Exam 5 Q3 Review Sheet
Honors Biology
Exam 5 will cover:
Chapter 13: ALL
Chapter 14: ALL
1. What is evolution?
2. Describe briefly the history of evolution. What was Darwin’s contribution?
3. Give an example of an evolutionary adaptation.
4. Describe the evidence that supports evolution. Which is the most convincing and
why?
5. Explain how fossils form and why they are rare. What type of rock are fossils
typically found in? What is meant by the “law of superposition”? Explain why the
older layers are typically on the bottom.
6. What is meant by the “fossil record”? How is it a record?
7. Describe the transitions of vertebrates from lamprey to birds and mammals as told
to us by the fossil record.
8. What is a transition fossil and why do we expect to find them if the theory of
evolution is correct? Give examples of transitional fossils.
9.
Make sure you can describe in detail the five major lines of evidence supporting
evolution and how each supports the theory.
10. How do vestigial organs fit into the theory of evolution? Give examples in
humans and non-human animals.
11. Describe the influence Thomas Malthus had on Darwin. Describe the Malthusian
dilemma and how this fits into Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
12. Describe the theory of natural selection as put forth by Darwin.
13. What is meant by: The essence of natural selection is differential reproduction.
14. Give an example of natural selection at work.
15. Describe Darwin’s journey and some of the evidence he observed for evolution by
natural selection.
16. What was Charles Lyell’s influence on Darwin?
17. Describe how artificial selection works and why it is faster acting than natural
selection in terms of generating change in a species. Give examples of artificial
selection.
18. What is meant by nature is the editing process and mutation/random
fertilization/independent assortment/crossing over is the creative process?
19. Describe the observations made by the Grants.
20. What is the smallest unit that can evolve? Explain why.
21. What is the purpose of all organisms on this planet? What happens to the alleles if
the organism fails to perform their purpose? What does this tell us about all the
organisms on the planet currently?
22. What is meant by gene pool and allele frequency.
23. Make sure you can do allele frequency calculations.
24. Describe microevolution. Give an example.
25. Compare microevolution to macroevolution.
26. Describe each of the five causes of microevolution in detail and give examples of
each.
27. When is genetic drift strongest in terms of its influence on evolution? Explain
why.
28. How might a small population come to exist? Explain both ways and give
examples.
29. Compare mate choice (intersexual selection) to mate-to-mate combat (intrasexual
selection).
30. Explain why female birds are typically dull in appearance relative to male birds,
which tend to be the flashier sex.
31. What is meant by sexual dimorphism and how does this relate to sexual selection?
32. Give examples of sexual selection.
33. Understand the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. When is a population in HardyWeinberg Equilibrium? Is this actually possible? Explain. Why can we make this
assumption and how does assuming this help us in life?
34. Be able to do the Hardy-Weinberg problems. There is a practice sheet online.
There will certainly be a problem or two.
35. Describe what is meant by a polymorphism and give examples.
36. Describe what is meant by a cline and give examples.
37. How is genetic diversity measured in a population? Why do humans have such a
low genetic diversity do we hypothesize?
38. Explain how different organisms generate diversity, and be sure to explain why
each uses the strategy that it does.
39. Explain how alleles not favored by the current environment can manage to stick
around and are not eliminated.
40. Explain how nature can selection for multiple alleles for the same gene locus at
the same time. Give examples of heterozygous advantage and frequency
dependent selection.
41. What is meant by neutral variation and give examples.
42. Describe what is meant by survival of the fittest. Give an example.
43. Hypothesize how a person with one offspring can be considered more fit than a
person with 4 offspring…this one is a bit tricky, but not hard. Hint: kin selection
44. Identify and give examples for the three general outcomes of natural selection on
a population.
45. Why do I always say that organisms are locked into historical constraint? Give
examples.
46. Give an example of an evolutionary trade-off.
47. When are recessive alleles subject to natural selection?
48. Explain why we can’t force the appearance of a trait like purple eyes in dogs.
CHAPTER 14:
49. Describe the contributions of Carolus Linnaeus to biology. How did he define a
species?
50. Explain why appearance is not always a good indicator of species. Give examples.
51. Define each and compare the biological species concept to the morphological
species concept. Why are both useful depending on the organism?
52. Describe what a ring species is and why this might be speciation in action.
53. What is meant by speciation.
54. Describe the London underground example of speciation and how this is one
piece of evidence for rapid speciation.
55. Explain why splitting a population can lead to speciation, but does not necessarily
have to.
56. What must be formed in order for a new species to arise?
57. Describe all the pre- and postzygotic reproductive barriers and give examples for
each.
58. Explain in detail how a new species can arise from allopatric speciation.
59. Why is it more likely that a new species will form if the population that splits off
is small?
60. Give examples of geographic barriers that might arise to result in allopatric
speciation.
61. Compare and contrast allopatric speciation to sympatric speciation.
62. What is meant by adaptive radiation? Explain how the Galapagos finches are an
example of adaptive radiation.
63. Explain why finding only one finch species on the island of Cocos is not a
surprise even though we find 14 different species on the Galapagos.
64. Compare sympatric to allopatric speciation. Give examples of each. What do the
prefix and suffix of each word mean and how do they relate to the meaning of the
word?
65. Describe the experiment performed by Diana Dodd of Yale. Do not memorize it,
just understand it.
66. Describe the two models for evolution the deal with how quickly it occurs. Which
of these models would account for the rarity of transition fossils?
67. Have some clue about what the Grants did…read 14.9.