BIOL 292 - Evolutionary Biology

What are the major postulates of natural selection?

1. Individuals within a population differ from one another. 2. Differences are passed from parents to offspring. 3. Some individuals are more successful at surviving and reproducing than others. 4. #3 is due to the variant traits inherited by parents.

How can you tell when a population is evolving?

A population is evolving when forms of heritable traits change over generations.

What does the word conspecific mean?

Any individual that belongs to the same species.

How to layers of sedimentary rocks change?

Based on environmental changes.

What are the three ways to define a species?

Biological species concept Morphological species concept Genetics species concept

What is the Law of Superposition?

Bottom layers of sedimentary rocks are the oldest.

What does the term endemic mean in terms of populations?

Can only find a specific lifeform in a specific place.

What is the definition of evolution?

Change in the form of behavior of organisms between generations.

What happens when populations continue to grow?

Change is forced when a population grows too large and competition often ensues.

What is macroevolutionary biology?

Change on the species scale. Could be over millions of years. Deals with species relationships, speciation, extinction, and paleobiology.

What is the main weakness of the biological species concept?

Does not account for asexual reproduction.

What are fossils?

Evidence of earlier forms of life found in sedimentary rocks.

What does evolution account for?

Evolution accounts for both SIMILARITIES OF INDIVIDUALS across different species and the DIVERSITY OF TRAITS within a species.

Who came up with the phrase "catastrophism"?

Georges Cuvier

What is the morphological species concept?

If two individuals share similar morphology over a large range of selected traits, in the same variation of those traits, they are conspecific.

What was Darwin's key thought on his data?

Individuals varied in a population, and these variations could affect an individual's ability to secure resources and to survive and reproduce (viable offspring) in a particular environment.

Who came up with the "inheritance of acquired traits"?

Jean Lamarck

What did Darwin's finches prove?

Modifications of a specific trait allows for specialization in a certain field.

What are the three categories of adaptation?

Morphological (outward appearance) Physiological (inward appearance) Behavioral (behavior/choices)

What is viable offspring?

Offspring that can also reproduce.

What did Thomas Malthus state about populations?

Populations cannot grow forever.

What is adaptive radiation?

Process in which organisms diversify rapidly from a common ancestor into a multitude of new forms. AN EXPLOSION OF NEW SPECIES

What is catastrophism?

Says that God created all life on Day 1, and a series of catastrophes caused extinctions. The strongest of species were able to evade extinction. *Does not acknowledge evolution.*

What is adaptation?

Some HERITABLE aspect of form, function, behavior, or development that improves the survival and reproductive capacity of an individual in the environment.

What is the inheritance of acquired characteristics?

States that a trait, not defined by genetics, gets inherited from parents. *Does not acknowledge genetics.*

What is evolutionary fitness?

The better chance a species is to survive in a specific environment due to survival and ability to produce viable offspring (reproduction).

What do close rock layers tell us?

The closer the layers are to one another, the closer the fossils in the rock layers will look to eachother.

What is the genetics species concept?

The strongest and most accurate concept. Uses DNA sequences and genomes to determine similarity between two individuals.

What is biogeography?

The study of patterns in the geographic distribution of species.

What is microevolutionary biology the study of?

The study of the change of allele frequencies of individuals over time.

What is stratigraphy?

The study of the layers of sedimentary rocks.

What is the main weakness of the genetics species concept?

The threshold for similarities between two individuals to make them conspecific is not defined.

What is the main weakness of the morphological species concept?

There is no number of traits defined to make a species conspecific to one another.

What is the biological species concept?

Two individuals are conspecific to one another if they can REPRODUCE and PRODUCE VIABLE OFFSPRING.

When does adaptive radiation occur?

When a change in the environment makes new resources available, creates new challenges, or opens new environmental niches.