Evolution

Question 0

What is biodiversity?

Answer 0

Variation in the many different communities and their environments on Earth

Question 1

What is a species?

Answer 1

Refers to individuals that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring

Question 2

What is an adaptation?

Answer 2

A special feature or characteristic that improves an organism’s chance of survival.

Question 3

What is genetic drift?

Answer 3

Changes due to chance events such as floods and fires

Question 4

What is immigration?

Answer 4

Moving IN to a place

Question 5

What is emigration?

Answer 5

Moving OUT of a place

Question 6

What is artificial selection?

Answer 6

Humans using selective breeding techniques to breed domestic animals and plants

Question 7

What is natural selection?

Answer 7

Process by which a species gives rise to new species that has characteristics that make them better adapted for survival in a particular environment.

Question 8

What is a gene pool?

Answer 8

All the genetic information for a species

Question 9

What is gene flow?

Answer 9

Movement of individuals between populations

Question 10

What is speciation?

Answer 10

Formation of new species

Question 11

What is mutation?

Answer 11

Changes in DNA sequence, at the gene or chromosome level.

Question 12

What is Survival of the Fittest?

Answer 12

A natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment.

Question 13

What is evolution?

Answer 13

A process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage

Question 14

What is a population?

Answer 14

Total number of one species in a particular area

Question 15

What is competition?

Answer 15

Members of a population compete with each other for living space, energy supplies and suitable mates

Question 16

What is a selecting agent?

Answer 16

The ‘things’ that causes selection to occur between different organisms.

Question 17

Name 3 examples of selecting agents

Answer 17

~Physical agents (climate change, food shortage)
~Biological agents (infectious disease, predation)
~Chemical agents (soil or water pollutants, herbicide, pesticide)

Question 18

True or false: evolution occurs in one lifetime.

Answer 18

False. Evolution takes place over many generations. Populations evolve, not individuals.

Question 19

What are the 4 components natural production must have?

Answer 19

~Overproduction (produce too many young)
~Variation (some variations are more favourable than others)
~Natural Selection (favours the best suited at the time)
~Inheritance (variations are inherited. The best suited variants leave more offspring)

Question 20

What are the 5 fingers of evolution?

Answer 20

1. Shrinking population
2. Non- random mating
3. Mutation
4. Movement
5. Adaptation/ Natural selection

Question 21

What is divergent evolution?

Answer 21

The diversification of an ancestral group into two or more species in different habitats

Question 22

What is adaptive radiation?

Answer 22

When divergent evolution involves the formation of a large number of species to occupy different niches.

Question 23

When is adaptive radiation most common?

Answer 23

In periods of major environmental change, eg. cooling climates

Question 24

What is convergent evolution?

Answer 24

When not all similarity is inherited from a common ancestor. Species from different evolutionary branches may resemble each other if they have similar ecological roles.

Question 25

What is an example of convergent evolution?

Answer 25

~Wombat and woodchuck | ~Marsupial moused and mouse

Question 26

What is coevolution?

Answer 26

Evolution in two or more interacting species in which the evolutionary changes of each species influence the evolution of the other species.

Question 27

When does speciation occur?

Answer 27

When gene flow has ceased between populations where it previously existed.

Question 28

What are 5 ways that show evidence of evolution?

Answer 28

1. Fossil record 2. Comparative anatomy 3. Comparative embryology 4. Comparing biochemical and genetic study 5. Biogeographic distribution

Question 29

What is a fossil record?

Answer 29

Record of all fossils

Question 30

What is a fossil?

Answer 30

Refers to any parts or impressions of an organism that may survive after it's death.

Question 31

Where are fossils most commonly found?

Answer 31

Sedimentary rock

Question 32

What is a homologous structure?

Answer 32

Similarity of structure

Question 33

What is an example of a homologous structure?

Answer 33

Pentadactyl limb: - Birds wing - Human arm - Seal flipper - Mole forelimb

Question 34

What is an analogous structure?

Answer 34

Same structure and function, different origin.

Question 35

What are examples of analogous structures?

Answer 35

Eyes; fins; flippers; wings

Question 36

What are vestigial organs?

Answer 36

Degenerate structures that no longer perform the same function as in other organisms; organs must have been important in some ancestral form, but became redundant in later species

Question 37

What is an example of vestigial organs?

Answer 37

- Wings in kiwi birds - Eyes in burrowing mammals (eg. moles) - Whales (pelvis and forelimbs)

Question 38

What is comparative embryology?

Answer 38

When we compare the embryonic development of different vertebrates, it is evident that more closely related forms continue to appear similar until a later stage, compared to more distantly related forms.

Question 39

What is an example of comparative embryology?

Answer 39

Monkey and human

Question 40

What is comparing biochemical and genetic study?

Answer 40

Organisms that are closely related, the more similarities in biochemical and genetic composition.

Question 41

What are 3 things that are compared in comparing biochemical and genetic study?

Answer 41

Proteins (amino acids), DNA and chromosomes.

Question 42

What is biogeographical distribution?

Answer 42

The study of plant and animal distribution

Question 43

What did continental drift force upon some species?

Answer 43

Forced some species to be separated, therefore they couldn't mate together and formed separately.

Question 44

What is an example of biogeographical distribution?

Answer 44

Galapagos Island turtles | Cape Verde Island birds