Macroevolution

Question 1

What is co-speciation?

Answer 1

When two species with a close association (e.g., parasites and hosts) speciate in tandem due to geographic isolation, resulting in reproductive isolation and separate species

Question 2

What do branching points on a phylogenetic tree represent?

Answer 2

Speciation events where a single ancestral lineage splits into two or more daughter lineages

Question 3

What is a clade?

Answer 3

A grouping that includes a common ancestor and all its descendants (living and extinct), forming a nested hierarchy on phylogenetic trees

Question 5

How does a phylogenetic classification system name groups?

Answer 5

It only names clades, which are monophyletic groups including a common ancestor and all descendants

Question 6

What is the difference between unique and common ancestors?

Answer 6

Unique ancestors are specific to one lineage only, while common ancestors are shared by two or more lineages

Question 7

What are homologous traits?

Answer 7

Traits shared due to common ancestry, such as the forelimbs of vertebrates

Question 8

What are analogous traits?

Answer 8

Traits that evolved independently in different lineages but look similar due to similar selective pressures (convergent evolution), e.g., bird and bat wings

Question 9

What is macroevolution?

Answer 9

Evolution on a grand scale, involving large trends and transformations such as the origin of mammals, flowering plants, and large-scale patterns of lineage stability, change, and extinction

Question 10

What are the three main patterns in macroevolution?

Answer 10

1. Stasis (little change over long periods)
2. Character change (rapid or slow changes)
3. Lineage splitting (speciation).

Question 11

How is male infanticide viewed in evolutionary biology?

Answer 11

As an evolutionary behavioral trait.