Spring 2004, Ecology and Evolution Study Guide
Lecture Exam 2
You should be familiar with the following terms, phrases, concepts and questions. The exam will consist largely of objective items
and some short answer such as definitions and fill in the blank. The test should be more aligned with the notes rather than the
readings. However, the text material is still fair game and you should be familiar with the concepts and terminology associated with
the chapters that were covered since the last exam.
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Describe the components of the following expression: Vp = Vg+Ve+Vgxe.
How is the expression above related to the theory of natural selection?
What are the four components of Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection?
Remember that natural selection only works on available variation (partially explained by genetic variability which is derived
from mutations) and natural selection has absolutely no predictive power.
Human Evolution and Phylogenetics terms to define: anthropoid, arboreal, bipedalism, hominid, hominoid, molecular clock,
primate, prosimian, monotypic, extinct, extant, taxonomy, phylogeny, node,
What are the differences between the multiregional continutity and out-of-Africa hypotheses.
What is the fossil record like for the primates? Why?
List some traits shared by primates.
What are the differences between the arboreal and terrestrial hypotheses of homonid evolution?
Draw a graph describing the difference between historical diversity patterns of monkeys versus the apes.
Why do humans have a large brain? True or False, Homo sapiens has the largest brain volume of the hominids.
How genetically similar is Homo sapiens to its nearest phylogenetic neighbor?
Give some adaptations of the skeleton associated with bipedalism.
Draw a phylogenetic tree of the primates including prosimians, new world monkeys, old world monkeys, Asian apes, African
apes and the hominids. Now draw one of the hominids including the orangs, Homo, bonobos, other chimps and Gorilla.
What are estimated dates of common ancestry between the groups above? How did we come up with these dates?
Why do some evolutionary scientists consider Proconsul to be a transisitonal species between monkeys and apes?
What are the shared traits of species in the genus Homo? Give a brief history of the genus starging with Homo habilis?
What is Martin’s blitzkrieg hypothesis?
Who coined the term Ecology? When? What does it mean?
Name some things that an individual interacts with on a daily basis.
Define homeostasis. Can you make the distinction between the broad sense and the narrow sense of homeostasis?
What are the four basic processes of life?
What is a tolerance curve? Draw and label a tolerance curve as it relates to energy expenditure. Draw and label one as it
relates to fitness of individuals in a population or a “response of a species”.
What is acclimation? Describe an ontogenetic shift in a tolerance curve. Describe a seasonal shift in a tolerance curve.
What is the multivariate or n-dimensional hypervolume? Can any resource gradient or axis be limiting with respect to a
tolerance curve?
Is behavior a product of or under Natural selection? Why or why not?
If we think about acquiring nutrients for a minute; what are some problems associated with being a herbivore or a carnivore?
Define carnivore, herbivore, browser, grazer, granivore, frugivore, detritivore, omnivore, corprophagy, external rumen,
capture efficiency, conversion efficiency
Why does cellulose pose a problem for animals? Name some adaptations that serve to counter this problem.
Compare a herbivore and a carnivore in terms of digestive anatomy (in general terms), capture efficiency, and conversion
efficiency.
What is behavioral ecology? Is there a genetic component to behavior?
How did Berthold test if there is a genetic component to migratory behavior? What about Helbig?
Describe the interaction between learned and inherited behavior during feeding of gull chicks.
What is a fixed action pattern?
Is behavior adaptive? How does male dominance in baboon troop hierarchy demonstrate adaptive behavior? What is malemale competition? What is sexual selection? What is a satellite male?
Define the three prongs of a definition of an ecological population. How does the word “species” have an impact on the
definition of a population?
Define habitat, population density, population, distribution, population size, patchiness, population dynamics
Explain how the concept of population distribution is scale dependent. What are some biotic and abiotic causes of a clumped
or clustered population distribution?
Define, r, K, dN/dt, B, b, D, d, intrinsic rate of increase, exponential population growth, logistic population growth.
Calculate r in a population of 100 hyrax between time one and time two while during that time, 20 individuals die and 10 are
born. Assume that the population is behaving according to the exponential population equation and assume the population is
changing continuously. What would a graph look like if you plotted N versus t over several generations? Now take another
population of 1000 hyrax and plot N against t over several generations when r is positive. What happens if the environment
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can support only so many individuals. Write out and label the exponential and logistic population growth equations? Finally,
what does all this mean for a human population?
What is a lag time?
Describe some things ecologists can do with per capita birth and death rates.
Define life table, cohort (or longitudinal) life table, cross-sectional life table, fecundity, fecundity schedule, survivorship,
survivorship schedule, age class, type I – III survivorship curves. Give some examples of each? What is the purpose of a
survivorship curve?
What do you think average fecundity was during the baby boom of the 1950’s?
Is there any evidence for a carrying capacity for human populations? What is it? Can a population operate above its carrying
capacity?