Download Evolution Notes CP - Northern Highlands

CP Biology May 2016
Name _______________________
EVOLUTION Ch. 16, 17, 18, 19
Answer questions completely. Notes may be used for open-note test to follow.
Chapter 16 : Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
1. What was Charles Darwin’s contribution to science?
What did Darwin mean by “species vary globally”?
2. What did Lamarck mean by an acquired characteristic?
What role did Lamarck think acquired characteristics played in evolution?
3. What is artificial selection? What is inherited variation?
Could artificial selection occur without inherited variation? Explain
4. What does the term survival of the fittest mean? What is an adaptation?
5. Under what conditions does natural selection occur?
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6. Explain the difference between fitness and adaptation. How are the two concepts related?
7. How does natural selection lead to populations that gradually change over time?
8. Explain what Darwin meant by descent with modification?
9. How old is the earth?
How old is the earliest evidence of life on earth?
10. Explain the difference between homologous and analogous structures.
Give examples of each.
Which are more important to evolutionary biologists? Why?
11. What are vestigial structures? Give an example. How do they show evidence of evolution?
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12. What evidence of evolution comes from our understanding of molecules?
Give an example of a homologous molecule. What does it show?
Chapter 17: Evolution of Populations
13. How is evolution defined in genetic terms?
14. What is a gene pool?
What is relative frequency of an allele?
How does evolution change the relative frequency of alleles in a gene pool?
Why does this happen?
15. What indicates that evolution is occurring in a population?
16. What are the sources of genetic variation? Briefly describe each.
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17. Compare directional selection and disruptive selection.
18. What is “genetic drift”? Why is it more important in small populations?
19. What five conditions are necessary to maintain genetic equilibrium?
20. Do populations usually stay in genetic equilibrium after the environment has changed
significantly? Explain your answer.
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21. What is speciation?
List three forms of reproductive isolation resulting in speciation. Briefly describe each.
22. What are molecular clocks?
Describe the relationship between evolutionary time and the similarity in genes of two species.
Chapter 18: Classification
23. What is “binomial nomenclature”?
24. List the sequence of taxa in Linnaeus’ system, from smallest to largest. Which taxa make up an
organism’s scientific name?
25. What is a cladogram and how is it used to show evolution?
26. What are the six kingdoms?
How are three domains used to group some of the kingdoms?
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Chapter 19: History of Life
27. What is relative dating of fossils?
28. What is carbon dating (radiometric dating)?
29. Explain how punctuated equilibrium is different from gradualism.
30. What is adaptive radiation, or divergent evolution? Give an example.
When might adaptive radiation result in convergent evolution?
31. What is coevolution? Give an example.
32. Describe the conditions we think may have existed on primitive earth.
What did Urey and Miller’s experiment demonstrate to support this theory?
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