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AP Biology Study Guide
Chapter 13: How Populations Evolve
Opening Essay
1. Describe four adaptations that help blue-footed boobies survive. Explain why theseadaptations
represent an evolutionary compromise.
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
2. Briefly summarize the history of evolutionary thought.
3. Explain how Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle influenced his thinking.
4. Describe the ideas and events that led to Darwin’s 1859 publication of The Origin of Species.
5. Explain how the work of Thomas Malthus and the process of artificial selection influenced Darwin’s
development of the idea of natural selection.
6. Describe Darwin’s observations and inferences in developing the concept of natural selection.
7. Explain why individuals cannot evolve and why evolution does not lead to perfectly adapted
organisms.
8. Describe two examples of natural selection known to occur in nature. Note three key points about
how natural selection works.
9. Explain how fossils form, noting examples of each process.
10. Explain how the fossil record provides some of the strongest evidence of evolution.
11. Explain how biogeography, comparative anatomy, comparative embryology, and molecular biology
support evolution.
12. Explain how evolutionary trees are constructed and used to represent ancestral relationships.
The Evolution of Populations
13. Define the gene pool, a population, and microevolution.
14. Explain how mutation and sexual recombination produce genetic variation.
15. Explain why prokaryotes can evolve more quickly than eukaryotes.
16. Describe the five conditions required for the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
17. Explain the significance of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium to natural populations and to public
health science.
Mechanisms of Microevolution
18. Define genetic drift and gene flow. Explain how the bottleneck effect and the founder effect influence
microevolution.
19. Explain how genetic bottlenecks threaten the survival of certain species.
20. Explain why natural selection is the only mechanism that leads to adaptive evolution.
21. Distinguish between stabilizing selection, directional selection, and disruptive selection. Describe an
example of each.
22. Define and compare intrasexual selection and intersexual selection.
23. Explain how antibiotic resistance has evolved.
24. Explain how genetic variation is maintained in populations.
25. Explain what is meant by neutral variation.
26. Give four reasons why natural selection cannot produce perfection.
C. Gay 11/1/08
Steamboat Springs High School AP Biology
Key Terms
adaptation
genetic drift
artificial selection
Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
balancing selection
heterozygote advantage
biogeography
homologous structures
bottleneck effect
homology
directional selection
microevolution
disruptive selection
molecular biology
evolution
mutation
evolutionary tree
natural selection
extinction
neutral variation
fitness
paleontologist
fossil record
population
fossils
sexual dimorphism
founder effect
sexual selection
frequency-dependent selection
stabilizing selection
gene flow
strata
gene pool
vestigial organ
C. Gay 11/1/08
Steamboat Springs High School AP Biology