Theme 3

Question 1

What did George Cuvier and Charles Lyell find?

Answer 1

GC: Many species go extinct.
CL: landforms are not fixed, but change slowly through geological processes.

Question 2

Who did Darwin study?

Answer 2

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck: Believed that species changed over time - transmutation (along with many others, including Erasmus Darwin)
Thomas Malthus: “Principle of Populations”:
Human population can increase faster than food supply - leads to competition and survival of the ‘fittest’

Question 3

What are Darwin’s four postulates?

Answer 3

1. Individuals in a population vary.
2. More offspring is produced than can be sustained.
3. Some variations are heritable.
4. Survival and reproduction is not random, related to phenotypic variation.

Question 4

What makes a species endemic?

Answer 4

The species only live in one location of the earth.

Question 5

What did Darwin and Wallace notice during their voyage?

Answer 5

1. Species on different islands had different traits.
2. The closer the islands were, the more similar traits they had.
3. Extinct species in same geographic are were most similar to the current species to the island.

Question 6

Where are Darwin Finches located?

Answer 6

Ecuador, South America.

Question 7

Can natural selection occur with heritability?

Answer 7

It can, but evolution by natural selection cannot.

Question 8

Why did evolution surprise Darwin?

Answer 8

It can be observed as it can be quickly influenced by environment in certain areas.

Question 9

Name the 4 requirements for evolution by natural selection.

Answer 9

1. Individuals vary in some traits.
2. Some of these traits are heritable.
3. Different individual have varying levels of success in having surviving offspring.
4. Part of the variation in surviving offspring is due the parents’ different traits.