Evolution Final Exam Flashcards
(40 cards)
What is the supposed age according to the Dark Ages?
5000 years old
When was the Origin of Species published?
1859
Who did Charles Darwin present with at the Linnean Society?
Alfred Wallace
Which of the following do vestigial structures fall under?
Microevolution or Comparative Anatomy
Differentiate between microevolution and macroevolution.
Microevolution - Species change over time. Change in allele frequency over time
Macroevolution - New species derive from older species. Beginnings of a new type of organism.
Explain significance of Darwin’s tree of life.
It shows that organisms are related and share common ancestors in branching patterns.
Outline Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, he built his theory off 4 main factors:
- Individuals of a species vary
- Some of this variation is passed down
- There’s more offspring produced each generation than can survive or it exceeds the carrying capacity
- Survival and reproduction are not random
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Explain the pre-Darwin thinking about how species arise.
- Species are fixed and are in the form they have and will always be in
- The Earth is fairly young
- The Great Chain of Being
- God-created
This French naturalist developed the binomial classification system that is still used today.
Linnaeus
This scientific discipline focuses on both taxonomy and evolutionary relationships
Systematics
A visual representation of the evolutionary history of species or genes.
Phylogeny
A discrete heritable unit of information that consists of a certain nucleotide sequence.
Gene
A single genotype that is capable of producing a range of phenotypes depending on environmental conditions.
Phenotypic plasticity
In humans, approximately how many mutations are generated per cell generation?
64
Which of the following evolutionary forces always results in decreased genetic variation within a population?
Gene flow
Which of the following is considered the ‘raw’ material of evolution?
Genetic variation
Mendel’s law of independent assortment states that:
The inheritance of one allele is not dependent upon another allele
Which of the following statements would be valid is using the Hardy-Weinburg Equilibrium as a null hypothesis?
Allele frequencies of a population sometimes change from one generation to the next
Explain the difference between taxonomy and phylogenetics. In what instances might one discipline be more accurate than the other?
Taxonomy – scientific discipline of classifying and naming of organisms
Phylogenetics – Study of relationships among taxa (cladistics)
Why are phylogenies considered hypotheses?
They are considered hypotheses because their true relationships can be neither confirmed nor denied. It is solely based on the data we have right now and what trees we can build based on fossils found or comparative anatomy.
- Data we have right now
- Rooted in the past
Draw a phylogenetic tree with a monophyletic group, paraphyletic group, and polyphyletic group.
Monophyletic – ancestor + ALL descendants
Paraphyletic – most recent common ancestor and some, but NOT ALL descendants
Polyphyletic – includes distantly related species, but NOT common ancestor
How does variation appear in natural populations?
- Genetic variation - DNA > RNA > proteins (ex. hydrangea color)
- environmental variation - how the outside environment affects the population (ex. daphnia)
- genotype-by-environmental variation
What are the allele frequencies for a population of 1000 with 625 dominant traits and 375 recessive traits?
.625 and .375
Is the Hardy-Weinburg equation useful when studying natural populations? Why or why not?
No, because there are many other factors acting on the population that would cause the allele frequencies to be constantly changing. It could, however, be used as a null hypothesis for studying natural populations. Hardy-Weinburg is structured to where no mutation, selection, migration etc. is occurring. This is nearly impossible to accomplish in natural populations, so it cannot work. No gene flow is occuring.
