Classification

Question 1

What is intraspecific variation ?

Answer 1

Variation within the species

Question 2

What is interspecific variation ?

Answer 2

Variation between different species

Question 3

What are the types of variation ?

Answer 3

• Discontinous
• Continous
• Intraspecific
• Interspecific

Question 4

What is discontinous variation ?

Answer 4

• When you can group the phenotypes into two or more categories , e.g.
• Blood group
• Tongue rolling
• Data plotted on a bar graph
• Usually caused by one or a small number of genes

Question 5

What is continous variataion ?

Answer 5

• Phenotype varies within a range - no distinct catogeries e.g
• Height
• Body mass
• Waist circumference
• Data plotted on histogram
• Influenced by many genes (polygenic) and the envrionment

Question 6

What are the causes of variation?

Answer 6

• Genetic
• Environmental
• Variation that is discontinous is commonly monogenic and not influenced by the environment
• Variation that is continous is commonly polygenic and influenced by the environment (e.g height can be influenced by the environment)

Question 7

What is an adaptation ?

Answer 7

• Adaptations are characteristics that increase an organism’s chance of survival and reproduction in its environment.

Question 8

What can well-adapated organisms do ?

Answer 8

• Find enough food and water to survive
• Gather enough nutrients
• Defend itself from predators
• Survive diseases
• Survive drastic changes in their environment
• Have enough energy left (after surviving all of these) and poroduce sucessfully

Question 9

What are the types of adaptations?

Answer 9

• Anatomical
• Behavioural
• Physiological

Question 10

What is anatomical adaptations ?

Answer 10

• Are to do with the structural features of the body , e.g ear size and shape

Question 11

What is behavioural adaptations?

Answer 11

• are to do with things the animal does, e.g hibernating and migrating

Question 12

What are physiological adaptations ?

Answer 12

• are processes inside an organisms body e.g making venom or temperature regulation, lowering metabolism during hibernation

Question 13

What is evolution ?

Answer 13

• Evolution is the change in heritable characteristics of biological populations over time

Question 14

What is natural selection ?

Answer 14

• Is one of the mechanisms of evolution defined by Charles Darwin

Question 15

Explain natural selection

Answer 15

• There is phenotypic within a species due to mutations
• Selection pressure (envrionmental factors) create a struggle for survival
• Individuals with selective advantage are more likely to survive and reproduce (reprodcutive sucess)
• These individuals pass on their benenficial allele to their offspring
• Over time the proportion of the population possessing the advantageous allele increases
• Over generations this leads to the favourable alleles becoming more common in the populations phenotype

Question 16

What is the evidence of evolution ?

Answer 16

• Palaentology- study of fossil records
  
  • Comparative anatomy - similarties and differences between organisms anatomy
  • Comparative biochemistry - similiarties and differences with organisms chemical make up

Answer 17

Blood and water flow across the lamellae in a counter current direction meaning they flow in opposite direction.