Evolution

Question 1

Define: Pangaea

Answer 1

Pangaea was the supercontinent formed from all the current major landmasses.
It was eventually separated due to continental drift during the Triassic and Jurassic Era’s into the continents we currently have.

Question 2

Define: Adaption

Answer 2

Adaption is the process by which a species will change due to natural selection to be more able to survive and reproduce in it’s environment.

Question 3

Define: Convergent Evolution

Answer 3

Convergent Evolution is the process by which a pair or more of species develop similar characteristics despite not having a common ancestor.
This is usually caused by the species undergoing similar ecological pressures.
For Example: Bats and Birds.

Question 4

Define: Stabilising Selection

Answer 4

Stabilising Selection is the process during which the forces of natural selection result in the intermediate or core phenotypes being selected for, and the more extreme phenotypes being selected against.

Question 5

What is Radiometric Dating?

Answer 5

Radiometric Dating is a method of determining the age of fossils by measuring the radioactivity of various isotopes within them.
This is the most common method of dating and has helped significantly in establishing the Geologic Time Scale.

Question 6

How did Darwin’s Voyage’s influence the development of his ideas?

Answer 6

At the age of 22 Darwin journeyed around the world on the HMS Beagle. During his travel’s he encountered multiple new species but also some organisms that were strikingly similar to ones he had already seen. The incredible diversity and yet somehow unity that he observed was a driving force behind his deductions later in life.

Question 7

How does Comparative Embryology contribute to the body of evidence supporting evolution?

Answer 7

Comparative Embryology is the process of comparing the embryo’s development between different species and determining at what point and how they diverge.
This supports the idea of evolution as it proves that multiple species have single common ancestors.

Question 8

Define: Mass extinction

Answer 8

The extinction of one of more species in a relatively short period of geological time, usually as a consequence of a catastrophic global event, a natural disaster, or an abrupt change in the environment; based on studies of fossil records.

Question 9

Define: Artificial Selection

Answer 9

More commonly known as Selective Breeding, where professionals study the genotype and phenotype of parent organisms in the hope of producing a hybrid that possesses many of the desirable characteristics found in their parents.

Question 10

Define: Transitional Fossil Forms

Answer 10

Fossils that show the intermediate states between an ancestral form and that of its descendants are referred to as transitional forms. There are numerous examples of transitional forms in the fossil record, providing an abundance of evidence for change over time.

Question 11

Define: Extant Species

Answer 11

Species still in existence.

Question 12

How does continental drift affect evolution?

Answer 12

As continents broke apart from Pangaea, species got separated by seas and oceans and speciation occurred. Individuals that were once able to interbreed were reproductively isolated from one another and eventually acquired adaptations that made them incompatible. This drove evolution by the creation of new species.

Question 13

How did Malthu’s ideas effect the idea of Evolution?

Answer 13

Malthus was also a crucial influence on Charles Darwin. Darwin took Malthus’ ideas on the struggle of populations to survive when faced with a limited food supply, and extrapolated it to all species and across a massive time span.

Question 14

How does molecular biology give evidence for evolution?

Answer 14

Similarity in genetics of organisms or its molecular underpinnings is a fact. When they saw similar codes in organisms, they made a conclusion that evolution took place. Micro-evolution is a fact, due to the innate ability of cells, through adaptation to change.

Question 15

Define: Adaptive Radiation

Answer 15

The diversification of several new species from a recent ancestral source, each adapted to utilize or occupy a vacant adaptive zone.

Question 16

Define: Allele Frequency

Answer 16

The frequency of an allele relative to that of other alleles of the same gene in a population.

Question 17

Define: Analogous Structures

Answer 17

Structures of different species having similar or corresponding function but not from the same evolutionary origin

Question 18

Define: Antibiotic Resistance

Answer 18

The ability of bacteria and other microorganisms to synthesise a protein to resist the effects of an antibiotic which they were once sensitive to. Antibiotic resistance is a major concern of overuse of antibiotics. Also known as drug resistance.

Question 19

Define: Biogeography

Answer 19

The study of the distribution of different species of organisms around the planet and the factors that influenced that distribution.

Question 20

Define: Common Ancestry

Answer 20

Common ancestry between organisms of different species arises during speciation, in which new species are established from a single ancestral population. When a recent common ancestor is shared between two organisms, they are said to be closely related.

Question 21

Define: Comparative Anatomy

Answer 21

Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species.

Question 22

Define: Directional Selection

Answer 22

Directional selection is a mode of natural selection in which an extreme phenotype is favored over other phenotypes, causing the allele frequency to shift over time in the direction of that phenotype.

Question 23

Define: Distruptive (Diversifying) Selection

Answer 23

Disruptive selection, also called diversifying selection, is based on the variance of a trait in a population. This type of selection favors both the extremes at the expense of the average.

Question 24

Define: Divergent Evolution

Answer 24

The process by which an interbreeding population or species diverges into two or more descendant species, resulting in once similar or related species to become more and more dissimilar

Question 25

Define: Evolution

Answer 25

Evolution is the change in genetic composition of a population over successive generations, which may be caused by natural selection, inbreeding, hybridization, or mutation. (The sequence of events depicting the development of a species or of a group of related organisms.)

Question 26

Define: Extinction

Answer 26

The death of an entire species.

Question 27

Define: Fitness

Answer 27

A biological condition in which a competing variant is increasing in frequency relative to other competing variants in a population. (The capability to perform a function based on its suitability )

Question 28

Define: Fossil

Answer 28

Any preserved evidence of life from a past geological age, such as the impressions and remains of organisms embedded in stratified rocks. (The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.)

Question 29

Define: Fossil Record

Answer 29

The totality of fossilized artifacts and their placement within the earth's rock strata.

Question 30

Define: Founder Effect

Answer 30

The establishment of a new population by a few original founders (in an extreme case, by a single fertilized female) which carry only a small fraction of the total genetic variation of the parental population. Can be traced back to one ancestral individual.

Question 31

Define: Gene Flow

Answer 31

Gene flow is a concept in population genetics to refer to the movement of genes or alleles between interbreeding populations of a particular species.

Question 32

Define: Distribution

Answer 32

The specific location or arrangement of continuing or successive objects or events in space or time. (The geographical range of an organism or disease.)

Question 33

Define: Geological Periods

Answer 33

A geological period is one of the several subdivisions of geologic time enabling cross-referencing of rocks and geologic events from place to place. These periods form elements of a hierarchy of divisions into which geologists have split the Earth's history.

Question 34

Define: Gradualism

Answer 34

Gradualism is a tenet in evolutionary theory maintaining that species evolve slowly and continuously over long periods of geological time.

Question 35

Define: Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

Answer 35

A principle stating that both allele and genotype frequencies in a randomly-mating population remain constant – and remain in this equilibrium across generations -- unless a disturbing influence is introduced.

Question 36

What is the Hardy-Weinberg Formula

Answer 36

p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1

Question 37

Define: Homologous Structures

Answer 37

Structures derived from a common ancestor or same evolutionary or developmental origin

Question 38

Define: Inbreeding

Answer 38

Inbreeding is a mode of breeding involving two individuals or organisms that are closely or genetically related. The mating of genetically-related parents would produce progenies with traits of higher predictability.

Question 39

Define: Macroevolution

Answer 39

Macroevolution is evolution happening on a large scale, e.g. at or above the level of a species, over geologic time resulting in the divergence of taxonomic groups.

Question 40

Define: Microevolution

Answer 40

Evolution involving small-scale changes, i.e. within the species, occurring over a short period of time that results in the formation of new species.

Question 41

Define: Migration (Gene Flow)

Answer 41

Gene flow — also called migration — is any movement of individuals, and/or the genetic material they carry, from one population to another.

Question 42

Define: Mutation

Answer 42

A permanent, heritable change in the nucleotide sequence in a gene or a chromosome; the process in which such a change occurs in a gene or in a chromosome.

Question 43

Define: Natural Selection

Answer 43

A process in nature in which organisms possessing certain genotypic characteristics that make them better adjusted to an environment tend to survive, reproduce, increase in number or frequency, and therefore, are able to transmit and perpetuate their essential genotypic qualities to succeeding generations

Question 44

Define: Pentadactyl Limb

Answer 44

A limb with five digits such as a human hand or foot which are found in many amphibia, reptiles, birds and animals, which can allow us to deduce that all species in these categories derived from one common ancestor.

Question 45

Define: Pesticide Resistance

Answer 45

Pesticide resistance, the ability of an organism to withstand a poison, is a predictable consequence of repeated pesticide use.

Question 46

Define: Population (Genetic) Bottlenecks

Answer 46

A population bottleneck is an event that drastically reduces the size of a population by extreme events, that results in a decrease in the gene pool of the population because many alleles that were present in the original population are lost.

Question 47

Define: Population

Answer 47

A low-level taxonomic rank. A population refers to a group of organisms of a species that interbreed and live in the same place at a same time. They are capable of interbreeding or reproduction.

Question 48

Define: Punctuated Equilibrium

Answer 48

A theory that describes an evolutionary change happening rapidly and in brief geological events in between the long periods of stasis (or Equilibrium)

Question 49

Define: Species

Answer 49

An individual belonging to a group of organisms having common characteristics andare capable of mating with one another to produce fertile offspring.

Question 50

Define: Stabilising Selection

Answer 50

Stabilizing selection is any selective force or forces which push a population toward the average, or median trait.

Question 51

Define: Transitional Fossil Forms

Answer 51

Fossils or organisms that show the intermediate states between an ancestral form and that of its descendants are referred to as transitional forms.

Question 52

Define: Vestigial Structure

Answer 52

Refers to an organ or part (for example, the human appendix) which is greatly reduced from the original ancestral form and is no longer functional or is of reduced or altered function.

Question 53

Define: Allopatric Speciation

Answer 53

A speciation in which biological populations are physically isolated by an extrinsic barrier and evolve intrinsic (genetic) reproductive isolation, such that if the barrier breaks down, individuals of the population can no longer interbreed.

Question 54

Define: Analogy

Answer 54

Structural or behavioural similarity in terms of functions between unrelated species or organisms but do not share a common ancestral or developmental origin

Question 55

Define: Character

Answer 55

The sum of the relatively fixed personality traits and habitual modes of response of an individual.

Question 56

Define: Clade

Answer 56

a monophyletic group; a group of organisms (usually species) that are more closely related to each other than any other group, implying a shared most recent common ancestor.

Question 57

Define: Continental Drift

Answer 57

The moving of tectonic plates under the Earth's surface, which is constantly moving the land masses of the world away or closer to one another. Continental Drift is responsible for the way in which related organisms are distributed today and can explain why geographical barriers created new species.

Question 58

Define: Convergence

Answer 58

The evolutionary process in which the organisms evolve bodily parts that are analogous in terms of structure and function despite their ancestors that are very dissimilar or unrelated

Question 59

Define: Convergent Evolution

Answer 59

A kind of evolution wherein organisms evolve structures that have similar (analogous) structures or functions in spite of their evolutionary ancestors being very dissimilar or unrelated

Question 60

Define: Dominant Alleles

Answer 60

Dominance in genetics is a relationship between alleles of one gene, in which the effect on phenotype of one allele masks the contribution of a second allele at the same locus. The first allele is dominant and the second allele is recessive.

Question 61

Define: Evolutionary Adaptation

Answer 61

Adaptation, in evolutionary terms, is the process the process of natural selection where organisms’ physical and behavioral features adapt to function better in the face of environmental challenges.

Question 62

Define: Genetic Drift

Answer 62

The drifting of the frequency of a gene variant (allele) relative to that of the other gene variants (alleles) in a population over time as a result of a chance or random event.

Question 63

Define: Geographic Isolation

Answer 63

Geographic isolation is a type of reproductive isolation that occurs when a geographic barrier separates two populations of a species, causing speciation.

Question 64

Define: Geographic Time Scale

Answer 64

The geologic time scale (GTS) is a system of chronological dating that relates geological strata (stratigraphy) to time.

Question 65

Define: Monoculture

Answer 65

Farming strategy in which large fields are planted with a single crop, year after year.

Question 66

Define: Monophyletic

Answer 66

A taxonomic group that holds characters descended from a single common ancestor.

Question 67

Define: Phylogenetic Tree

Answer 67

A tree diagram that shows the evolutionary histories and relationships of groups of organisms based on the phylogenies of different biological species

Question 68

Define: Recessive Alleles

Answer 68

A recessive allele is a variety of genetic code that does not create a phenotype if a dominant allele is present.

Question 69

Define: Speciation

Answer 69

The process in which new genetically distinct species evolve usually as a result of genetic isolation from the main population.

Question 70

Define: Stratum

Answer 70

A layer of plants or vegetation usually of the same or similar height. In a plant community, a stratum implicates dominance of that plant species.

Question 71

Define: Sympatric Speciation

Answer 71

A speciation in which new species evolve from a single ancestral species while inhabiting the same geographic region.

Question 72

Define: The Domains and Kingdoms of life

Answer 72

Under this system, organisms are classified into three domains and six kingdoms. The domains are Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya. The kingdoms are Archaebacteria (ancient bacteria), Eubacteria (true bacteria), Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.

Question 73

Define: Trait ( Genetic)

Answer 73

A qualitative characteristic; a discrete attribute as contrasted with metrical character. A trait is amenable to segregation rather than quantitative analysis; it is an attribute of phenotype, not of genotype.