TGT – Evolution Questions
Team Cretaceous
1. What ideas from geology were important in developing the theory of evolution?
2. What was Malthus’s view of population growth?
3. How did Darwin use Malthus’s work to formulate his theory of natural selection?
4. What does survival of the fittest mean?
5. What is the difference between homologous and analogous structures?
6. How does natural selection lead to adaptation?
Team Jurassic
1. What is meant by the term variation?
2. What are vestigial structures?
3. How are pesticide-resistant insects an example of natural selection?
4. Describe three patterns of natural selection.
5. Under what circumstances is Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium disrupted?
6. Describe what can happen to a gene pool as a result of the bottleneck effect.
Team Triassic
1. What is genetic drift?
2. What is adaptive radiation?
3. How is mimicry an example of co-evolution?
4. How does punctuated equilibrium account for the relatively few fossils that link
newer species to older ones?
5. What is co-evolution?
6. What does allele frequency mean?
Team Permian
1. What is macroevolution?
2. What is an example of a reproductive barrier that prevents mating and a barrier
than happens after mating has occurred?
3. Why is the creation of membrane-bound organelles beneficial to the cell?
4. Describe the endosymbiotic theory.
5. How did continental drift lead to macroevolution?
6. What features are common to all hominids?
Team Cambrian
1. Name an allele that cause disease yet has been favored by natural selection. Why
would it be favored?
2. Why are new flu vaccines needed every year?
3. What are the three main geological eras in Earth’s history?
4. What is the difference between punctuated equilibrium and gradualism?
5. What is cumulative selection?
6. What indicates that microevolution is occurring?
TGT – Evolution Answers
Team Cretaceous
1. What ideas from geology were important in developing the theory of evolution?
Conclusions from Hutton that the current landscape took millions, not thousands of
years to form. The idea of uniformitarianism, which states that the earth was formed
entirely by slow-moving processes, such as erosion and sedimentation. Evidence from
Lyell that rock formations were formed by incredibly slow processes that are still at
work today.
2. What was Malthus’s view of population growth?
Populations can grow much faster than the rate at which supplies of food and other
resources can be produced.
3. How did Darwin use Malthus’s work to formulate his theory of natural selection?
Darwin realized that this idea could be applied to all species. The production of more
individuals than the environment can support leads to a struggle for existence.
4. What does survival of the fittest mean?
The results of differences in rates of survival and reproduction
5. What is the difference between homologous and analogous structures?
Homologous structures are similar structures in species that share a common
ancestor, but perform different functions. Analogous structures do not share a
common ancestor but perform similar functions.
6. How does natural selection lead to adaptation?
Individuals with traits well suited to their environment tend to leave more offspring on
average than individuals with adaptations less suited to the environment. The
survivor’s offspring inherit those useful characteristics, and will have a tendency to
leave more offspring.
Team Jurassic
1. What is meant by the term variation?
Variation refers to differences among species
2. What are vestigial structures?
Remnants of structures that may have had important functions in an ancestral species,
but have no clear function in the modern descendents.
3. How are pesticide-resistant insects an example of natural selection?
Application of a new pesticide kills the majority of the insect population. The survivors
were most likely insects that contained genes that allowed them to resist the pesticide.
Their offspring will inherit the genes for pesticide-resistance, and over time, the
pesticide resistance genes will be found in the majority of the population, making
application of the pesticide ineffective.
4. Describe three patterns of natural selection.
Stabilizing selection occurs when individuals near the centre of the phenotype range
have a higher fitness than individuals at either end of the range.
Directional selection occurs when individuals at one end of the phenotype range have
a higher fitness than individuals in the middle or at the other end of the range.
Disruptive selection occurs when individuals at the upper and lower ends of the range
of phenotypes have higher fitness than individuals near the middle.
5. Under what circumstances is Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium disrupted?
If there is random mating, the population is small, there is movement in or out of the
population, there are mutations, and there is natural selection.
6. Describe what can happen to a gene pool as a result of the bottleneck effect.
A bottleneck effect will reduce the size of the gene pool
Team Triassic
1. What is genetic drift?
Genetic drift is the change in the gene pool of a population due to chance.
2. What is adaptive radiation?
Evolution from a common ancestor that results in diverse species adapted to different
environments
3. How is mimicry an example of co-evolution?
Co-evolution is process in which one species evolves in response to the evolutionary
changes in another species, however there can be one-way influences, which is
mimicry. In mimicry, one species, the mimic, resembles another species, the model, in
order to gain survival advantage.
4. How does punctuated equilibrium account for the relatively few fossils that link
newer species to older ones?
In punctuated equilibrium, species diverge in spurts of relatively rapid evolutionary
change, thus a species that emerged from rapid change may not have had a population
large enough and widespread enough to leave a fossil record.
5. What is co-evolution?
The process in which one species evolves in response to the evolutionary change in
another species.
6. What is convergent evolution?
Distantly related species that live in similar environments develop similar adaptations.
Team Permian
1. What is meant by macroevolution?
Dramatic biological changes, many of which are evident in the fossil record. These
changes can include the origin of different species, the extinction of species, and the
evolution of major new features.
2. What is an example of a reproductive barrier that prevents mating and a barrier
than happens after mating has occurred?
Reproductive barriers that prevent mating are temporal isolation, behavioural
isolation, and mechanical isolation.
Reproductive barriers that happen after mating has occurred are gametic isolation,
hybrid inviability, and hybrid infertility
3. Why is the creation of membrane-bound organelles beneficial to the cell?
Membrane-bound organelles allows the cell to carry out complex chemical reactions in
separate compartments.
4. Describe the endosymbiotic theory.
Mitochondria and chloroplasts evolved from small aerobic prokaryotes that lived
inside larger eukaryotic cells. An ancestral eukaryote may have ingested some of these
prokaryotes food. The prokaryotes were not digested and continued to live inside the
cell. Over time the prokaryotes inside the cell formed a symbiotic relationship.
5. How did continental drift lead to macroevolution?
The separation of landmasses creates different environmental conditions. As plant and
animals species on these landmasses adapt to the different environments new
biological features develop resulting in the emergence of new species emerge, or the
extinction of species.
6. What features are common to all hominids?
Features common to all hominids is the large brain size and bipedalism.
Team Cambrian
1. Name an allele that cause disease yet has been favored by natural selection. Why
is it favored?
Sickle-cell allele. The frequency of the allele is highest in Africa where the malaria
parasite is most common. Individuals that carry a single copy of the allele are
resistant to malaria, but multiple copies results in disease. With malaria common in
the environment, natural selection maintains a higher frequency of the sickle-cell
allele than would be expected if the allele had only negative effects.
2. Why are new flu vaccines needed every year?
Because influenza mutates very quickly, new strains are always emerging. Thus, new
vaccines must be developed in order to protect against new emerging strains.
3. What are the three main geological eras in Earth’s history?
Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic.
4. What is the difference between punctuated equilibrium and gradualism?
Punctuated equilibrium is long periods of little evolutionary change are broken, or
punctuated, by shorter times of rapid selection.
Gradualism is the evolution of a species by gradual accumulation of small genetic
changes over a long period of time.
5. What is cumulative selection?
The evolution of a simple structure into a complex structure through a series of small
adaptations.
6. What indicates that microevolution is occurring?
If one or more of the following is occurring: natural selection, sexual selection,
artificial selection, genetic drift, and gene flow