ex: animism = soul/life

Question 31

Describe the Ancient Western Culture and Essentialism theory

Answer 31

• Life was arranged relative to the concepts of a “perfect order” and increasing complexity.
• Life is fixed, not changing
• This view lasted for 2000 years.
• Plato, Democritus, Aristotle

Question 32

Describe The Creationist-Essentialist Dogma theory

Answer 32

• That species were individually designed and fixed became the prevailing ideology in western culture. The catholic church was the center for ideology and education and thus, to challenge the prevailing dogma meant challenging not only the word of god, but the authority of the church as well.

Question 33

Define Natural Theology

Answer 33

that each species was created for a particular purpose.

- That one god created the universe and the earth with all of its creatures.

Question 34

Define Deductive Reasoning

Answer 34

Creating a model first, and then gathering evidence to support it.
(Reasoning from the general to the particular)

Question 35

Define Inductive Reasoning

Answer 35

Gathering pieces of evidence and then creating a model.

Reasoning from the particular to the general

Question 36

Francis Bacon

Answer 36

• thought that we should begin by gathering evidence and THEN formulate an explanation for the observed phenomenon.
• given credit for developing the Scientific Method

Question 37

Define Organic Evolutionary

Answer 37

The sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms.

Question 38

Sickle Cell Anemia

Answer 38

Severe hereditary form of anemia in which a mutated form of hemoglobin distorts the red blood cells into a crescent shape at a low oxygen levels.