Download Evolution Learning Objectives

Evolution Learning Objectives
Answer thoroughly on your binder paper!
I strongly encourage you to learn the bold vocabulary terms below (make flashcards). Use the figures
from your book and labs to help you make connects between these concepts.
1. Define evolution.
2. What is a species?
3. Describe Darwin’s voyage and the observations that he made.
4. How are artificial selection and natural selection similar? How are they different?
5. What is a population?
6. Describe the four ways that natural selection causes evolution.
7. What is meant by the phrases ‘survival of the fittest”?
8. How do mutations play a role in natural selection?
9. Why is variability (variations) important in populations?
10. Why does natural selection act on phenotype rather than genotype?
11. How does ‘fitness’ of individuals play a role in evolution of a population?
12. How is it possible for alleles that are lethal to stay in a gene pool from one generation to the next?
13. Define and give an example of the following: biogeography, embryology, homologous
structures, analogous structures, and vestigial structures.
14. How are molecular clocks used to understand relationships between species?
15. In a gene there are 3 mutations between species A and species B. In the same gene there are 10
mutations between species B and species C, and 15 mutations between species A and C. Which
species are most closely related based on this data alone?
16. Describe two ways that genetic variation occurs in gene pools.
17. What is the allele frequency for an allele that is present 25 times out of 100?
18. Do allele frequencies for genes tend to stay stable overtime or change over time. Explain.
19. Summarize and draw a graph for each of the following: directional selection, stabilizing
selection, and disruptive selection.
20. If there is a great deal of gene flow between two populations, what will likely happen?
21. What is genetic drift?
22. How do the bottleneck effect and the founder effect lead to genetic drift?
23. What is Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium and the equation?
24. Why is Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium unlikely to occur in nature?
25. Analyze and describe Figure 11.11 on page 342 in your book.
26. What is speciation?
27. Describe four ways that speciation can occur. Be familiar with these!!!
28. Contrast convergent evolution and divergent evolution.
29. What is coevolution? Give an example and explain how the species are affecting each other.
30. Contrast background extinctions with mass extinctions.
31. How might the fossil record provide data suggesting that a mass extinction occurred? What would
a paleontologist observe in the fossil record?
32. Define punctuated equilibrium and adaptive radiation. Relate these to the term ‘episodic
speciation’.
33. How is relative dating different from radiometric dating?
34. Which isotope would be best to use to date a fossil that is thought to be less than 12,000 years old?
One that may be around 6 billion years old? (Use Figure 12.3, p362)
35. Analyze Figure 17.6 (p527). A) Which type of organism doesn’t have an embryo protected by
amniotic fluid? B) Which type of organisms have skull openings in front of the eye and in the jaw?
C) Based on this cladogram, which are more closely related mammals and birds or crocodiles and
birds?