Variation Flashcards
What is a Characteristic/Trait?
A feature of an organism.
What is Variation?
Differences between individuals of the same species.
What are the three types of Variation?
Inherited/Genetic Variation;
Environmental Variation.
Genetic and Environmental Variation.
What is Inherited/Genetic Variation?
Differences between organisms that are inherited from the parents.
Examples of Inherited/Genetic Variation:
Hair colour, eye colour, gender, blood group, ability to roll tongue, fixed ear lobes.
What is Gender an example of?
Inherited/Genetic Variation because it’s a result of the genes you inherit from your parents.
What is Environment Variation?
Differences that aren’t inherited from the parents but caused by the surrounding environment of the organism.
Example of Environmental Variation?
Flower color of Hydrangeas: blue color if in acidic soil, pink in alkaline.
Examples in Humans: Scars, Weight gain from eating excessively, language and accent, plants in the shade of big trees grow taller to reach the sun.
What is Environmental and Genetic Variation?
Differences between individuals that are caused by both environmental and genetic factors.
Examples of E&G Variation?
Height, Weight, human’s hair color, size of plant.
Give a list of Genetic, Environmental, and Genetic+Environmental characteristics.
Genetic: Eye colour; blood group; attached ear lobes; animal fur.
Environmental: Tattoos; Scars; Language and Accent; Hydrangeas.
Genetic+Environmental:Hair colour; Weight; Height; Size of plant.
What is Continuous Variation?
Characteristics that change gradually over a range of values.
Example of Continuous Variation Characteristics:
Height, Weight, Hand span, heart rate, finger length, leaf length.
In Continuous Variation, for example, height…
Any height is possible between the two extremes: the tallest person and the shortest person.
What kind of graphs are used for showing continuous variation?
Line Graphs.
Why is there a curve in continuous variation graphs?
It is called bell-shaped, and shows normal distribution.
Continuous Variation is a combination of what causes?
Continuous Variation is a combination of genetic and environmental causes, for example:
-Tall parents pass the tall gene on to their children.
-The children will have the genetic potential to grow tall.
-However, if their diet is poor, they will not grow well.
-Therefore their environment has an impact on their height.
What’s the connection between genes and surrounding environment on continuous variation?
Although genes decided what characteristics we inherit, the surrounding environment will affect how these characteristics will develop.
What is discontinuous variation?
A characteristic that shows clear-cut differences between organisms of a species.
Each discontinuous characteristic…
persists throughout an organism’s lifetime.
What kind of graph is used to represent discontinuous variation?
A bar graph.
Examples of discontinuous variation:
Sex, blood group, tongue rolling, finger prints, eye color.
What are Intermediate Values?
In-between values. There are no intermediate values in discontinuous variation.
What is Quantitative?
Relating to number values. Continuous variation tends to be quantitative.
What is Qualitative?
It’s either one value or the other, with no intermediate values. Discontinuous variation is qualitative.
