Chapter 1: Evolution

Question 1

Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus

Answer 1

the two theologists who proposed “natural truth” and “revealed truth”

Question 2

Roger Bacon

Answer 2

urged against religious dogma and told people to “look at the world”

Question 3

Francis Bacon

Answer 3

advocated experimentalism as a way to verify and rigorously test all things

Question 4

Nicklaus Copernicus

Answer 4

an astronomer who theorized that the earth revolves around the sun, not the other way around, like theologists believed

Question 5

Galileo Galilei

Answer 5

an astronomer who supported the Copernican theory, and was placed under house arrest for 14 years because of it. He was also later forced to recant his scientific views.

Question 6

Isaac Newton

Answer 6

the english physicist who discovered gravity

Question 7

James Usher

Answer 7

an archbishop who declared that the earth was created in 4004 BC

Question 8

catastrophism

Answer 8

the theory that the Earth’s landscape is shaped by global catastrophes

Question 9

gradualism

Answer 9

the theory that the Earth’s geological features are a result of slow, continuous processes

Question 10

uniformitariansim

Answer 10

the theory that geological processes have remained “uniform” throughout all of history. For example, the rate at which sedimentation occurs has remained constant over the Earth’s entire history.

Question 11

biogeography

Answer 11

the study of the past and present distribution of individual species and entire communities

Question 12

adaptation

Answer 12

a particularity of structure, physiology, or behavior that increases an organism’s chance of survival and reproductive success

Question 13

niche

Answer 13

the role of a species in the community of which it is part. It is the sum of an organism’s adaptations, resources, and trophic interactions with other organisms.

Question 14

natural selection

Answer 14

the differential reproductive success of members of a species

Question 15

artificial selection

Answer 15

the process by which desirable traits are selectively bred in plants and animals

Question 16

survival of the fittest

Answer 16

variations that provide the greatest survival and reproductive advantages will be propagated at a greater rate than variations that are disadvantageous

Question 17

selective pressure

Answer 17

when an outside force affects the composition of a population by favoring certain traits over others

Question 18

half-life

Answer 18

the number of years required for half of the isotope to decay into another, more stable, element

Question 19

coevolution

Answer 19

the reciprocal evolution of two or more interacting populations

Question 20

transition fossils

Answer 20

fossils of organisms that seem to present a direct lineage between ancestral and present-day organisms

Question 21

cladogenesis

Answer 21

a pattern of change characterized by the branching of a lineage into different paths

Question 22

mass extinction

Answer 22

where the number of taxonomic families drops sharply

Question 23

phylogeny

Answer 23

the evolutionary history of a species or a group of related species

Question 24

natural selection

Answer 24

the process by which favorable variations become more frequent in the gene pool

Question 25

vestigial structures

Answer 25

structures that are present in an organism yet have no apparent function

Question 26

homologous structures

Answer 26

equivalent structures between species with common ancestors

Question 27

analogous structures

Answer 27

structures that have superficial and functional similarities, not because of common ancestry, but because of convergent evolution

Question 28

convergent evolution

Answer 28

structures with similar functions arise separately in different species

Question 29

species

Answer 29

a group of organisms that can breed with one another in a wild, free-ranging condition to produce fertile offspring

Question 30

speciation

Answer 30

the process by which new species arise

Question 31

adaptive radiation

Answer 31

the evolution of many related species from an ancestral species in a relatively short time. Can occur when the ancestral species exploits many new ecological niches.

Question 32

prezygotic isolation

Answer 32

barriers to reproductive events that take place before fertilization

Question 33

postzygotic isolation

Answer 33

barriers to reproduction that occur after fertilization has taken place

Question 34

morphotype

Answer 34

different types of individuals of the same species in a population; a morph

Question 35

allopatric speciation

Answer 35

a form of speciation that occurs when populations become geographically isolated from one another

Question 36

selective pressure

Answer 36

an outside force that affects the composition of a population by favoring certain traits over others

Question 37

theory

Answer 37

a comprehensive explanation based on a broad set of observations

Question 38

hypothesis

Answer 38

a proposed explanation for an observation

Question 39

the heterotroph hypothesis

Answer 39

attempts to explain how the first life on earth evolved

Question 40

prokaryote

Answer 40

a one-celled organism that lacks a nuclear membrane, and can be divided into the subgroups bacteria and archaea

Question 41

eukaryote

Answer 41

an organism that has a nuclear membrane in its cell

Question 42

stromatolites

Answer 42

dome-shaped fossils of bacteria (prokaryotes) that are between 3.5 and 4 billion years old

Question 43

reducing atmosphere

Answer 43

an atmospheric condition that lacks free oxygen, and may contain such reactive gases as hydrogen and/or carbon monoxide. The chemicals in this type of atmosphere can act as reducing agents—they donate electrons. This characteristic allows for the synthesis of organic molecules.

Question 44

biotic

Answer 44

living organisms in the environment

Question 45

abiotic

Answer 45

the nonliving environment

Question 46

oxidizing atmosphere

Answer 46

an atmosphere that contains high amounts of oxygen

Question 47

protobionts

Answer 47

aggregates of molecules that might have been precursors to cells

Question 48

heterotroph

Answer 48

takes in materials and processes them

Question 49

coacervates

Answer 49

aggregates of polymerized molecules, such as starches and proteins, that self-assemble

Question 50

polymers

Answer 50

molecules made up of individual subunits bonded together to make one long chain

Question 51

proteinoids

Answer 51

abiotically produced polypeptides

Question 52

microspheres

Answer 52

formed when proteinoids self-assemble to surround water and exhibit some characteristics of a membrane

Question 53

liposomes

Answer 53

a shell of lipids that self-assembles to surround water and molecules

Question 54

ribozyme

Answer 54

an RNA molecule that can catalyze chemical reactions

Question 55

nucleotides

Answer 55

subunits of RNA

Question 56

catalyst

Answer 56

a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change

Question 57

RNA

Answer 57

a polymer made up of subunits called nucleotides