Exam 1 Test Questions Flashcards
(26 cards)
Why can’t scientific creationism be presented properly as a scientific alternative to evolution?
It replaces scientific evidence with supernatural explanations
Natural Selection can be compared to passing gravel mix through a sorting machine. Describe the two parts and what they represent.
Sorting machine is the environment
The different pieces of gravel is the variation
When selection acts on heritable traits, what happens to the population?
Change in frequency of phenotypes and alleles over time
Define exaptation
Trait that evolved for one function but is better suited for another
What are biological adaptations?
Inherited traits that help an organism survive in a particular environment
Describe Vestigial Structures
Functionless or rudimentary homologs of characters that are functional in close relatives
Describe Darwin’s Ideas of Natural Selection
Random acquired traits in organisms are selected by pressures in the environment, mutations happen due to changing environment
Describe Lamarck’s Ideas of Natural Selection
Traits acquired by organisms are passed to future generations, changes are due to environment
Describe the three components of natural selection
Variation available in the environment, variation is heritable, ability to reproduce and survive better with this trait (Differential reproduction)
Comparative Method
Compare lineages with no common ancestors, have evolved independently
Describe the differences between genetic drift and natural selection
Natural selection is evolution by adaptive process where traits are passed on according to benefit to survival or reproduction, genetic drift is completely random and happens due to variation of geographic places
Monophyletic group
Clade including all descendants of a common ancestor
Paraphyletic group
Includes an ancestor but not all of its descendants
Homoplasy
Occurence of shared traits that were not inherited from a common ancestor
Synapomorphy
Occurrence of shared traits that were inherited from a common ancestor
Derived
Modified from an ancestral state to a new state
Adaptation
A trait that enhances the survival or reproduction of an organism that bears it
Caldogram
Tree that has its branch tips aligned and indicates only the evolutionary relationships among the taxa shown
Chronomgram
A tree in which the branch length represents actual time rather than the amount of evolutionary change
Phylograms
Tree in which evolutionary relationships and the amount of evolutionary change along each branch by using branches of different lengths
Coevolution
When one species affects selective conditions of another species
Outgroup
Taxa used in a phylogenetic tree to determine the direction of evolutionary change; close relative of the group but is known to have branched off earlier than all other regions
Vestigial Structures
Structures with non current function but appear to have been important in the evolutionary past
Hox genes
Master regulator genes involved in development of animals
