Unit 2 Evolution and Biodiversity
Chapters: 22.2 & 22.3, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27.2 & 27.3, 34(selected parts)
Questions to answer : Related to Ch 22 & 25, Power points 2.1(Intro to
Evolution) and 2.3(Evidence of evolution) and Bozeman’s
Evidence of Evolution, Natural selection, and Natural selection Examples
1. Why were the Galapagos islands so formative for Charles Darwin’s thinking
about evolution?
2. Draw a diagram illustrating the process of natural selection. Make sure your
diagram includes all of the following features:
A. Overproduction of offspring
B. variation among individuals
C. limited resources
D. competition
E. differential reproductive success (“fitness”)
F. adaptation
3. Explain how each of the following demonstrate Darwinian selection. For each,
indicate the source of selection, the criteria that determines fitness in the
environment, and the end result of the selective process:
A. Artificial selection
B. Galapagos finches
C. The evolution of resistance in a population of insects or bacteria (you pick).
4. Explain how each of the following specifically support some aspect of
evolutionary theory:
1. The fossil record (generally)
2. Transition fossils (specifically)
3. Homologous anatomical structures
4. Analogous anatomical structures
5. Vestigial anatomical structures
6. Comparative embryology
7. Molecular Homology (DNA and proteins)
8. Artificial Selection
9. Biogeography
10. Observed Evolution (pick one)
Questions to answer Related to Ch 23, Power point 2.2 (Evolutionary Forces)
and Bozeman’s Populations continue to evolve, Genetic Drift
1. Explain what the “modern synthesis” is. How is it different from Darwin’s original
theory of evolution?
2. Why does evolution have to involve the change of the genetic makeup of a
population over time?
3. Explain each of the following modes of evolution in a population. For each one,
describe the cause of change in the genetic makeup of a population and how
the population evolves as a result of that change, and provide 2 “real world”
examples of the process in action:
1. Natural Selection
2. Genetic Drift
3. Gene Flow
4. Sexual Selection
4. Why is natural selection the only mode of evolution that causes a population to
adapt to the environment over time?
5. Why is evolution an emergent property of populations of organisms? Why are
individuals unable to evolve?
6. Compare the effects of disruptive, directional and stabilizing selection on the
genetic makeup of a population.
7. Why do traits have to be heritable for evolution to affect them?
Questions to answer: Related to Ch 23, Power point 2.4 (Measuring evolution of
Populations) and Bozeman’s “Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium”
Explain the meaning of the saying “individuals are selected, populations evolve.”
How is variation generated in a population? How is it maintained?
Explain the relationship between the terms alleles, genes and gene pool.
Explain the relationship between the terms genotype and phenotype.
Explain the relationship between the terms homozygous and heterozygous.
How is it possible that individuals with two different genotypes can have the same
phenotype?
7. Explain how each of the following features of a (hypothetical) population in HardyWeinberg Equilibrium leads to that population not evolving over time:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
large population size
random mating
no immigration/emmigration
no net mutation rate
a constant environment
8. If no real population of organisms is in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, why is it a useful
tool to study the effects of evolution?
Questions to answer: Related to Ch 24, Power point 2.5 (Speciation) and
Bozeman’s: “Speciation” and “Reproductive isolation and speciation”
1. Explain what the “Biological Species” definition is. Describe its strengths and
weaknesses.
2. Why does a biological species have to be reproductively isolated from other organisms?
3. Compare allopatric and sympatric speciation.
4. What is a ring species?
5. Briefly explain the following species barriers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
habitat isolation
temporal isolation
behavioral isolation
mechanic isolation
gametic isolation
reduced hybrid viability
reduced hybrid fertility
hybrid breakdown
Questions to answer: Related to Ch 25, Power point 2.6 (Classification) and
Bozeman’s “Phylogenetics” and “Classification”
1. Explain the process that Carl Linnaeus used when he first started classifying organisms.
2. How does binomial nomenclature work?
3. How are proper organism names written?
4. What determines which domain an organism is in?
5. What factors determine which kingdom an organism is in?
6. Why has the old “Kingdom” system proved to be impractical?
7. How has DNA technology changed the way that classification is done?
8. Explain what a cladogram is and how one is made.
9. Describe the concepts of maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood.
10. Compare mono-, para-, and polyphyletic taxonomic groups. Draw examples of each (do
not have to show real organisms).
11. Explain the relationship between taxonomy and phylogeny.
Questions to answer: Related to Ch 26, Power Point 3.1 (Origin of life) and
Bozeman’s “The Origin of Life – Scientific Evidence”, Abiogenesis” and Speciation
and Extinction”
1. Science is based on observations. How can we begin to scientifically investigate events that we
were not around to observe?
2. With a ruler, draw a line that is 20 cm long. Divide the line into five, 4-cm segments. On a scale
of each segment representing one billion years, label the following events in the history of
earth:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
formation of the earth
origin of life
evolution of photosynthesis
evolution of eukaryotes
evolution of multi-cellular life
the Cambrian explosion
first vertebrate land animals
evolution of dinosaurs
evolution of human beings
3. Explain the hypothesis, procedure and results of the Miller-Urey experiment.
4. Why is it hypothesized that the evolution of RNA preceded the evolution of DNA?
5. Explain the concept of “adaptive radiation”. Why have adaptive radiations proceeded mass
extinction events?
6. Why do some folks feel that we are living through the sixth “Great extinction”?
7. Explain how it is possible to get large changes in an organism’s development with only a few
changes to that organism’s genome?
8. What do Homeobox genes do in animals?
Questions to answer: Related to Ch 27, Power point 3.2 (Prokaryotes) and
Bozeman’s “Bacteria” Archaea” and “Eukarya”
1. Explain why the prokaryote/eukaryote dividing line represents a fundamental division
among organisms.
2. Explain why we can infer that the Universal Common Ancestor of all life on earth was:
1. Unicellular
2. Heterotrophic
3. Used DNA as its genetic material
3. In eukaryotic cells, chloroplasts are the site of photosynthesis, and mitochondria are the
site of aerobic cellular respiration. How are bacteria able to carry out photosynthesis and
aerobic cellular respiration without these organelles?
4. Explain what is meant by the term “horizontal transfer” when referring to
bacteria. Compare the following three modes of horizontal transfer:
1. transformation
2. conjugation
3. transduction
5. Why do bacteria evolve so much faster than multicellular eukaryotes?
6. Compare the following modes of nutrition and give examples of organisms that utilize
each one:
1.
2.
3.
4.
chemoheterotrophic nutrition
photoautotrophic nutrition
chemoautotrophic nutrition
photoheterotrophic nutrition
7. Generally speaking, why do antibiotics only affect bacterial cells and not eukaryotic
cells?
8. Why did the archea remain undiscovered until the 1970’s?
9. Why are the archea referred to in the presentation as a “Domain of Weirdos”?
Questions to answer: Related to Ch 34, Power point 3.6 (Animals)
1. What characteristics do all chordates share?
2. Explain what qualifies a chordate as belonging to each of the following groups, and give
an example member of each kingdom:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
agnatha
gnathostomes
chondricthyes
osteicthyes
tetrapods
amphibia
reptilia
aves
mammalia
3. Explain the advantage of each of the following adaptations seen in veterbrates:
1. jaws
2. amniotic eggs
3. four-chambered heart
4. Why do we think that birds evolved from dinosaurs?
5. Why do we think that humans and apes share a recent common ancestor? When do we
think the lineages diverged?
6. Compare the following species of hominids:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Ardipithecus sp.
Australopithecus sp.
Homo erectus
Homo sapiens
7. What makes humans unique among animal species?