Week 1

Question 1

How do plants use light and temperature signals to regulate development?

Answer 1

1- Stem elongation

2-Senecence

Question 2

Life is categorised into three domains:

Answer 2

– (Eu)Bacteria
– Archaea
– Eukaryota
➢ Six supergroups

Question 3

What does Recent evidence puts more

emphasis on?

Answer 3

▪ Recent evidence puts more emphasis on bacterial
diversification than previous
skewed representations of the Eukaryota.
▪ Down to the research methods used.

Question 4

What are some aspects of the origin of life?

Answer 4

1. Synthesis of building blocks of life
2. Assembly of building blocks into polymers
3. Cellular compartmentalisation

Question 5

What is LUCA?

Answer 5

last universal common ancestor

Question 6

Outline the Cambrian explosion.

Answer 6

▪ Compartmentalization of cells enabled the advent of
eukaryotes
▪ For 3 billion years much of life was unicellular…
▪ Multicellularity appeared just before the Cambrian explosion
▪ 542 mya – in the next 50 million years ancestors of almost every group of animals evolved

Question 7

Outline Biodiversity through time

Answer 7

▪ Taxonomic diversity of marine animals
(more readily fossilised than terrestrial sp.)
▪ Inconsistent trend over last 600my
▪ Arrows show mass extinction events

Question 8

How many mass extinctions are there?

Answer 8

▪ 5 mass extinction events throughout
history
▪ Currently entering the 6th one

Question 9

What is evolution?

Answer 9

Genetic change in a population of organisms over successive generations

Question 10

What are Agents of evolutionary change?

Answer 10

• Mutation
• Gene flow
• non random mating
• genetic drift
• selection

Question 11

What are factors that influence the rate of evolution?

Answer 11

Selection pressures
▪ Changes in environment
▪ Resource/food availability
▪ Competition
▪ Predators
▪ Pathogens, parasites and disease
▪ Etc.

Question 12

Monophyletic vs paraphyletic

Answer 12

▪ A monophyletic group includes all the most recent common ancestor of the group and all of its descendants
▪ A paraphyletic group includes the most recent common ancestor of the group but not all of its descendants
▪ A polyphyletic group does not include the most recent common ancestor of all members of the group

Question 13

What are the Taxonomy orders?

Answer 13

▪ Domain 
▪ Kingdom
 ▪ Phylum 
▪ Class 
▪ Order
 ▪ Family
 ▪ Genus
 ▪ Species

Question 14

What is continental drift?

Answer 14

movement of tectonic

Question 15

What is the general consensus around the origin of life?

Answer 15

Around deep sea water hydrothermal vents.

Thought that conditions were right to allow key stages in the origin of life.

Question 16

What are the three stages related to the origin of life?

Answer 16

1- synthesis of building blocks of life (molecules like AA nucleotides and simple carbohydrates).
2-Assembly of building blocks into polymers.
3-Cellular compartmentalization create all conditions necessary for reproduction of life.

Question 17

What do stronger selection pressures cause?

Answer 17

stringer selection pressures increase rate of evolution and can be either living or non-living.

Question 18

What is systematics:Phylogenics?

Answer 18

To construct phyogenic trees through cladistics (looking at shared characteristics- ancestral vs derived- evolved).

Question 19

What is a Monophyletic group?

Answer 19

includes all most recent common ancestor of the group and all its descendants.

Question 20

What is a Paraphylectic group?

Answer 20

Includes most recent common ancestor of the group but not all of its descendants.

Question 21

What is a polyphyletic group?

Answer 21

Doesn’t include the most recent common ancestor of all members of the group.

Question 22

What is evolution?

Answer 22

Genetic change in a population of organisms over successive generations.