Quiz 1

Question 1

Great Chain of Being

Answer 1

• Recasting of Aristotle’s Scala Naturae in Judeo-Christian themes
• Hierarchical organization of all life forms
• Organisms fixed in position on the chain

Question 2

Carl Linnaeus

Answer 2

• Swedish botanist; developed comprehensive classification system for all known plants and animals
• Binomial Nomenclature

Question 3

Linnaean System

Answer 3

Classification system based on similarities among physical characteristics of species

Question 4

Taxonomy

Answer 4

The science of classification

Question 5

Taxon (plural: taxa)

Answer 5

group of organisms in a taxonomy

Question 6

Linnaean Hierarchy

Answer 6

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order

Question 7

Georges-Louis Leclerc (1707-1788)

Answer 7

French naturalist who proposed species are created via modifications of their original form by environmental factors after creation

Question 8

Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)

Answer 8

• French naturalist who discovered extinction

- Proposed catastrophism

Question 9

Catastrophism

Answer 9

Fossils represented species that had gone extinct in cataclysms

Question 10

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

Answer 10

Proposed that ‘use and disuse’ of traits is what drove changes in organismal characteristics through time, ultimately resulting in new species

Question 11

Principles of Natural Selection

Answer 11

1. Traits vary within a population
2. Traits are heritable
3. Individuals with traits that allow them to survive and reproduce pass those traits on to the next generation

Question 12

James Hutton (1726-1797)

Answer 12

• Argued that features of ancient rocks could be explained by processes that were operating today, but happen very slowly
• Discoveries supported Deep Time (Earth was very old)

Question 13

Charles Lyell (1797-1875)

Answer 13

• Proposed uniformitarianism; geological processes have always occurred at uniform rates
• Discoveries supported Deep Time (Earth was very old)

Question 14

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)

Answer 14

• Wrote ‘Population’ that emphasized a struggle for existence; populations expand faster than their resources
• Inspired Darwin’s theory of natural selection

Question 15

Natural Selection

Answer 15

The differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotypes (physical traits)

Question 16

‘On the Origin of Species’

Answer 16

• Published in 1859; presented evidence that evolution had occurred
• Explained evolutionary change occurs via natural selection

Question 17

Evolution

Answer 17

Change in the allele frequencies (old: heritable characteristics) of biological populations over successive generations

Question 18

Blending Inheritance

Answer 18

• 19th century model of inheritance
• Physical characteristics of offspring were a uniform blend of parents
• Refuted: After all traits have been ‘blended’ all variation disappears

Question 19

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)

Answer 19

• Augustinian monk who worked out the rules governing the inheritance of traits
• Each trait controlled by single gene

Question 20

Genotype

Answer 20

Genetic signal

Question 21

Phenotype

Answer 21

Physical expression (morphology) of the genotype

Question 22

Gene

Answer 22

Unit of heredity passed from parent to offspring that codes for a particular trait

Question 23

Allele

Answer 23

One or more alternative forms of a gene

Question 24

Modern Evolutionary Synthesis

Answer 24

1) Genes are the units of inheritance
2) Phenotype is distinct from genotype. Phenotypes are outcomes of genetic/environmental factors.
3) Evolution is a change in the genetic structure of populations due to mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and natural selection. Individuals do not evolve, populations do.
4) Speciation results from a gradual accumulation of small genetic changes
5) All organisms form a phylogeny that emerged by the branching of common ancestors into diverse lineages via speciation.

Question 25

Four forces of evolution

Answer 25

1) Mutation 2) Gene Flow 3) Genetic Drift 4) Natural Selection All are stochastic except for natural selection which is deterministic

Question 26

Mutation

Answer 26

Appearance of new alleles

Question 27

Point Mutation

Answer 27

Change in single base pair

Question 28

Substitution

Answer 28

Codon swapped for another codon

Question 29

Inversion

Answer 29

Codon inverted

Question 30

Insertion

Answer 30

Insertion of a single base pair that shifts the entire sequence (frameshift)

Question 31

Deletion

Answer 31

Remove of a single base pair that shifts the entire sequence (frameshift)

Question 32

Genetic Drift

Answer 32

- Random changes in alllele frequencies - Small population sizes - Founder effect & bottleneck effect

Question 33

Directional Selection

Answer 33

Selection for one phenotypes over the others causing phenotype frequencies to shift in one direction

Question 34

Stabilizing Selection

Answer 34

Selection against the extremes of the phenotypic distribution

Question 35

Sexual Selection

Answer 35

- Female choice | - Male-male competition

Question 36

Systematics

Answer 36

The study and classification of organisms to reconstruct their evolutionary relationships with one another

Question 37

Linnaean Taxonomy

Answer 37

Reflects phylogeny

Question 38

Clade

Answer 38

A group of organisms that is monophyletic (composed of a common ancestor and all its descendants)

Question 39

Monophyletic Taxon

Answer 39

Includes all the descendants of a particular common ancestor

Question 40

Polyphyletic Taxon

Answer 40

Includes species that do not exclusively share a common ancestor

Question 41

Paraphyletic Taxon

Answer 41

Includes some (but not all) of the descendants from a particular ancestor

Question 42

Analogous Traits

Answer 42

Similar structures that evolved independently (convergent evolution)

Question 43

Convergent Evolution

Answer 43

Distantly related species evolve similar features to serve the same function (E.g. bird and bat wings)

Question 44

Homologous Traits

Answer 44

Shared traits that were inherited from a common ancestor

Question 45

Primitive traits

Answer 45

Uninformative for sorting out relationships

Question 46

Derived traits

Answer 46

Evolved in the lineage leading up to a clade and sets members of that clade apart from others

Question 47

Synapomorphy

Answer 47

A derived trait shared among taxa

Question 48

Autapomorphy

Answer 48

A derived trait unique to a single taxon

Question 49

Cladograms

Answer 49

Arrange taxa by relatedness, not ancestry-descent

Question 50

Anagenetic Speciation

Answer 50

Unbranching lineage of species through geological time

Question 51

Cladogenetic Speciation

Answer 51

Branching of different species through geological time

Question 52

Molecular Clock

Answer 52

A systematic accumulation of genetic change (E.g. mutations) that can be used to estimate the time of divergence between two taxa

Question 53

Sexual Dichromatism

Answer 53

Sex differences in coloration

Question 54

Sexual Dimorphism

Answer 54

Sex differences in body size or weaponry

Question 55

Biological Species Concept

Answer 55

Reproductively isolated breeding populations

Question 56

Morphological Species Concept

Answer 56

Phenotypically distinct evolutionary lineages

Question 57

Ecological Species Concept

Answer 57

Populations occupying unique ecological niches

Question 58

Lineage splitting over time

Answer 58

Ecological > Morphological > Biological

Question 59

Allopatric Speciation

Answer 59

Speciation through geographic isolation

Question 60

Sympatric Speciation

Answer 60

Speciation in the same geographic location