Unit #4: Evolution test

Question 1

What are Homologous structures?

Answer 1

The same basic structures appear in different but related organisms (indicating a common ancestor)

Question 2

Give an example of a homologous structure.

Answer 2

the limbs of cats, humans, whales, and bat

Question 3

What are analogous structures?

Answer 3

Body parts that serve similar functions, but do not share structure and development

Question 4

Give an example of an analogous structure.

Answer 4

the wings of penguins, birds, butterflies, etc.

Question 5

What did James Hutton propose?

Answer 5

hat Earth has been slowly shaped by geologic processes over very long periods of time, thus saying that Earth must be millions of years old

Question 6

What did Charles Lyell propose?

Answer 6

that the geological processes that Hutton talked about are also happening today

Question 7

Give a definition of evolution.

Answer 7

The way life changes over time

Question 8

What are Jean Baptiste Lamarck’s 3 hypotheses

Answer 8

Use and Disuse, the Tendency Toward Perfection, and Inheritance of Acquired Traits

Question 9

What is convergent evolution?

Answer 9

Organisms that are not related in two different areas of the world. But those areas have similar geographical conditions so they will evolve similarly

Question 10

What is divergent evolution?

Answer 10

Species that are related by a common ancestor and became more dissimilar over time

Question 11

What are the 3 ways that reproductive isolation happens?

Answer 11

Behavioral, geographical, temporal

Question 12

What are vestigial organs?

Answer 12

organs that seem to have no modern function but come from very late ancestors who did use them

Question 13

Give a definition for struggle for existence.

Answer 13

The competition or battle for resources needed to live

Question 14

How did the Bajau people evolve

Answer 14

They can dive underwater for extended periods of time. Able to do this because of their extended spleens, which allow them to hold their breath a lot longer

Question 15

Give an definition for natural selection.

Answer 15

Populations change over time because individuals who inherit traits best suited to their environment leave more offspring than less suited individuals, leading to gradual, favorable changes in the population

Question 16

Insecticide resistance

Answer 16

Many bugs, like bed bugs and lice, are becoming immune to our treatments towards them and its becoming more and more difficult to get rid of them

Question 17

MRSA

Answer 17

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria that is resistant to penicillin is called MRSA. It is a cause of staph infection that is difficult to treat because it has become resistant to antibiotics (evolution)

Question 18

Andes people

Answer 18

Live on tall mountains with little oxygen so they produce more red blood cells to help with the lack of oxygen.

Question 19

Himalayan people

Answer 19

Are in the same situation as the Andes people but instead of producing more red blood cells, they breath rapidly, have more nitric-oxide, higher body weight + fat, more falate (more vitamins)

Question 20

Lactose persistence

Answer 20

Many people in the europeans and parts of Africa and Asia continues to eat and drink dairy when others around the world couldn’t, leaving them to continue developing lactose persistent as they grow and reproduced

Question 21

Peppered moth

Answer 21

Overtime, the color of the trees changed. When the trees were dark, the black moths thrived while the white ones got killed off much more. When the trees are light, its swapped

Question 22

Describe the Galapagos Islands (why is life there so diverse?)

Answer 22

They are small chains of islands off the coast of South America, its so diverse because of the diversity of the different islands (climate, elevations, etc.)

Question 23

Why were Darwin’s ideas so controversial at the time?

Answer 23

Because his theory of evolution went against what churches/religion said (god created everything at the same time)

Question 24

Why do we study Lamarck’s ideas if they are flawed?

Answer 24

Although he is wrong, he still suggested that evolution occurred, and also had an explanation for it (still wrong though). He at least got people to consider that living things could change

Question 25

Other than direct observation, what are other pieces of evidence supporting evolution?

Answer 25

Fossil records, homologous body structures, analogous structures, early embryonic development, and biogeography

Question 26

For a species to evolve into two (or more) new species, the _____of the two populations must become separated.

Answer 26

gene pool

Question 27

Describe how 13 different species of finches throughout the Galapagos Islands distributed from a common ancestry in mainland South America. Hint: There are five steps.

Answer 27

1: The founder finches arrive
2: the finches are separated by geographical isolation
3: their gene pools change
4: they then start to separate by behavioral isolation
5: competition and continued evolution

Question 28

Define species.

Answer 28

A group of organisms that breed with one another and produce fertile offspring

Question 29

Define gene pool.

Answer 29

A common group of genes produced when members of a population interbreed with one another

Question 30

What does allele frequency mean?

Answer 30

The number of times an allele occurs in a gene pool, as a percentage of the total occurrence of ALL alleles for that gene in that gene pool

Question 31

What are the 3 sources of genetic variation, and for each a) define, and b) give an example

Answer 31

Mutations: a heritable change in the DNA sequence
I.e. a mutation in the skin cells due to exposure to UV rays, resulting in skin cancer
Genetic recombination: the exchange of genetic material between different organisms which leads to the production of offspring with combinations of traits that differ from those found in either parent
I.e. during meiosis when homologous chromosomes line up in pairs and swap segments of DNA
Lateral gene transfer: when genes pass from one individual to another individual that is NOT parent and/or offspring. This passing of genes produces a kind of gene flow called lateral gene transfer
I.e. the transfer (through consumption) of fungal genes into insects called aphids

Question 32

Differentiate between single gene traits and polygenic traits and give an example of each.

Answer 32

Single gene traits: a trait that is controlled by only one gene; i.e. Gregor Mendel’s pea plants; usually two phenotypes; simple
Polygenic traits: “poly” means many; “genic” means genes - a trait that is controlled more than 2 genes; many possible genotypes; a variety of phenotypes; i.e. blood types

Question 33

Define phylogeny.

Answer 33

The study of the evolutionary history of lineages of organisms

Question 34

What is a clade?

Answer 34

A group of species that includes a single common ancestry and descendants of that ancestor - living or extinct