Units 5 & 6

Question 1

R.A. Fisher

Answer 1

• British statistician published a paper that established the field of population genetics.
• formed the basis of what came to be called the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis (along with Sewall Wright and J.B.S. Haldane)

Question 2

Theodosius Dobzhansky

Answer 2

published “Genetics and the Origin of Species”, summarizing developments from the Modern Synthesis and bringing together the new field of genetics and Darwin’s natural selection into a coherent whole

Question 3

Peter and Mary Grant

Answer 3

husband and wife researchers who demonstrated evolution in one population of finches on one of the Galapagos Islands

Question 4

Niles Eldridge and Stephen Gould

Answer 4

“punctuated equilibrium” — proposed that jumps in fossil records are normal (more common than Darwin’s phyletic gradualism)

Question 5

Willi Hennig

Answer 5

devised a more rigorous methodology to deal with the problem of convergence (developed cladistics)

Question 6

Richard Dawkins

Answer 6

• “the selfish gene” (1976)
• coined “designed” (falcons are “designed” for high-speed flight) after William Paley proposed that living organisms are designed by a creator (natural theology)

Question 7

Gene flow

Answer 7

movement of alleles from one population to another

Question 8

Pleiotropy

Answer 8

The ability of a single gene to have multiple effects

Question 9

Anagenesis

Answer 9

species formation without branching of the evolutionary line of descent

Question 10

Population genetics

Answer 10

the study of how populations change genetically over time

Question 11

Clade

Answer 11

A group of species that includes an ancestral species and all its descendants

Question 12

Sister taxa

Answer 12

groups that share an immediate common ancestor

Question 13

Primitive

Answer 13

Like the ancestor (does NOT mean older or less favorable)

Question 14

Genetic drift

Answer 14

random change in allele frequencies that occurs in small populations

Question 15

Phyletic gradualism

Answer 15

a theory that species evolve by the accumulation of many small changes over a long time period

Question 16

Polygenic trait

Answer 16

trait controlled by two or more genes

Question 17

Taxonomy

Answer 17

science of classification

Question 18

Natural group

Answer 18

groups of organisms that possess a shared evolutionary history

Question 19

Taxon

Answer 19

a group of organisms in a classification system

Question 20

Derived

Answer 20

different from the ancestor (does NOT mean newer or more favorable)

Question 21

Founder effect

Answer 21

genetic drift that occurs after a small number of individuals colonize a new area

Question 22

Codominant

Answer 22

A heterozygote in which both alleles are fully expressed

Question 23

Systematics

Answer 23

the science of naming and grouping organisms

Question 24

Type

Answer 24

classification

Question 25

Cladistics

Answer 25

A phylogenetic classification system that uses shared derived characters and ancestry for grouping taxa

Question 26

Character

Answer 26

A heritable feature that varies among individuals

Question 27

Ancestral

Answer 27

of/belonging to/inherited from ancestor or ancestors

Question 28

Bottleneck

Answer 28

genetic drift in which a large population declines in number, then rebounds

Question 29

Cladogenesis

Answer 29

evolution through the branching of a species or a lineage

Question 30

Microevolution

Answer 30

Change in allele frequencies in a population over generations

Question 31

Typology

Answer 31

the study of types, assigning objects/artifacts in categories according to physical attributes or characteristics

Question 32

Node

Answer 32

the point where sister taxa meet (hypothetical place on their history where the common ancestor is)

Question 33

Character state

Answer 33

distinguishable forms of a character, such as the presence or absence of a feature in a species

Question 34

Biological species concept

Answer 34

A species is a group of populations whose members have the potential to produce fertile offspring

Question 35

Sex-linked trait

Answer 35

Traits controlled by genes located on sex chromosomes

Question 36

Punctuated equilibrium

Answer 36

A pattern of evolution in which long stable periods are interrupted by brief periods of more rapid change

Question 37

Macroevolution

Answer 37

Evolutionary change above the species level

Question 38

Convergence

Answer 38

Similarity due to adaptations to the environment and not based on ancestry

Question 39

Synapomorphy

Answer 39

shared derived character

Question 40

Cladogram

Answer 40

A diagram that shows the evolutionary relationships among a group of organisms