BSC 2011 Study Guide
Chapter 25
Chapter 25 – The History of Life on Earth
1. How do we describe macroevolution?
2. What is the proposed scenario that lead to the development of life on early Earth? What are the proposed ways in
which simple organic compounds may have been produced? Macromolecules?
3. What are protocells and how are they similar to living cells?
4. How did RNA likely begin to self-replicate?
5. What is the importance of the fossil record? How is the fossil record biased?
6. How are rocks and fossils dated?
7. What are the major events and their time frames as part of the geologic record? first single-celled organisms? the
oxygen revolution? the first eukaryotes? the origin of multicellularity? the Cambrian explosion? the colonization
of land?
8. How is it proposed eukaryotic cells were developed?
9. Describe plate tectonics and continental drift. How did/does this affect the movement of continents?
10. What are the two most discussed mass extinctions? Is a sixth extinction underway?
11. What are the consequences of mass extinctions? adaptive radiations?
12. How can developmental genes change body forms?...heterochrony, paedomorphosis, homeotic genes, gene
regulation
13. How can an evolutionary novelty, like a complex eye, evolve?
14. What are evolutionary trends?
Key Terms – macroevolution, protocells, hydrothermal vents, ribozymes, radiometric dating, half-life, geologic
record, stromatolites, endosymbiont theory, serial endosymbiosis, Cambrian explosion, plate tectonics, continental
drift, Pangaea, adaptive radiation, heterochrony, paedomorphosis, homeotic genes
Note: This study guide may not be all inclusive of material covered. The student is responsible for learning all
material covered in lecture and as expected as part of this course.