Download Ecology and Evolution (50

Ecology and Evolution (50.102) Spring, 2004
Test 1 Study Guide
For the exam, you should be familiar with all material that was covered in lecture, the book chapters 1, 17, 18, some of 19 and the lecture
images. If you are unsure about a particular concept from the lecture or the book, be on the safe side and know it anyway. Use your lecture
notes and the electronic images from the course website for a general guide. Also, I may ask you a few questions about the additional
reading. Here is a list of concepts and questions that you may want to use for a general guide while studying. Remember that this list may
be incomplete.
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What are some of the central questions that biologists try to answer?
Make a list of how we organize (hierarchically) life on this planet. Define each component (i.e. tissue, cell, etc.)
What is an emergent property?
Define the following: photosynthesis, chemosynthesis and homeostasis.
What are the requirements or properties of life?
What is an adaptation? Why are they important? How do they relate to organic evolution? Name some examples of adaptations.
How do adaptations come about?
Is natural selection random?
Define the concept of decent through modification. Who proposed it? What year(s)?
What is the fundamental theorem of natural selection? Who proposed it? What year?
Define biodiversity and extinction.
What is the general scheme for classification of living organisms? What levels of this classification are most inclusive? Which are
least inclusive? To what order to humans belong? Can you think of any anatomical artifacts of this heritage?
What are the components of the Scientific Method? What is entailed in each component?
How do we set a scientific hypothesis apart from unscientific hypotheses?
What is the difference between a hypothesis and a prediction?
What occurs after the rejection of a hypothesis?
What is a scientific theory?
How do we set a scientific theory apart from unscientific theories? When someone says, “evolution is only a theory” or “the
presence of genes is only a theory”, does that mean we shouldn’t take it seriously?
What is a scientific principle?
Define the following theories in a sentence: Cell theory, Biogenesis, Gene, Evolution, Island Biogeography.
What is the difference between experimental and observational hypothesis testing?
Why was the year 1831 so important to the way we view biology today?
Compare and contrast the “pre-darwinian” and “post-darwinian” world views.
What is the difference between a pre-darwinian history of life (phylogeny) on earth and a post-darwinian history of life
(phylogeny).
Outline some of the major players in the history of evolutionary thought. Why are each considered important players? What
aspects of the history did they contribute? How did they overcome the obstacles of the development of evolutionary thought?
What is the Great Chain of Being? The Scala Naturae?
Did Linnaeus think that species were mutable? Did Buffon?
What is the archetype? What were some of the major problems that constrained the development of evolutionary theory?
Who came up with the first mechanistic theory of evolution? How does it differ with the views of Darwin and Wallace?
What is the difference between catastrophism and uniformatarianism?
Draw a timeline of the 1800’s and some of the major events occurring during the development of an evolutionary theory. Where
does Mendel come in?
What are the 4 main components of Evolution via natural selection according to the Darwinian paradigm.
Name some overarching ramifications properties of the theory (One of them is: it can only work on existing variability).
Again, what is the difference between evolution via natural selection and the fundamental theorem of natural selection? Who
proposed each? When? Why are each important?
You may want to suppliment
What is some evidence for evolution? Under what four categories can we place most of the evidence for evolution?
What does stratification of rocks and their associated fossils tell us?
What is the general pattern when it comes to complexity and geological time?
There are several ways to date rocks. What are some pros and cons when it comes to dating rocks using those methods?
What are some patterns of diversity of life through time since the Cambrian?
What is a transitional fossil. Give me some examples.
What is continental drift? How does this kind of information give us evidence for evolution?
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Define and explain the following equation as it relates to populations: VP = VG + VE + VGxE
What is the difference between gradual (anagenetic or phyletic) and punctuated (cladistic) evolution?
What is a vestigial structure? Give some examples that we discussed in lecture. What about in humans?
Is the history of horse evolution anagenetic or cladistic?
What is homology? What are homologous structures?
What does comparative embryology tell us about evolution?
Is the function of a protein lost when it changes its amino acid sequence?
Define the following: population, population genetics, DNA, gene pool, gene, allele, locus, loci, chromosome, homologous
chromosome, homozygous, heterozygous, dominant, recessive, phenotypic frequency, allele frequency, fitness.
What is so important about homologous chromosomes when it comes to population variability?
Fisher’s Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection vs. Fisher’s Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection (modernized or
modified).
In a population of 200 wallabies, 36% of the population is homozygous for a grey fur phenotype at the fur locus (GG), 50% are
heterozygous (Gg), and the rest are homozygous for brown fur at the fur locus (gg). The grey fur allele is dominant to the brown
fur allele. What is are the phenotype and genotype frequencies of this population with respect to fur color? What will they be in
the next generation assuming the population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium? What will the frequencies be in 5 generations?
Do practice problems 1 and 2 on page 303 in your book. You may have to use Figure 18.1 to help you complete these questions.
Why didn’t your population evolve? What are the assumptions of H-W equilibrium? What are the causes of microevolution?
What is the difference between micro- and macroevolution?
Define mutation, gene drift, gene flow and natural selection.
What is industrial melanism? Which cause of microevolution is it an example of?
What are the different types of natural selection?
Is there a link between the genotype and the phenotype? On which does natural selection work?
What types of traits are usually under selection? Since they are polygenic, that means we can describe them by a bell-shaped curve
when we plot the trait against frequency.
Describe stabilizing, directional, disruptive, correlational and frequency dependent natural selection.
Which type is the case of industrial melanism in the peppered moth?
Which type would describe bacterial resistance to an antibiotic? Why do you need to take the entire prescription of your
antibiotics? Please do so for all of us.
What type of selection is described by the poison dart frog mimics?
What is a species?
Name some isolating mechanisms? What is the difference between pre- and postzygotic isolating mechanisms?
Compare and contrast allopatric and sympatric speciation. What is assortative mating? Sexual selection? Can you give me
examples?
What is an adaptive radiation? Can you give me examples?