PQ : 4.1 - 4.6 : Biodiversity Flashcards
Key Points:
Structural Adaptations: This term is often used to describe any physical characteristic that helps an organism survive, such as a bird’s beak shape, a fish’s gills, or a cactus’s spines
.
Anatomical Adaptations: This term emphasizes the physical structure of the organism, particularly in relation to its external body parts. It is often used in a more scientific or technical context to describe how specific anatomical features contribute to an organism’s adaptation to its environment.
They are essentially the same thing
An investigation was carried out to compare the level of demand on the body of these
three sports during a triathlon.
The investigation involved 12 athletes who were all males of the same age.
Each athlete carried out the triathlon as shown in the flow diagram. There was no rest
period between each sport.
It was concluded that cycling was the most demanding of the three triathlon sports. This
was followed by swimming and then running.
Evaluate the validity of this conclusion.
(ii) Use the Hardy-Weinberg equation to show that more than 50% of the forest elephant
population are homozygous for the GBA gene.
(ii) Many different types of anti-freeze protein are produced by ray-fin fishes.
Analyse the data to explain when these ray-fin fish are likely to have evolved the ability to
produce anti-freeze proteins.
Explain how these two species of snake could have arisen from a common ancestor.
(4)
Calculate the frequency of the dominant and recessive alleles in this population.
Give your answer to 2 decimal places.
- (i) Explain why the percentage of elephants without tusks in Mozambique will probably
increase in the future.
(3) - (ii) Describe how the Hardy-Weinberg equation can be used to provide evidence for
changes in the elephant population in Mozambique.
(2)
Original opinion : saiga antelopes are more closely related to
Antelope than to Antidorcas.
(i) Explain what is meant by the phrase ‘endemic to the caves of Slovenia and Croatia’. (1)
*(iii) Olms evolved from small populations of amphibians that lived in caves. These caves became blocked off from other caves by rock barriers.
Suggest how natural selection could have led to the evolution of the olm.
(b) There are estimated to be only 500 Ethiopian wolves left in the wild, living in six separate populations. There are high levels of genetic diversity between these six populations.
The separate populations are geographically isolated. This prevents interbreeding between populations.
Suggest how this may affect the genetic diversity of each individual population.
*(ii) Suggest how natural selection has led to the evolution of this species of wolf, adapted for life in the mountains of Ethiopia.
(c) Ethiopian wolves are endangered in the wild.
Some scientists have suggested that moving male wolves from one population to another may help the species survive.
Suggest how this strategy of transferring individuals from one population to another could help the species survive.
(2)
