Download Check Understanding 16.4 Evidence of Evolution

Check Understanding 16.4
Evidence of Evolution
Name ___________________________________
Period _____ Date _______________ Seat ____
Biogeography
1. ___________________________
is the study of past and present distribution of organisms.
2. Biogeography helped Darwin realize that the different finch species of the Galápagos Islands
were ____________________________
from birds in South America.
descended
3. Body parts in closely related organisms (like birds and reptiles)
that are structurally similar but may not share the same function
homologous structures
are examples of ________________________________________.
4. Body parts of unrelated organisms (bees, bats, and birds) that
serve the same function but are not structurally related are
analogous structures
examples of ___________________________________________.
5. Inherited structures that have lost much of their original function
vestigial structures
(like the whale pelvis) are called _______________________________________.
embryonic
6. Similarities in early stages of _______________________cell
growth among animals with
backbones are evidence of common descent.
7. Radioactive dating suggests Earth is about ______________________
years old, which is
4.5 billion
plenty of time for evolution to take place.
8. Scientists have found hundreds of examples of transitional fossils of animals that are
“__________________________”
species that lived in the past and those alive today.
In between
9. Fossils of ancient whales show that the ancestors of whales ____________________
on land.
walked
10. The shared _________________
code among all living things is powerful evidence that all
genetic
organisms evolved from a common ancestor that used this code.
11. Homologous proteins like ______________________,
which is used in cellular respiration in
cytochrome c
almost all living things, provides evidence of common descent.
12. Peter and Rosemary Grant showed that natural selection can change _________________
beak
sizes in wild Galápagos finch populations.
13. Vestigial structures, like the wings of an ostrich, are used as examples of
evidence for evolution. Some people argue that ostrich wings are not vestigial
because they use them in other ways, and thus cannot be used to support
evolution. Evaluate this argument for accuracy.
Evolutionary theory doesn't say that vestigial characters have no function. A trait can be
vestigial and functional at the same time. It is vestigial not because it's functionless, but
because it no longer performs the function for which it evolved (to fly).
14. How is it that flightless birds like the Galápagos cormorant, New Zealand Kiwi,
New Zealand Kakapo, Hawaiian rail, Samoan island wood rail, Gough island
moorhen, and the Auckland island teal could survive without being able to fly?
Kiwi
These birds evolved on islands that lack mammal and reptile predators that prey on birds.
Flight is metabolically expensive, using up a lot of energy that otherwise could be diverted
to reproduction.