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Exam Format
• The exam is entirely in essay format.
• There are three sections:
• Section A: short essays (5 marks each), 8/11 = 40
marks
• Section B: medium-length essays (15 marks
each), 2/4= 30 marks
• Section C: one long essay (30 marks), 1/3 = 30
• Section A: Point form okay if clear &
unambiguous. Section B & C: No point form.
Tables OK but discuss info in body of answer.
• Keep in mind the format. Integrate concepts
and put them in context, don’t just regurgitate.
No questions on specific examples
• You may need to provide examples or you may
want to use them to clarify.
• You are not responsible for specific
sections of the text.
• Papers presented in the tutorials are also not
specifically tested on the exam.
• You may include information from papers,
the text, and your essay.
1. Darwin and the Modern
Synthesis
• How did Darwin’s ideas differ from earlier
concepts?
• Why was Darwin’s idea “dangerous”?
• Reception of Darwin’s ideas – what are the
holes?
Modern synthesis –
• What did it add to Darwin’s theory?
2. Analysis of Adaptation
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Are all traits adaptive?
What is adaptation? How can you tell?
How do adaptations arise? (NS)
Are all adaptations perfect?
Who/what benefits from adaptation?
Evolution of Sex – why so hard to explain?
Sexual Selection
• What can it explain that NS can’t?
• Theories of dev’t
Evolution of Sex Ratio
• maintenance of 50:50
• adaptiveness of asymmetry
3. Unit of selection?
• Unit that benefits from adaptation + heritability
• Conflict between levels?
• Problems of reproductive restraint/altruism/
eusociality
• Life history analysis, Kin selection
4. Adaptive Explanation
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Adaptationist program
Criticism (Gould & Lewontin)
Mutation, Gene Flow, Genetic Drift
Problem: Complex characters &
Intermediate stages
• Explanations for non-adaptive traits
• Why might adaptations not be perfect?
5. Evolution & Classification
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Anagenesis vs. Cladogenesis, what do they cause?
Pheneticists vs. Cladists
How might their phylogenies differ?
What characters are used & why?
How can character choice affect a phylogeny?
Homologies vs. Analogies
Monophyly, Paraphyly, Polyphyly
What causes mistakes?
– Mosaic Evolution , Retention & Homoplasy
6. The Idea of Species
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Why do we need a definition?
Why so hard to define?
Species concepts (pros &cons):
Phenetic
Biological
Ecological
Premating & Postmating Isolation
– Types
– Are they the cause or effect of speciation?
• How do RIM evolve?
7. Speciation
• Integral to our understanding of
diversification
• Geographic Variation
– Types & relevance to speciation
• What is needed for speciation to occur?
• Speciation Models:
- Allopatric
- Peripheral isolates/peripatric
- Parapatric
- Sympatric: instantaneous & gradual
• Genetic models
8. Reconstructing Phylogenies
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Why do we need phylogenies?
What do they show?
Homologies vs. analogies
When might some characters not be informative
Distinguishing b/w ancestral & derived characters
Rooted & unrooted trees
Technical stuff: Molecular evolution, Parsimony
Variation in substitution rates…
9. Biogeography
• Historical + Ecological explanations
• Range Expansion
- Dispersal
- Adaptive radiations
• Dispersal vs. Vicariance
- Patterns formed
- Models
• Historical Biogeography – fossil record vs. today
• Current dist’ns – ancient + recent history + ecology
• What explains differences in species ranges?
• Reconstructing speciation from geol. & geog history
10. Rates of Evolutionary Change
• Trying to explain differences in rates of change
• Problems: chronospecies & incomplete fossil record
• How phylogenetic & taxonomic rates relate to one
another/affect one another
• Evolution of single characters (darwins)
• Quantum evolution
• Why do rates vary?
• What can the evolution of recent species tell us about
the past?
• P.G. vs. P.E.
11. Macroevolution
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Slow & gradual vs. dramatic changes
Microevolution vs. Macroevolution
Saltation vs. Neodarwinists
Morph change: what characters most likely to be affected?
Modification
Transformation (in what?)
Allometry
- Heterochrony
- What are the outcomes
- How can you tell which has acted
- Importance to evolution?
- Genetic basis of heterochrony ( e.g. Hox genes)
12. Coevolution
• What is it?
• Why does it happen?
• Can coevolutionary interactions cause
extinction?
• Lag-load
• Models (Red Queen etc.)
• TSC to evaluate models
13. Background vs. Mass
Extinctions
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What causes them? (5 major events)
Difference b/w background & mass extinction
Ecological effects of mass extinctions
Cyclical mass extinctions?
Signor-Lipps effect
What makes a good survivor?
Iterative evolution