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Evolution Study Guide
Please study all of your worksheets for Evolution, notes in your comp. book and the Evolution portion of your
book.
Lesson 89-Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?
Define extinct: Last member of a species dies without surviving offspring.
Define endangered: A species with such a small population that they are in danger of becoming extinct.
How are Asian and African Elephants related?
They have a common ancestor.
Do you think scientists should try to bring back the mammoth? Why or why not?
Pros: study them, people will pay to see it, it would be awesome. Cons: costs money, need a habitat, climate
doesn’t suit them, invasive, destroy habitat, couldn’t be released, protect species we have, affect ecosystem
Lesson 90-Figuring Out Fossils
What is a fossil?
Mineralized remains.
How is a fossil generally made?
The body is covered, it decomposes and the bones are slowly replaced by minerals.
Lesson 91-Fossilized Footprints
What is the difference between an observation and an inference?
An observation is something you find with one of your five senses and an inference is an assumption you make
based on observations.
Lesson 93-Reading the Rocks
What is the law of superposition?
The lower something is in a series of rocks, the older it is.
What is a stratigraphic column?
A stratigraphic column is an illustration of a series of rock layers.
You observe two different types of fossils in the same layer of a stratigraphic column. What would you infer
about these two organisms? They were alive at the same time.
How can we tell from a stratigraphic column when an organism went extinct?
When an organism stops appearing in rock layers (fossil record, stratigraphic column), we know it went extinct.
Lesson 94-A Meeting of Minds
What is Darwin’s theory of evolution?
Natural selection—some organisms survive better in an environment and live long enough to reproduce. The
organism then passes on its traits.
What is Lamarck’s theory of evolution? Parents pass on acquired traits to offspring.
How does Darwin’s theory of evolution explain extinction?
If an organism is not suited to its environment it will usually go extinct. Occasionally a helpful mutation can
occur that will become an adaptation in the species and help it survive.
96-Battling Beaks
What is natural selection?
A process in which organisms with traits that better suit the environment pass their traits on to their offspring
because they survive long enough to reproduce. Mutations=variation in population.
Describe how this lesson illustrates an example of natural selection:
The four-tined forkbird was able to pick up the most wild loops consistently. Since the four-tined variation was
more suited to the environment they survived the most consistently and were able to reproduce. Over time,
more birds had four tines.
97-Origins of Species
What is variance?
Difference among members of a population.
What is a genetic mutation?
A mistake in the genes. Mutations can be passed on to offspring since it is part of the genetic make-up of the
parent.
How are mutations and evolution connected?
Mutations increase variation. Some mutations may help organisms survive long enough to reproduce. They pass
on their mutation and if it is helpful enough, it will become a common trait in the species.