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Unit Exam Review Sheet
Key Vocab/Concepts
Note: You need to be able to not only identify, but also describe, explain and give
examples of the following terms:
Creationism: the believe that God created the world and everything in it
Evolution
Macroevolution: how present-day organisms descended from ancient organisms
Microevolution: changes in the gene pool over time
Intelligent Design (extra credit): the idea that evolution is wrong because organisms are
too complex to have arisen from natural selection, which is pretty much a random process.
Common Descent: a group of organisms that share a common ancestor
Adaptation: a trait that allows an organism to survive and reproduce within its
environment
Relative Dating: a type of technique to tell how old the earth is, by using surrounding
sedimentary rock layers (that is the rocks around one piece of rock)
Absolute Dating: using chemicals to tell how old the earth is; using the half-life of certain
elements
Fitness: the ability to survive and reproduce in an environment
Fossil: a piece of bone left by an organism that lets you know something about how it was
structured,
Fossil Record: a collection of fossils that demonstrate how old
Common ancestor: some animal that several animals descend from
Homologous structures: parts of the body that are similar in structure to other species’
parts
Vestigial structures: parts of the body that were once useful, but no longer have a purpose
(ex: the human appendix, the human tailbone)
DNA: molecular evidence used to show similarities in two species and common ancestry
Phylogeny: the study of evolutionary relationships between organisms; phylogeny tries to
answer the question: how are these organisms related? How are they not?
MYA: millions of years ago
Natural Selection: organisms that are best suited to live in their environments (due to their
adaptations) will survive and higher rates, and reproduce at higher rates, thus making their
genes more common in a population
Survival of the Fittest: another term for natural selection; those animals that have the right
traits to adapt to their environments survive and reproduce, while others do not.
Darwin: considered to be the father of evolution, but we know he’s not. He helped advance
evolution, came up with the theory of natural selection and discovered finches on the
Galapagos islands.
Grants: studied Darwin’s finches and observed these finches go through natural selection
and evolution twice in 22 years
Finches: birds that the Grants studied; important points to remember
Before the drought hit, the finch population was 50 percent small beak and 50
percent big beaks
After the drought hit, the small beaked birds died off at a higher rate, because they
couldn’t eat the large seeds on the island. The big beaked birds could, and so they were best
able to SURVIVE AND REPRODUCE AT HIGHER RATES. Because they survived and
reproduced at higher rates, they passed on more of their genes and the finch population
became 80 percent big beaked birds and only 20 percent small beaked birds. They
underwent evolution in a short period of time.
Trait: a characteristic that an organism has (for example, small beak, big beak)
Adaptation: a characteristic that makes an organism better suited to live in its
environment;
Survival Rates: the rate at which an organism survives
Variation: the differences in traits (example: beak size is a variation; you can have big
beaks and little beaks; neck length is a variation, you can have long necks and short necks,
etc)
Population: organisms that belong to the same species
Mutation: change in DNA sequence that leads to a genotypic (your genetic makeup) and
phenotypic (your physical appearance) variation
Migration: when organisms from a population move from one geographic area to another
Genetic Drift: the change in allele frequencies (that is how often a variation of a gene
appears in a population) due to chance (that means it’s random)
Founder Effect: when organisms from a population migrate and move onto another
location and form a new colony; this leads to reduced genetic variation and increase genetic
drift
Bottleneck Effect: when the population size of a population is drastically reduced for one
generation due to a natural disaster or catastrophe
Frequency: how often something happens
Allele: a variation of a trait
Gene Pool: all of the genes of a population (for example, the finch gene pool for Daphne
Island would include all of the genes of the finches that lived on that particular island)
Genotype: your genetic makeup (that is your genes that code for a certain
trait/characteristic)
Phenotype: your physical appearance/characteristics
Species: members of a group that can reproduce and produce viable (that means they can
live to be adults) and fertile (that means their babies can have babies) offspring
Allopatric speciation: speciation (the formation of a new species) that occurs due to a
geographic barrier
Sympatric speciation: speciation that occurs without a geographic barrier, but oftentimes
due to a reproductive barrier
Ecological isolation: form of reproductive isolation where two species that live in the same
habitat but do not come into contact with one another due to either a barrier or the way the
habitat is arranged; because of this lack of contact, they cannot reproduce
Temporal isolation: form of reproductive isolation where two species that live in the same
habitat but mate at different times do not reproduce
Behavioral isolation: form of reproductive isolation where two species that live in the
same habitat but have different mating behaviors (for example, bird who sing songs vs.
birds who show off their feathers vs. birds who dance to attract their mates)
Mechanical isolation: form of reproductive isolation where two species that live in the
same habitat cannot mate because their reproductive organs are physically incompatible
(parts do not fit, and if they tried to engage in reproduction they would kill each other)
Gametic isolation: form of reproductive isolation where two species that live in the same
habitat cannot reproduce because their egg and sperm cells will not form an embryo
Reduced hybrid viability: two species try to have a baby and their offspring has a lower
chance of survival
Reduced hybrid fertility: two species try to have a baby and their offspring can’t have
offspring (their babies can’t have babies)
Phylogenetics: the study of evolutionary relationships between organisms
Cladogram: a diagram that shows the evolutionary relationships between organisms
Clade: a monophyletic group composed of an ancestral species and all of its descendants
Morphological evidence: structures that show how an organism’s body is arranged so that
you can see similarities between organisms and ultimately determine if they share common
ancestry
Molecular evidence: DNA evidence that allows you to see how closely related species are
(or how far apart they are) to determine common ancestry
Waist to Hip Ratio: the measurement that compares the circumference of your waist to
your hip (so waist size in inches/hip size in inches; NOT the other way around); important
to note that men prefer waist to hip ratio of 0.7 and lower
Broad Shoulders and Muscle Mass: important to note that according to various cross
cultural studies, women found broader shoulders and higher levels of muscle mass to be
more attractive
Facial symmetry: how identical both sides of the face are; how similar to one another they
are; important to note that people tend to prefer more symmetrical faces because it shows
how healthy someone is
Behavioral mimicry: copying someone else’s behavior due to underlying attraction
Proximity: how close you are to someone; the closer you are, the more likely it is that you
are attracted to them
Smiling – GOTCHA! Just kidding; I didn’t mean to put this one on here; I just want you to
know that this is a flirting behavior.
Extraversion: needing lots of outside stimulation from people
Introversion: needing very little stimulation from people
Conscientiousness: being diligent, hardworking, self-disciplined
Neuroticism: emotional volatility and reactivity to stress
Agreeableness: having compassion and being cooperative
Openness to Experience: being intellectually curious and adventurous; willing to try new
things
You Need to Be Able To:
Identify, describe and explain all vocabulary words listed above
Give examples of things that creationists and evolutionary theorists disagree on
Age of the earth: creationists – 6,000; evolutionary theorists – 4.5 billion years old
How the earth was formed: creationists – God made the world and everything in it;
evolutionary theorists – earth and everything in it was created by a random process called
evolution
Give examples of places to find fossils
Ice, tar pits, quick sand, amber and sap
Explain why fossils are important, but are not a perfect piece of evidence for
evolution
Because the fossil record is incomplete since some organisms that lived did not leave a trace
of their existence
Explain DNA similarity and how it’s evidence for evolution
The more similar the DNA sequences of two organisms, the more likely it is that they shared
a recent common ancestor; the less similar it is, the more likely it is that they shared a
distant common ancestor
Explain how homologous and vestigial structures are evidence for evolution
Homologous: if several organisms have similar looking body parts, they must have had a
common ancestor; if they had a common ancestor, then evolution must have taken place
because they are all different organisms; if evolution didn’t take place they would have a
common ancestor; rather they would be the common ancestor (ex: humans and
chimpanzees share a common ancestor. We can see this through homologous structures
since humans and chimpanzees share similar body parts. If humans and chimpanzees didn’t
evolve, then there wouldn’t be humans and there wouldn’t be chimpanzees. There would be
some strange primate organism)
Explain the importance of the Grant Finch study, including main findings and
supporting details
Finches vary in beak size. During the drought, big beaked birds survived at higher rates and
Before the drought hit, the finch population was 50 percent small beak and 50 percent big
beaks
After the drought hit, the small beaked birds died off at a higher rate, because they
couldn’t eat the large seeds on the island. The big beaked birds could, and so they were best
able to SURVIVE AND REPRODUCE AT HIGHER RATES. Because they survived and
reproduced at higher rates, they passed on more of their genes and the finch population
became 80 percent big beaked birds and only 20 percent small beaked birds. They
underwent evolution in a short period of time.
Explain how Grant Finch study demonstrated natural selection and evolution
See above
Explain the four mechanisms for evolution (mutation, migration, genetic drift and
natural selection)
Mutation: change in DNA sequence
Migration: population moves from one place to another
Genetic drift: random change in allele frequencies due to chance
Natural selection: the process by which a trait because more common in a population
because an organism with the right traits (aka adaptations) survived and reproduced in its
environment
Explain how four mechanisms listed above can cause genotypic and phenotypic
variation within a population
Mutation: your genetic sequences changes as does your physical appearance
Migration: reduces genetic variation so that organisms have similar genotypes and
phenotypes
Genetic drift: changes the percentage of genotypes and phenotypes in a population
Natural selection: causes a certain genotype and phenotype to be more popular since that
particular trait is what helps organisms to survive and reproduce
Need to be able to make a cladogram
Describe some factors that make men and women “universally” attractive as well as
evolutionary theories that explain why these factors are attractive
Men: broad shoulders and higher levels of muscle mass (aka musculature) because
it means that men have more testosterone and will be healthier, therefore they will survive
and pass on their traits to the next generation
Women: lower waist to hip ratio which signals that women are healthier and will
survive to bear healthy children
Men and women: facial symmetry because if your face is aligned then it shows that
internally you are more healthy; since facial asymmetry tends to be a sign of illness/disease
(stroke, brain damage, etc)
List and identify common flirting behaviors
Smiling, proximity, behavioral mimicry, sustained eye contact, etc
Explain evolutionary theory of why women have more flirting strategies than men
Because women are more invested in the reproductive process (they get pregnant and have
to have the kid – aka labor; they also in many cases spend more time raising the child), so
it’s in their best interests to attract a suitable mate and they’re expected to spend more time
doing so
Compare and contrast extroverts and introverts
Extroverts: need a lot of outside stimulation, gain energy from talking to people; tend to be
more enthusiastic, tend to have more energy, more friends; tend to engage in more risky
behaviors etc
Introverts: need less outside stimulation, tend to be more neutral, tend to have less friends,
tend to be more gifted, have a rich inner world (aka they spend a lot of time in their own
minds, daydreaming, visualizing, planning, strategizing), need alone time in order to gain
energy and recharge
Explain why it’s important that we have both extroverts and introverts
Because they both occupy two different roles in our society that are both completely
necessary
Come up with your own examples
Explain how conscientiousness is beneficial in society
High levels of conscientiousness are associated with higher academic and workplace
performance; our society needs people who work hard and care about the things they do
and the things they produce (ex: conscientious car engineers who make high quality cars so
that we don’t all die from car accidents due to brakes that don’t work right or engines that
aren’t constructed well)
Describe the marshmallow experiment and its implications
Kids were given one marshmallow with a choice: you can eat this now and get no more
marshmallows, or you can wait and get another marshmallow
They found that the kids who waited to get the second marshmallow demonstrated high
levels of conscientiousness and were more likely to score higher on their SATS, get more
education and have a lower BMI later in life
This is tied to the principle of delayed gratification; if you can put off what you want now for
what you want most in the future, you can be successful; and you’re probably very
conscientious
Explain the evolutionary significance of neuroticism, agreeableness and openness to
experience
Neuroticism: if we didn’t have some negative emotion and if we didn’t express these
negative emotions sometimes, there would be no monogamy (that means more people
would cheat on each other all the time without consequences), no fear (which means more
people would put themselves in bad situations and kill themselves needlessly)… think of
another example
Agreeableness: If we’re not cooperate and compassionate with each other, we will not be
friends, we will not fall in love, we will not survive and reproduce because everyone would
be mean and everyone would hate each other.
Openness to experience: If we’re not intellectually curious, there would be no vaccines, no
treatment for asthma, everyone would probably die young, no interest in finding the cure to
HIV/AIDS, Ebola; there would be no social media (tweet me at #notwitteryoudrawn); we
would live a boring existence and we would not grow as a society.