W4 Ch.16 Definitions

Question 1

Population Endemic

Answer 1

An endemic disease is one that is consistently present throughout a specific region or population

Question 2

Generation Time

Answer 2

The average time between the birth of an organism and the birth of its offspring

Question 3

Vestigial Structures

Answer 3

An anatomical feature of living organisms that no longer retains its function

Question 4

Homology

Answer 4

A characteristic shared by a set of species because they inherited it from their common ancestor

Question 5

Homoplasy

Answer 5

The development of organs or other bodily structures within different species, which resemble each other and have the same functions, but did not have a common ancestral origin

Question 6

Artificial Selection

Answer 6

Selective breeding of animals or plants to ensure that certain desirable traits appear at higher frequency in successive generations

Question 7

Natural Selection

Answer 7

The evolutionary process by which alleles that increase the likelihood of survival and the reproductive output of the individuals that carry them become more common in subsequent generations

Question 8

Descent With Modification in Darwins Fences

Answer 8

• All finches have common ancestor
• Initial colonization of achipelago of volcanic islands from mainland populations million years ago.
• little or no gene flow since then.

Question 9

Acquired Characteristics

Answer 9

Idea that changes that an organism gains during its lifetime are passed on to its characteristics

Question 10

Biogeography

Answer 10

The study of the geographic distributions of plants and animals

Question 11

Convergent Evolution

Answer 11

• The evolution of similar adaptations in distantly related organisms that occupy similar environments.
• Small changes in regulation produce large changes in morphology

Question 12

Fitness

Answer 12

An individual’s reproductive success

Question 13

Experimental Evolution

Answer 13

• A study to observe populations evolve under controlled laboratory conditions with controls, replicates and good experimental design.
• Takes long bc evolution takes long, bc in humans, women usually don’t get children until they are in their 20’s.

Question 14

Darwin’s major insights came from 3 major areas of study

Answer 14

1. geology and the fossil record
2. the geographic distribution of species
3. the comparative morphology of species

Question 15

Based on darwin’s two hypotheses when he was observing, what did he predict?

Answer 15

A population’s characteristics will change over the generations as advantageous, heritable characteristics become more common.

Question 16

Punctuated Equilibrium

Answer 16

• sudden and quickly.
• isolated and rapid episodes between long periods.
• from mutations

Question 17

Adaptive Radiation

Answer 17

An adaptive radiation occurs when a single or small group of ancestral species rapidly diversifies into a large number of descendant species

Question 18

Gradualism

Answer 18

• selection that happens gradually.
• a few more individuals with more of the useful trait survive and the exact opposite for useless traits.
• can result from adaptive evolution