Evolution Unit Assessment: Research Biology Test

• Darwin’s theory of natural selection in simple words.

  Survival of the fittest.
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s idea of evolution in simple words.


  If a parent has a physical trait, they can pass it to their offspring.
• Six key ideas to understand evolution.

  Overpopulation, competition, variation, adaptation, natural selection, and speciation.
• Explanation of overpopulation.


  More individuals are born than can survive.
• Explanation of competition.


  organisms have to compete for likited resources.
• explanation of variation


  There are differences among populations.
• What are some things that cause Variation?

  Genetic mutation, gene flow, and sexual reproduction.
• Explanation of adaptation


  Giving individuals survival advantages over others.
• types of adaptation


  Structural, Chemical, and Behavioral.
• Explanation of Structural Adaptation

  Physical structure that helps an organism survive.
• Explanation of Chemical Adaptation

  Chemical advantages that helps an organism survive.
• explanation of behavioral adaptation 


  Behaviors that help organisms survive.
• Common adaptation types


  Camouflage, warning coloration, and mimicry.
• Explanation of Natural selection.

  Organisms that are better adapted to their environment, survive and reproduce successfully.
• explanation of speciation


  Ancestral species split into two or more separate species that are genetically different and cannot interbreed.
• What does survival of the fittest mean?

  Only the best adapted organisms continue to live while others fall.
• What does natural selection act on?Populations and their growth.
• Explanation of Gradualism.


  Changes happen in small, gradual steps over long periods of time.
• Explanation of Punctuated equilibrium

  Stable phenotype for a long period of time followed by rapid bursts of genetic change causing species to diverge quickly.
• Who came up with the idea of Punctuated equilibrium?

  Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge
• Explanation of Adaptive radiation.

  Organisms diversify quickly in many forms when environmental changes are made.
• What’s the difference between relative and absolute dating in fossils?

  Relative dating determines if an artifact is older than another, absolute finds specific dates and time ranges.
• Explanation of Structural evidence.

  Comparing anatomical features between organisms determining a shared common ancestor.
• Example of structural evidence


  Goose bumps in humans.
• Explanation of homologous structures

  different organisms that are similar but have different functions
• Example of homologous structures 


  Human limbs. Cats, whales, bats, and humans have the same bone structures.
• Explanation of Analogous structures

  Different organisms that have similar function but different structure
• Example of analogous structure


  Body shape of whales and sharks: Similar because they live in the same habitat.
• Explanation of Vestigial structures

  Remnants of structures that were functional in ancestors.
• Explanation of Genetic evidence

  Comparing sequences of related genes to indicate a shared common ancestor.
• Example of genetic evidence


  Humans and cows have a gene that has the hormone insulin.
• Explanation of Biogeographical evidence

  Distribution of organism that follow patterns to get evidence of evolution.
• Example of biogeographical evidence

  Fossil records of monkeys. Old monkeys are very different from new monkeys.
• Explanation of Fossil evidence

  Tracing past organisms in sedimentary rocks
• Example of fossil evidence 


  the tetrapods from the study
• Explanation of directional selection

  Selection against one extreme phenotype.
• Example of directional selection

  Gallais finch beak size because of the excessive rain which reduced the number of large seeds, increasing vegetation.
• What does directional selection look like?

  Shadow behind bolded hump.

  
• Explanation of Stabilizing selection

  Eliminating extreme expressions of a trait when the average expression leads to higher fitness.
• Example of stabilizing selection


  Birth weight because of babies are born too small or too big, they are at risk.