Fossils
1. What are the two methods scientists use to date fossils and determine the age of the Earth?
Scientists use relative dating and numerical dating to determine the date of the Earth and its fossils.
2. How are fossils dated using each method?
In relative dating scientists place fossils in a temporal sequence by noting their positions in layers of
rocks, how low they are determines their age. Numerical dating relies on the decay of radioactive
materials; old rocks are dated using volcanic material. By dating the volcanic ash layers both above
and below a fossil-bearing layer you can determine the age.
3. Does the fossil record paint a complete picture of evolutionary history?
4. Are new fossils still being discovered? If so, give an example.
5. What is a transitional form?
6. What is the significance of transitional forms, and what evidence/information do they provide us
about
evolution?
7. Does the fossil record show evolution as a slow gradual process or as punctuated happening in quick
burst?
8. What term do we use to describe evolution as a slow and steady process?
9. What should we observe in the fossil record if evolution is slow and steady? Draw an illustration.
10. What term do we use to describe evolution happening in “quick burst”?
11. What would we observe in the fossil record if evolution happens in “quick” jumps? Draw an
illustration.
12. Does a jump in the fossil record necessarily mean that evolution has happened in a “quick” jump?
13. What are four scientific explanations for stasis and the sudden appearance or “burst” of organisms
in the
fossil record?
Homologies
1. What are homologies, and what do they tell scientists?
2. What are five types of homologies that provide evidence of common ancestry?
3. What do we know about organisms that share many anatomical similarities?
4. What are four methods that scientists use to study homologies and/or similarities in genetics? Note:
Ask
your teacher about the fourth method, as it is not listed on the web pages.
5. What did testing similarities in antibody proteins among various organisms reveal?
6. What can DNA hybridization measure?
7. How does DNA sequencing provide evidence of evolutionary relationships?
8. What are some homologies at the cellular level?
9. What does endosymbiosis tell us about the evolutionary history of the eukaryotic cell?
10. What are two examples of organisms that have developmental homologies that suggest common
ancestry between groups of organisms that don’t necessarily seem logical?
11. What did Darwin say about a species embryo developmental program?
12. What is a vestigial organ?
13. Why do vestigial organs form?
Biogeography
1. What is biogeography?
2. What made Wagner think that the continents were connected at one time?
3. What happens to species when continents separate? Collide?
4. What are some examples of organisms that provide evidence that at one point in Earth’s history there
was one large continent?