Final exam

arguments for viruses being alive

-viruses are highly organized -viruses can and do evolve independently of other organisms

arguments for viruses not being alive

-viruses cannot replicate their genetic material on their own; they need a host in order to replicate -viruses are not cells; they have no structures that living cells have

how tetrapods solved challenges of land living

1. (moving heavy bodies)- developed 4 limbs 2. (gills won't function in air)- improved lungs 3. (larger muscles need more oxygen)- improved hearts/ circulatory systems 4. (body dries out)- return to water periodically 5. (eggs dry out)- rely on water to lay eggs

Four steps to form life

1. Abiotic synthesis of organic materials 2. formation of polymers 3. Formation of protobionts 4. Origin of hereditary material

steps of allopatric speciation

1. An event must happen to a species that separates one part of a population from another 2. This event must keep the two populations completely separate so that they develop and breed separately 3. If they are separated for long enough, these once connected groups of the population will not be able to meet due to the reproductive isolation mechanisms, and they will evolve independently of each other into new species

Darwin's observations on the Beagle voyage

1. Found a Glyptodon fossil among modern sea shells- indicated an extinction had occurred without catastrophe 2. Found that finches and tortoises on each island of the Galapagos looked different- proved transmutation of species and natural selection through adaption to environment

Five factors for natural selection

1. Individuals vary 2. Populations tend to overbreed relative to available resources, leading to a survival struggle 3. Better variations cause better survival (survival of the fittest) 4. Survivors will reproduce and non-survivors will not 5. Traits leading to survival and reproduction must be heritable (able to be passed on)

What proof of his hypothesis did Darwin live to witness?

1. Proof that Earth was old 2. Proof that species change 3. Proof that older fossils are more abundant in older rock strata

Four reasons we think there was originally an RNA world

1. RNA easily forms abiotically 2. RNA can replace itself 3. RNA has hereditary info 4. RNA has catalystic properties

Features of a Divinely Inspired Creation

1. Supreme Being placed organisms on Earth 2. Organisms look and function according to design of Supreme Being 3. Species do not change

ways in which the traditional 5/6 kingdom tree of life view is misleading

1. The Protists are extremely paraphyletic, yet they look monophyletic on the diagram 2. The represents all of the kingdoms as having equal weight instead of explaining the true complexity of all the kingdoms (ex. 4 of the kingdoms are all eukaryotic) 3. The tree makes it look like the Eukaryotes are separate from the Archea, when this is not the case in terms of their actual evolution

Three factors for natural selection

1. There must be variation in the population 2. Variation must lead to differences among individuals in lifetime reproductive success 3. Variation must be transmitted to the next generation

Modern examples of transitional forms

1. Whale- evolved from the ambulocetus natans, moved like a sea lion and had 4 limbs 2. Tiktaalik- animal with gills and fins of a fish but arms and shoulders of an amphibian Both of these animals prove that species evolve from earlier transitional forms of themselves

basics of mitosis

1. chromosomes condense and the mitotic spindle develops 2. the nuclear envelope breaks and the spindle further develops 3. the chromosomes align in the middle of the cell attached to the nuclear spindle 4. the chromosomes are pulled apart to opposite sides of the cell 5. the cell cleaves in half; once separation is complete, the two daughter cells have the same # of chromosomes as their parent cell with the exact same genetic info

basics of meiosis

1. chromosomes condense and the nuclear skeleton dissolves 2. the meiotic spindle forms and attaches itself to the chromosomes 3. the pairs join and "crossing over"- swapping of chunks of genetic material between the chromosomes- occurs 4. the pairs align in the middle 5. chromosomes are pulled whole to either side (not split in half) 6. the cells split in two 7. in the two new cells, the DNA recondenses again, the chromosomes pair and align, and the cells split again, creating 4 daughter cells each with 23 chromosomes

problems with increased energy hypothesis

1. correlation does not equal causation- strong correlation between AET and species richness does not imply that AET caused the diversity 2. increased energy doesn't answer the question 'why are there more species in the tropics?' either- the hypothesis can explain why more individuals exist in the tropics, but more individuals =/= more species! - look at the US- there is increasing speciation in the south AND in the west; there isn't necessarily more energy in the west than in the east, making this trend hard to explain using the increased energy hypothesis

Traits of bryophytes

1. embryophytic 2. gametophyte dominant cycle 3. their sporophyte grows out of the gametophyte and is dependent on it for growth- sporophyte cannot survive without gametophyte 4. they require water for sexual reproduction- often live in moist areas b/c of this

traits of tracheophytes

1. embryophytic 2. sporophyte dominant life cycle 3. their gametophyte is free living- does not grow from sporophyte (it is not vascular like the sporophyte, so it grows very small- even 1mm in length- while the sporophyte grows very large) 4. Can get VERY large (ex. Sequoia trees)

two main ways to study competition

1. experiments 2. comparing sympatric and allopatric populations

five mammalian traits

1. hair 2. mammary glands (milk) 3. endothermy 4. sweat glands 5. four-chambered heart

how does DNA replicate?

1. helix unzips and breaks hydrogen bonds between nucleotides 2. enzymes bring new nucleotides to the parental strand of DNA and pair them to form a daughter strand

challenges of land invasion

1. moving heavy bodies 2. gills won't function in air 3. larger muscles need more oxygen 4. the body dries out (dessication) 5. eggs dry out

predator responses to prey

1. search images- can find prey even when hidden effectively by using mental images 2. avoid/use toxins- some predators are good at avoiding the poisonous parts of prey, or they use the poison (ex. nudibranch) 3. get past armor- some predators can creatively bypass prey armor or are resistant to its effects (ex. goats can easily chew through cacti despite tough covering/spikes)

two factors that define a biome

1. temperature 2. rainfall

How do sessile organisms avoid predation?

1. toxicity- many plants have toxic compounds that taste bad or that are highly poisonous; plants also use aposematic coloring to indicate they are highly toxic; other sessile organisms, like anemones, also exhibit this toxicity 2. armor- many non-mobile organisms develop thick outer coverings (tree bark) and trunks, spikes, or spines as protection 3. satiation- plants also produce most of their offspring within a short time period, which ensures the entire plant species is easily able to survive herbivore predation

three factors that influence climate

1. variation in light intensity 2. the angle of the Earth 3. variation in local conditions

basics of viral replication

1. viruses enters host cell 2. substances strip the outer coating of the virus, releasing nucleic acids 3. nucleic acids enter deeper into the cell and cause the cell to ignore its own needs and switch to replicating the virus

Cichlid fish

11 species of this fish exist in a lake in Cameroon that are all very closely related; believed to be an example of sympatric speciation

thermotoga maritima

20% of genes are archaean in origin, even though they are a bacteria; shows that prokaryotes pass genes through lateral transfer between species

human chromosome count

46 chromosomes, 23 pairs

Geological Clock

5 billion years ago to the present. Humans appeared at 11:59 or 1 minute before the present

Protoplanet

A body of matter rotating around a star that has the potential to become a planet

mutation

A change in a gene or chromosome doesn't necessarily affect alleles as much, but mutation is so important because it allows all the other forces of genetic variation to act, therefore making mutation the premier source of genetic variability

Bottleneck Effect

A change in allele frequency following a dramatic reduction in the size of a population; these surviving organisms then form their own new population of their species where their alleles are then overrepresented, changing the resemblance of the new population

trait

A characteristic that an organism can pass on to its offspring through its genes

Hadley circulation

A general circulation pattern in which air rises near the equator, flows north and south away from the equator at high altitudes, sinks near the poles, and flows back along the surface from both poles to the equator; causes variation in global climates

population

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

theropods

A group of relatively small, two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs; most common examples are the velociraptor and the well known transitional species archaepteryx; dinosaurs in this group evolved into modern birds over millions of years

placoderms

A member of an extinct group of fishlike vertebrates that had jaws and were enclosed in a tough outer armor; evolved into agnathans and gnathostomes, and agnathans diverged from the gnathostomes with the loss of jaws

nonsense mutation

A mutation that changes an amino acid codon to one of the three stop codons, resulting in a shorter and usually nonfunctional protein

karyotype

A picture of all the chromosomes in a cell arranged in pairs

missense mutation

A point mutation in which a codon that specifies an amino acid is mutated so that a new amino acid is produced; often has a minimal effect on the function of the protein

true predators

A predator that typically kills its prey and consumes most of what it kills; the well known example of a predator (ex. lions eating wildebeast, orca eating penguins)

natural selection

A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits

binary fission

A rapid form of asexual reproduction for prokaryotes in single-celled organisms by which one cell divides into two cells of the same size; no gene recombination occurs and two identical cells are produced

predator prey cycling definition

A reciprocal fluctuation in the population sizes of predators and their prey- predator numbers follow the changes in prey numbers; these cycles are evidence of coevolution between predators and prey

mutualism (+/+)

A relationship between two species in which both species benefit

parasitism (+/-)

A relationship in which one organism lives on or in a host and harms it/predates it, without killing it directly; there are two types: - ectoparasites: live outside host body - endoparasites: live inside host body (more well-known group)

gene

A segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait

deletion (chromosomal mutation)

A segment of a chromosome breaks off and is lost; similar to nucleotide deletion, but on a much larger scale and is normally fatal

Pleiotropy

A single gene having multiple effects on an individuals phenotype (ex. sickle cell anemia gene, which causes sickle cell anemia when dominant, also helps us to be more resistant to malaria)

keystone species

A species that influences the survival of many other species in an ecosystem (ex. pisaster starfish- explained separately)

corridors

A strip of natural habitat that connects two adjacent nature preserves to allow migration of organisms from one place to another so as to prevent extinction

endosymbiosis

A theorized process in which early eukaryotic cells were formed from simpler prokaryotes

codons (and the amino acid table)

A three-nucleotide sequence of DNA or mRNA that specifies a particular amino acid or stop signal; the basic unit of the genetic code; (these are what make up the amino acid table)

"invisible hand"

Adam Smith's economic concept that natural forces like competition and self-interest control the economy; influenced Darwin's view of competition in nature

colonial bentgrass

Agrostis tenuis; the grass population that grew near a mine was found to have very high fitness for survival in contaminated soil and low fitness for normal soil, while the population that lived further from the mine in regular soil had a high fitness for regular soil and a low fitness or no fitness at all for contaminated soil; example of disruptive selection

Tarweeds and silverswords

All of the many species of silverswords are thought to have descended from a single tarweed plant in Hawaii; example of adaptive radiation occurring in island chains

Mesozoic Era (250-65 MYA)

Also known as the "Age of Reptiles;" dinosaurs and first mammals introduced; ends with K-T Extinction

Building blocks of life

Amino acids, nucleotides, sugars, lipids, ATP

dominant trait/allele

An allele that is always expressed; the visible trait in an organism

recessive trait/allele

An allele that is masked when a dominant allele is present

allele

An alternative form of a gene

paramecium

An extremely common ciliated (it propels itself via cilia) protist that lives in fresh water and eats other tiny organisms for food; classic example of a ciliate

Dinosaurs

An extremely diverse group of ancient reptiles varying in body shape, size, and habitat; died in K-T Extinction

Archaeopteryx

An intermediate fossil that shows both reptile and bird characteristics

swim bladder

An internal gas-filled organ that helps the ray-finned fish stabilize their buoyancy and stay afloat despite their heavy skeleton; can add/remove air from it without any effort

Evidence that organisms overbreed given available resources

An oak tree will drop 10,000 acorns, yet only 1-10 of these will ever grow into full oak trees

radula

An organ covered with hundreds of rowed teeth that mollusks use to scrape food into their mouths; most mollusk groups have them

model organism

An organism selected for intensive scientific study based on features that make it easy to work with (e.g., body size, life span), in the hope that findings will apply to other species

Heterozygous

An organism that has two different alleles for a trait (ex. Aa)

homozygous

An organism that has two identical alleles for a trait (ex. AA or aa)

blending inheritance

An outdated, disputed theory that the phenotype of an offspring was a blend of the parent's phenotypes

1st land plant

Appeared on land for first time after the Cambrian Explosion; first one was carpet moss

Glyptodon

Armadillo fossil Darwin found amongst modern seashells on the Galapagos islands that indicated extinction could occur naturally/ without a catastrophe

Issues people had with Darwin's theory

In order for it to be completely correct: 1. The Earth would have to be extremely old as opposed to 6,000 years old 2. There needs to be evidence of fossils changing through time 3. Older rock strata need to have less new species than newer rock strata 4. Intermediate forms of species need to exit

Cyanobacteria

Bacteria that can carry out photosynthesis; first known organism that could do this

Importance of using DNA-based classification to classify prokaryotes

Because most prokaryotes defy our attempts to grow and observe them individually, the best way we find and classify new prokaryotes is by DNA sampling- for example, taking a portion of soil and testing for the genes in that soil and mapping what we find; it is estimated that we can see a 100x increase in the amount of known prokaryote species using DNA classification

The BIG IDEA

Because there are more animals born in each species than can survive due to limited resources, those organisms born with advantages and favorable traits will be "naturally selected" to survive and pass their favorable traits on to their offspring

commensalism (+/0)

Interaction that benefits one species with no effect on the other

Reciprocal translocation

Interchange of parts between non-homologous chromosomes.

aposematic coloration

Bright warning colors in animals who are poisonous or who have a chemical defense; predators recognize these colors and avoid these animals (ex. nudibranch is brightly colored and gains its poison by feeding on poisonous jellyfish and secreting their venom onto its skin); this form of coloring produces two forms of mimicry where animals try to mimic the poisonous color patterns of other animals: Batesian mimicry and Mullerian mimicry

sex chromosomes

Chromosomes that determine the sex of an individual; X for women and Y for men

Atolls

Circular shaped islands made of coral; Darwin studied these islands on his voyage

Binomial Nomenclature

Classification system in which each species is assigned a two-part scientific name (created by Carolus Linnaeus)

Precambrian Supereon (4.6 BYA- 543MYA)

Consists of the Hadean, Archean, and Proterozoic eons; in this time, Earth forms, life originates, the first photosynthesis occurs, microscopic single-celled and multi-cellular organisms appear, and oceans form

Fossil evidence of adaptation (how it supported Darwin's theory)

Cuvier's discovery of extinct species in fossils, along with dozens of other fossil discoveries in this time period of extinct species, helped to prove that species change over time and die out, a central part of Darwin's theory

Dicrocoelium dendriticum, ants, and deer

DD (for short) is a parasitic bacteria that lives in ant guts for most of its life cycle, but needs a large, herbivore mammal to reproduce; once an ant is infected, one cell of the parasite sacrifices itself and migrates to the ant's brain, allowing the DD parasite to take control of the ant; the DD makes the ant clamp to the edge of a blade of grass, specifically at the end of the day, when grazers are most likely to be feeding, so that a deer can eat the ant and DD can then enter the deer and reproduce; the behavior of this parasite is a great example of the complex life cycles and behaviors that many parasites have evolved

Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

DNA -> RNA -> Protein

metagenomics

DNA from a group of species is collected from an environmental sample and sequenced; the main way that we find out new prokaryotes exist

virus structure

DNA or RNA molecule (never both) within a capsid (protein coat) for protection; the shape is created by its protein coat, and it can be circular or linear

Galapagos Tortoises

Darwin realized these hard-shelled animals looked different on each island after conversing with the locals

sexual dimorphism

Differences in physical characteristics between males and females of the same species

sporophyte

Diploid, or spore-producing, phase of a plant; Makes haploid spores by meiosis (D to H)

1st land animal

Early amphibian tetrapod that came to land after evolving from a fish

prototherians (monotremes)

Egg laying mammals- also called monotremes; only living ones are the platypus and echidna, both found in Australia; ooze milk through their skin for their young- have no nipples to give milk through

DNA polymerase

Enzyme involved in DNA replication that joins individual nucleotides to produce a DNA molecule

Paleozoic Era (543-250 MYA)

Era that follows Precambrian Supereon; begins with the Cambrian Explosion; diversification brings more multi-cellular organisms; plants and animals make it to land for first time; ends with Permian Extinction

The problem with missing links

Every time a new missing link is filled between two species, two more come about, which is why all the missing links could never possibly be discovered

Microevolution

Evolutionary change below the species level; change in the allele frequencies in a population over generations; examples include gene flow, genetic drift, non-random mating, mutation, and selection

Archaeocyathids

Extinct group of sponge-like organisms

selective forces

Factors that derive from the environment that ultimately pose threats to health and well-being, survival, and reproduction. Examples include, but are not limited to, predation, climate changes, parasitism/disease, mate attraction, and resource acquisition

Archean Eon

First appearance of life in this Eon; prokaryotic bacteria called cyanobacteria is the first organism

SB and C barnacles

Joseph Connell studied semibalanus and chthalamus barnacles living in the same intertidal zone for evidence of niches and competition; the C barnacles always lived higher than the SB barnacles, but they hatched larvae in the same area; if the SB barnacles were removed, the C barnacles took over the whole living area, but if the C barnacles were removed, the SB stayed put because they were susceptible to dry out and could not live higher due to the changing tides; this study provided evidence of fundamental and realized niches, and that the SB barnacles prevent the C barnacles from their fundamental niche

Nested Hierarchy of Organisms

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (Phylum and Class were added later on; created by Linnaeus)

Cyanobacterial mats/stromatolites

Layers of cyanobacteria on top of stromatolite rocks with living bacteria on top and fossilized bacteria layered underneath

Earliest multicellular life

Life first found in the late Precambrian; mostly unknown animal types and some were capable of movement

what is life

Life is organized and can replicate itself

Protobionts

Lipid-based matter with hydrophilic heads (move towards water) and hydrophobic tails (move away from water) that form lipid bilayers and liposomes cavities in the middle due to the hydrophilic tails

Deuterostome traits

-mouth develops after anus -triploblastic development -all are coelomates -internal skeletons common -some are segmented, but segments are most often internal or less obvious than in protostomes -there are very few compared to amount of protostomes

challenges of land living for plants

1. avoiding dry out 2. finding structural support to stand without a water column 3. Finding ways to reproduce without water spreading their gametes

the development of multicellularity

1. eukaryotic cells of similar variety began living close to each other in associations 2. these associations then became connected into colonies 3. the individuals in the colonies began to take on different roles 4. the colony begins to function as an individual, with different cells in different parts that play certain roles in keeping the individual alive

5 events that lead to coexsistence

1. resource partitioning 2. character displacement 3. intraspecific competition 4. predatiom 5. disturbance

dihybrid ratios

9:3:3:1

monohybrid cross

A cross between individuals that involves one pair of contrasting traits

sexual selection

A form of natural selection in which individuals with certain inherited characteristics are more likely than other individuals to obtain mates and reproduce

adaptation

A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce

Cenozoic Era (65 MYA- present)

Also known as the "Age of Mammals;" flowering plants dominate and grasslands spread; first "humans" appear about 2MYA

phenotype

An organism's physical appearance, or visible traits, based off of it's genetic makeup

Directional selection

Form of natural selection in which the entire curve moves; occurs when individuals at one end of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals in the middle or at the other end of the curve, thus moving the curve (selection that moves the average)

behavioral isolation

Form of reproductive isolation in which two populations have or develop differences in courtship rituals or other types of behavior that prevent them from interbreeding (ex. blue-footed booby and red-footed booby never mate because their different mating rituals don't attract each other)

monohybrid ratios

Genotypic ratio: 1:2:1 Phenotypic ratio: 3:1

Megatherium

Giant ground sloth discovered to be extinct by Georges Cuvier that further proved extinction occurred

gametophyte

Haploid, or gamete-producing, phase of an plant; gametes produce diploid zygote through fertilization (H to D)

Trilobites

Hard-shelled, easily fossilized organisms common in the Precambrian Eon until their extinction

Horse lineages

Horses are all part of the Equidae family, which once had 34 genera, but now only has one genus; this change shows how the modern horses developed from hundreds of different transitional forms in dozens of different genera

tip for deciding between trophic and defensive mutualism

IF DEFENSE IS INVOLVED IN THE MUTUALISM, IT WILL ALWAYS BE LABELLED DEFENSIVE, EVEN IF BOTH ORGANISMS GET FOOD! DEFENSIVE WILL ALWAYS TRUMP TROPHIC

Transmutation of Species

Idea that species can change and give rise to new species

reading frame

Reading mRNA nucleotides in the correct groupings

relaxation

STILL TRYING TO DEFINE

Difference between founder and bottleneck affect

The founder effect occurs when a chunk of a population separates from their old population somehow, while the bottleneck effect occurs when a new population forms because the old population experienced a large decrease in size due to some kind of lethal event

Pea plants

The plant Gregor mendel studied

evenness

The relative abundance of species

Mendel's 1st Law of Segregation

Traits are determined by a pair of alleles, which segregate during gamete formation, and are reunited at fertilization

Amniote traits

all amniotes have: -amniotic eggs -dry skin -thoracic breathing -improved kidneys - internal fertilization

traits of modern amphibians

all amphibians have: 1. legs (1st tetrapods to have legs) 2. lungs 3. cutaneous respiration 4. pulmonary veins 5. partially divided hearts

five traits of all fish

all fish have: -jaws -paired appendages -internal gills -single loop blood circulation -nutritional deficiencies

sweat glands (mammalian traits)

all mammals have these glands to keep themselves from overheating and dying; humans have sweat glands across their body, but most mammals don't, so other mammals use methods like panting or flapping their ears to cool off further

general mollusk body plan

all mollusks generally have a 3 part body plan consisting of varieties of the three main parts: visceral mass, foot, and mantle

defining reptile traits

all reptiles: -have dry skin with scales -have amniotic eggs produced through internal fertilization -lay eggs (external gestation) -have thoracic breathing and improved kidneys -ectothermic

vertebrate traits (compared to non-vertebral chordates)

all vertebrates have: -heads -endoskeletons supported by vertebrae -internal organs suspended in coelem -circulatory system with muscular heart

dry skin (amniote traits)

amniotes all have dry skin with no moisture, and do all of their gas exchange through their lungs; reptiles specifically have scaly skin that prevents water loss

loboseans (ameobozoans)

amoebozoan protist that is a classic example of an amoeba; move using pseudopodia and live/feed on lake and stream bottoms

Krakatau

an Indonesian volcanic island which was the site of one of history's most violent volcanic eruptions

myriapods (arthropods)

arthropods that have heads and mandibles, as well as bodies consisting of repeating segments; they have a single antennae pair and no wings; they either have one pair of legs per segment (centipedes) or two pairs of legs per segment (millipedes)

arachnids (arthropods)

arthropods with four pairs of legs; have their own specialized mouthparts called chelicerae (instead of mandibles); have no antennae or wings; contains spiders, scorpions and mites

species richness and habitat number

as the number of habitats increases, species richness increases

sori

clusters of sporangia on ferns that burst open during meiosis and release all of the daughter spores

hollow nerve cord

cord that runs along the back of chordates and is full of fluid; eventually develops into the spinal cord

the basic structure of DNA

double helix - two single chains that spiral around an imaginary axis

three groups of deuterostomes

echinoderms, hemichordates, and chordates

paired appendages (fish traits)

fish have a pectoral pair and a pelvic pair of fins that they use for stabilization and propulsion

internal gills (fish traits)

fish use this body part to extract oxygen from the water around them

types of postzygotic isolating mechanisms

hybrid inviability, hybrid infertility, hybrid breakdown

cold deserts

less well known deserts; get more rain than hot deserts, but still very little precipitation; brutally cold winters limit flora growth to just spring season; different from tundras- no permafrost

running (behavioral prey defense)

literally just running away from the predator

antheridium

male plant gamete structure that produces sperm

chromatid

one half of a duplicated chromosome

horsetails

seedless, vascular plant species with megaphyllic leaves and photosynthetic stems; very rare, non-dominant monilophyte species; (ex. bamboo)

common ancestor to mollusks

some sort of unsegmented worm

predator

species dependent on another for food; predator/prey relationships are intricate and complex

Last universal common ancestor (LUCA)

the ancestor that is common to all organisms that live, and have lived, on Earth since life began

comparison of DNA sequences between organisms (what they mean for human relatedness)

the higher the % of similar genes two organisms have, the more related they are (duh) -keep in mind that two organisms can be extremely related genetically and still be vastly different. Humans share 98% of the same genes with chimps, yet that 2% accounts for all of the vast amount of visible and internal variation between the two species*

echinozoans (echinoderms)

this echinoderm group contains echinoderms with no arms; examples include sand dollars, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers

halophiles

"salt-loving" archaea that live in environments that have very high salt concentrations

Ambulocetus natans

"walking whale;" transitional form of modern whale

support for the evolutionary time hypothesis

- Ecologist Dr. Bradford Hawkins designed an experiment to test the evolutionary hypothesis by analyzing the latitudinal gradient of Western hemisphere birds; he looked at the phylogenies of the birds and what latitudes/areas they were concentrated at in the hemisphere - results: the birds from more basal/ older lineages were far more likely to be found in/near the tropics than birds from more derived/younger lineages - the explanation Dawkins used for this was that the Eiocene-Miocene climate shift pressured basal birds to retreat back to the tropics, allowing derived/newer bird species to fill their open niches in the more temperate latitudes

basic history of Krakatau

- Krakatau erupted repeatedly and massively throughout history - 1883: two massive eruptions occur on back to back days, equating to 200 megatons of TNT= 13000x as large as the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima - eruption generated loudest sound ever recorded- could be heard 3000 miles away - 1883 eruption killed around 36000, injured thousands more, and destroyed most of the main island - explosions since 1883 have created smaller island called Anat Krakatau - scientists found no extant life on the island after the explosion; after 3 years: 43 species; after 10 years: almost 100; after 100 years: large populations and great diversity on the island

examples of ammensalisms

- animals crush plants growing near watering holes unintentionally

examples of mutualisms

- cleaner fish and customer fish - honey guide birds and honey badgers (explained in detail in separate definition)

three ways in which species interact

- competition - predation - symbioses

benefits of amniotic egg

- greater resistance to drying out - improved respiratory capacity - increased structural support

interspecific vs intraspecific competition

- interspecific competition—competition among different species - intraspecific competition—competition within same species

human mutualisms

- intestine/gut bacteria and humans- gut bacteria feed on food in our stomachs and intestines and gain food; them partially eating the food allows us to unlock essential nutrients we need from the food - eyelash mites and humans- eyelash mites eat secretions from our eyes and keep our eyes from gluing shut when we sleep - crop fields and humans- crops like corn are totally dependent on humans; with our farming, they thrive, and we get to eat some of the crops as a result

examples of commensalisms

- mites attach to grasshoppers for easy transport, grasshoppers not affected - epiphyte plants rest on top of larger plants without stealing nutrients or resources, larger plants not affected

Non-DNA traits used for making phylogenies

- shared morphology (similar structure) - developmental patterns - behavioral patterns - paleontological patterns

Difference between epistasis and polygenic inheritance

-Epistasis: alleles mask the effect of a phenotype, causing it to either be represented or not represented at all -Polygenic inheritance: multiple alleles affect the phenotype of a gene, and the alleles are usually additive, which results in a variety of possible phenotypic outcomes that can be normally distributed on a bell curve -the key difference to look for here is that polygenic inheritance can result in an infinite number of phenotypic expressions that can be normally distributed, while epistasis results in a very limited/small amount of expressions

Outcomes of mutation

-May be neutral -May be harmful -May be beneficial (RARE!); it is these beneficial mutations that fuel natural selection

common TSE diseases

-Scrapie (sheep) -Bovine spongiform encephalopathy/ "Mad Cow Disease" (cows) -Chronic wasting disease (deer and elk) -Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (humans)

Common examples of trisomy

-Trisomy 21= Down Syndrome (most common example) -Klinefelter's= condition in which males have two X chromosomes and one Y chromosome

unique bird traits (from other reptiles)

-feathers -skeletons evolved for flight -no teeth -tiny tails -unique lung design -endothermy

differences between plants and protists

-plants are almost all multicellular, while only some protists ate -plants have mastered the ability to conquer their size and some become some of the largest organisms on the planet, while protists are generally very small -plants generally live longer than protists

differences between prions and viruses

-prions contain no genetic material, while viruses do -prions are much smaller than viruses -prions infect by folding proteins, while viruses infect by taking control of cells

Percent of living fossils decreases the older the rock strata (how this supported Darwin)

Lyell's studies of rock strata showed that 97% of fossils in younger rock strata were existing species, while only 3% of fossils found in older rock strata were still in existence. This proved Darwin's point that new species develop over time and replace former species

Differences between mitosis and meiosis

Meiosis has two rounds of genetic separation and cellular division while mitosis only has one of each. In meiosis homologous chromosomes separate leading to daughter cells that are not genetically identical. In mitosis the daughter cells are identical to the parent as well as to each other

Why did Mendel use pea plants?

Mendel used pea plants because of their: -short generation time -large # of offspring -controlled mating (cross-pollination)

What Era was the Age of Reptiles

Mesozoic Era

Monomers and polymers

Monomers are the smaller units that join together to form polymers.

1st mammal

Morganucodon watsami

stoneworts

Multicellular green algae most related to land plants- they are the sister taxa of land plants; they are a paraphyletic group; they show similar mitotic style, cell structures, and branching growth to plants, but they differ in that they exhibit filamentous cell growth; they commonly form green mats around ponds

Unicellular vs. Multicellular

Multicellular organisms need specialized organ systems, whereas all the life processes in a unicellular organism take place in that one cell

The importance of clay

Negatively charged monomers would attract to the positively charged clay at the ocean floor to form polymers, which are essential to life

platyrrhini/flat-nose primates (haplorrhini)

New World Monkeys; live in South America and Central Asia; have flat noses and are arboreal; prehensile tails are common; their ancestors were the group of haplorrhines that migrated to South America instead of staying in Africa

Can an individual organism evolve?

No. Evolution requires changes to accumulate during descent through many generations of populations; individuals need to interact and exchange traits with those in populations in order for the species to evolve

hybrids

Offspring of parents with different traits who were crossed

F2 generation

Offspring resulting from interbreeding of the hybrid F1 generation

Impact of extinction on theories of creation

Once it was discovered that certain species had gone extinct, the theory of creation was impacted because it stated that no animal could ever go extinct, as it would imply a mistake made by God

Daphne Major

One of the Galapagos Islands, which has finches showing several different beak types. The Grants did their research here

where do new genes come from

One way in which new genes evolve is through the duplication, and then modification, of existing genes (deletion or addition)

Evidence that individuals within a species vary

Organisms in any species clearly vary in size, shape, color, etc.

detritivores

Organisms that eat dead organic matter; don't control the abundance of their prey

What is life (two things)

Organized and can replicate itself

Other pre-DNA forms of classification you should know

Other pre-DNA tests done to classify between Archaea and Bacteria are: gram tests (pos/neg), mobility tests (mobile/not mobile), photosynthesis test (photosynthetic/not), and cellularity test (unicellular, colony-forming, or filament-forming)

capsid

Outer protein coat of a virus

monophyletic

Pertaining to a taxon derived from a single ancestral species that gave rise to no species in any other taxa

Phenotype vs genotype (ratios)

Phenotype ratios describe the expected visual traits for the offspring of the organisms being crossed, while genotype ratios predict the ratios at which the genes of the parents will combine

true breeding

Plants that produce offspring of the same variety when they self-pollinate (ex. a purple pea plant producing only purple offspring)

translation

Process by which mRNA is decoded and a protein is produced

crossing over/recombination

Process in which homologous chromosomes exchange portions of their chromatids during meiosis leading the genetic material of the daughter gametes to be different than the genetic material of the parent gametes

development of protist photosynthesis

Protists became photosynthetic in two ways: -primary endosymbiosis- protists who engulfed a cyanobacteria, and their offspring were either red algae or green algae -secondary endosymbiosis- protists who engulfed the red or green algae, and their offspring were then different variations of photosynthetic protists

"we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end"

Quote by James Hutton that indicates the same geological processes operating millions of years ago still operate today

"the present is the key to the past"

Quote that defines uniformitarianism

centromere

Region of a chromosome where the two sister chromatids attach

sister chromatids

Replicated forms of a chromosome joined together by the centromere and eventually separated during mitosis or meiosis II

Great Geological Cycle

Rocks being converted and altered constantly through the processes of sedimentation and erosion (discovered by James Hutton)

The age of the Earth supporting Darwin's theory

Scientists like Hutton and Lyell published work that argued the Earth was in fact very old due to the concepts of gradualism and uniformitarianism, which lended support to part of Darwin's theory

reproductive isolation

Separation of species or populations which results in them no longer being able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring; different mechanisms cause this isolation to occur

Galium competition experiment

Sir Arthur George Tansley ran one of the earliest competition experiments between two plants of the same genus- Galium Saxatile, which grew in acidic soil, and pumilum, which grew in alkaline soil; he found that each of them grew moderately well alone in the opposing soil, but each species outgrew the other on their home soil; this experiment proved the occurrence of competition

incomplete dominance

Situation in which one allele is not completely dominant over another allele, resulting in blending of the parents' phenotypes

Viroids

Small bits of RNA without viral protein coating; possibly what the world was full of just before life; can replicate themselves and carry diseases to plants

Archaeopteryx (how did it support Darwin)

The Archaeopteryx fossil was the first intermediate form fossil to be discovered, and it directly supported Darwin's theory of the existence of transitional forms within species

How the Grant's data shows evidence of adaptation to environmental conditions

The Grant's data shows that finches who survived La Nina had larger, deeper beaks. These finches with larger beaks then reproduced and had more offspring with larger beaks, therefore showing that adaptation occurred in the Daphne Major finch population due to La Nina

The role of disasters in keeping the food supply in line with the population

The belief that disasters periodically collapse populations in order to avoid overpopulation and food scarcity; periodic in the sense that there is only enough food available until the next disaster (theorized by Malthus)

Uniformitarianism

The belief that the processes that shaped ancient geology are the same processes shaping it today (theorized by Charles Lyell)

giant kelp

The common name for Macrocystis pyrifera, a brown kelp which is the largest seaweed in earth's oceans; form of brown algae

relative fitness

The contribution of one phenotype/genotype to the next generation compared to that of other phenotypes/genotypes for the same species; can be calculated by creating a ratio of total number of offspring that survived to total number of offspring produced for each phenotype/genotype (ex. black mice produce 3 offspring and 3 survived-> 3/3= rel. fitness of 1; white mice produce 3 offspring and one survives -> 1/3= rel. fitness of 1/3)

resource partitioning

The division of environmental resources by coexisting species

phylogeny

The evolutionary history of a species or group of related species in diagram form

where are the gametes on a punnett square?

The father's gametes are placed on the top two boxes of the square, and the mother's gametes are placed along the left side boxes of the square

allopatric speciation

The formation of new species in populations that are geographically isolated from one another

allopatric speciation/allopatry

The formation of new species in populations that are geographically isolated from one another and cannot reconnect

sympatric speciation/sympatry

The formation of new species in populations that live in the same geographic area; the early stages of this phenomena have been observed, but it has not been observed all the way through yet

The Grant's work on the medium ground finch

The grants recorded the finches' beak length after La Nina and found that variations in beak size and depth had occurred; the average length of the beaks of the surviving finches was longer and deeper than the length of the dead finches

Analyzation of the graphs from Grant's work

The graphs showed the surviving finches of La Nina had larger and deeper beaks than the finches who did not survive La Nina, and vice versa for El Nino

continental drift

The hypothesis that states that the continents once formed a single landmass, broke up, and drifted to their present locations

Competition and self interest

The idea that economic competition and the self interest of both producers and consumers will drive bad sellers out of business and allow good sellers to thrive; Darwin applied these two concepts to the natural world

increased competition hypothesis

The idea that there are more tropical species because there are tighter niche packing in the tropics; lots of resources in tropics can provide for a lot of species, causing niches to pack tightly (ex. the tropics are the only area where some animals survive eating 1-2 types of fruit); there is looser niche packing away from tropics because resources are less abundant, causing animals need to eat many types of food to live - problem: this hypothesis also asserts that more specialists are found in the tropics than generalists due to abundance of all resources, but this is false- there are more generalists than specialists in the tropics

Permian Extinction

The largest mass extinction in history; wiped out 96% of all life forms at the end of the Paleozoic Era

peptidoglycan

The main compound found in the cell walls of bacteria that makes the wall thick and strong; found in the cell walls of BACTERIA

Archean Fossils

The only fossils from this time period are single-celled bacterial organisms

Importance of WHERE the organisms came from on the Galapagos

The organisms who moved to the Galapagos Islands were originally one species; it was important to record where each organism came from on each individual island to record how they adapted to their own environment and formed their own species over time

niche partitioning

The process by which natural selection drives competing species into different patterns of resource use or different niches; coexistence is obtained through this partitioning, or dividing, of realized ecological niches between species; niches are often partitioned in more low-resource areas so organisms of both species can survive instead of competing; if niche partitioning is not chosen, then the species will compete until one dies off

Absolute fitness

The ratio of frequencies of a single phenotype from one generation to the next; can be quantified in terms of how many offspring with a certain trait survive into the next generation (ex. 1 white mouse survives while 3 black mice survive into the next gen., making black mice fitness 3 and white mice fitness 1)

Why does sickle cell anemia still exist?

The same gene that causes it also causes resistance to malaria, and in some part of the world, this malaria gene is still very commonly passed on

niche packing

The tendency for coexisting species between them to fill the available 'space' along important niche dimensions; determined by the resource level of the habitat

Wallace's Line

The zoogeographical boundary proposed by Alfred Russel Wallace that separates the animals of Australia and New Guinea from the animals of Indonesia and the surrounding archipelago

Miller and Urey's Experiment

They designed an experiment in which they recreated the conditions of early Earth in their laboratory. They place water and a mixture of the gases thought to compose Earth's early atmosphere into a flask. Then, they sent an electric current through the mixture to simulate lightning. Within a week, the mixture darkened, indicating gasses were produced abioticaly and proving that they could have been created like this on early Earth

Mockingbird

This Galapagos bird stood out to Darwin because it looked different on each island, despite being the same species

Hadean Eon

Time on Earth before life evolved; no oceans, oxygen, or ozone layer; constant bombardment of asteroids and volcanic eruptions; no atmosphere; cooling brings oceans at the conclusion of this Eon

gene linkage

Traits that tend to be inherited together as a consequence of an association between their genes

Populations grow geometrically while food supplies grow linearly

Trend noticed by Thomas Malthus that explains great competition in nature and natural population control

temporal partitioning

Two species reduce competition by utilizing a resource at different times from each other (ex. bufo woodhousii and hyla crucifier- two similar species of frogs who separate their tadpole birthings by 4-6 weeks to avoid larvae competition- form of temporal partitioning)

La Nina years

Very dry, withering vegetation, many large seeds because small seeds ran out quickly, finches with larger beaks survived these years

Bacterial fossils

Very important fossils that help us to study Earth's formation, early atmosphere, and related evolutionary processes; provide a basis for creation or genesis of a species

El Nino years

Very wet, lots of vegetation, many small seeds and few large seeds, finches with smaller beaks survived these years

Determining the color of a lab (example of epistasis)

We don't need all of the traits to determine what color a lab will be. We only need to know which traits are present, as the presence of certain traits will either mask a coat color or reveal a coat color even more: - eebb= yellow lab -E_bb= brown lab -E_B_= black lab As long as there are no dominant E's present, the lab will be yellow. Once there is a dominant E present, the lab will either be brown or black. Once a dominant B appears, the lab is determined to have a darker coat and will be black.

parental investment

What each sex invests—in terms of time, energy, survival risk, and forgone opportunities—to produce and nurture offspring; females usually invest more than males in most species

Could you make predictions about what the finches on Daphne Major would look like physically based on the weather conditions?

Yes. In a dry climate, more small-beaked finches would survive, and in a wet climate, more large-beaked finches would survive

biomes

a broad, regional type of ecosystem characterized by distinctive climate and soil conditions and a distinctive kind of biological community adapted to those conditions

climate stability hypothesis

a disturbance hypothesis; argues seasons make it hard for species to survive, and because the climate is stable in the tropics, more species can survive - problem: there is high variation in climate/ rainfall between different tropical areas, but they all generally have a similar # of species

toxicity (prey defenses)

a form of chemical prey defense where animals synthesize poison to make themselves toxic when eaten (ex. poisonous snakes, spiders); many poisonous animals warn predators of their toxicity through specific coloration

Mullerian mimicry

a form of mimicry in which two or more poisonous animals develop similar appearances and coloring as a shared protective device; if a predator learns to avoid one of the poisonous species, it will avoid the mimic with similar coloration as well (ex. Monarch and Viceroy butterflies, who are both poisonous, have almost indistinguishable coloration from each other)

Escherichia coli (E. Coli)

a form of proteobacteria commonly found in the stomach of many warm-blooded organisms; most strains are harmless, but some can be very harmful to humans

male-male competition

a form of sexual selection in which males compete with one another directly or indirectly for access to females

Monosomy

a gamete with a missing chromosome; usually fatal

Trisomy

a gamete with an extra chromosome; there are cases where this gamete can survive and make it to birth when fertilized

how did birds evolve from archosaurs

a group of dinosaurs called the theropods had many traits that birds would one day have- some had primitive feathers, others had asymmetrical feathers, and some even showed minimal flying ability; these developments all indicate that birds evolved directly from these archosaurs

excavates

a highly diverse group of protist types that includes non-mitochondria species

diplontic life cycle

a life cycle in which only the diploid phase is multicellular and the haploid stage is made up of unicellular gametes; most of the cycle is spent as a diploid (e.g. human life cycle)

sympatric speciation through polyploidy

a meiotic mistake that causes the chromosome pairs to not be divided evenly between the daughter cells can give new chromosomes and genetic info to certain offspring in a population, which, if inherited enough, can turn that sympatrically separated population into a whole new species

chlorophytes

a monophyletic plant group of unicellular green algae that is very large and diverse, including freshwater, marine, and terrestrial forms

Description of the more accurate version of the tree of life

a more accurate tree would show a split between the two major life groups- bacteria and archaea. Within the archaea, the eukarya group would be housed; all three of these groups should be represented as monophyletic to ensure evolutionary accuracy; a non-kingdom based tree is much more accurate than a kingdom-based one

Inversion (chromosomal mutation)

a mutation that reverses the direction of parts of a chromosome by switching their places; usually has no large effect unless it occurs in the middle of a gene sequence

homologous pair

a pair of chromosomes, one from each parent, that have relatively similar structures and gene values

indian pipe

a parasitic, flowering plant that preys on the mycelia of fungi growing under the soil; has no photosynthetic ability

ghost of selection past

a phrase that describes runaway selection

parsimony

a preference for the least complicated explanation for a particular phenomenon; this is seen in a phylogeny that has the fewest independent evolutionary events possible

latent trait

a present but not visible trait

Salmonella

a proteobacteria that occurs mainly in the intestine, especially a serotype causing food poisoning from eating raw or undercooked variations of eggs

fitness

a rating of how well an organism can survive and reproduce in its environment;

syphillis

a spirochete bacteria that causes this deadly STD

lyme disease

a spirochete found in ticks also causes this harmful disease

Great Chain of Being

a system in which species were positioned in a system of hierarchy of complexity or "perfection;" organisms were on different levels from each other and were unequal; diagram also included spiritual beings

theory of island biogeography

a theory created by ecologists Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson that states that species number is defined by two forces: - immigration: increases species #'s; as species diversity increases, rates of immigration will decrease over time (high initial immigration= island gains lots of new species= less room for new species= lower immigration rates) - extinction: decreases species #'s; as species diversity increases, extinction rates increase over time (more colonizing species arrive= greater diversity and competition for lesser available resources, leading to exclusion= extinction of some species)

head (vertebrate traits)

a vertebrate head is an anterior skull that contains a large brain with eyes, ears, and nose/mouth for the sensory organs; a head is what makes vertebrates look similar

Bacteriaphage

a virus that infects bacteria

actinomyces

actinobacteria that breaks down organic soil compounds; also an instrumental bacteria in the creation of pennicilin

predator satiation

adaptation where members of a prey species in an area time their reproductions so that their births occur within a short period, overcrowding the area with their offspring; this ensures the highest amount of them will survive because predators will get full, and by the time they feed again, the offspring are better able to defend against predators

internal fertilization (amniote traits)

all amniotes fertilize their egg inside of their bodies; some, like birds and reptiles, lay their eggs externally, but mammals tend to carry their eggs internally before giving birth (internal gestation)

chordate segmentation

all chordates are segmented; most of them have their segmentation internally

pharyngeal gill slits

all chordates have these at some point in their development; for marine chordates, they connect the pharynx to the external environment and act as gills, and for non-marine chordates, they should be viewed more as 'pouches' because they don't open to the outside

traits shared by all life forms

all life forms share: plasma membrane-bound cells, ribosomes, semi-conservative DNA replication, similar genetic codes for proteins as well as similar processes of transcription and translation, similar pathways for metabolizing nutrients

prokaryotes

all living things that are not eukaryotes; they are paraphyletic

three types of hunting

ambush, stalking, pursuit

improved kidneys (amniote traits)

amniotes have incredibly efficient kidneys that allow them to get rid of nitrogenous waste in their urine while still conserving a healthy amount of water

frogs and toads (amphibians)

amphibian group with frogs and toads- the amphibians without tails; frogs have smooth, moist skin, long legs (they are good jumpers), and they typically live near water, but some species live in trees; toads have dry, bumpy skin, short legs, and live in more dry environments; both frogs and toads are dependent on water for reproduction- they release eggs that become tadpoles, who undergo metamorphosis to become frogs

pulmonary veins (amphibian traits)

amphibians have these specific vessels that allow blood to be pumped twice by the heart; blood goes from the heart, to the lungs, out to the body, back to the heart, and back to the lungs to be reoxygenated

partially divided hearts (amphibian traits)

amphibians have this issue with their circulatory system that causes oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to mix in the heart, further decreasing their oxygen retention abilities

thoracic breathing (amniotes) vs. glottal breathing (amphibians)

amphibians used glottal breathing, a less efficient system which would require them to take in air using mouth, open their glottis (part that closes off throat), then push air down using their mouth; amniotes have thoracic breathing, which allows their larger lungs to do the work in terms of sucking air down the throat instead of the mouth as with glottal breathing- thoracic breathing is the better system b/c it brings in more air and more oxygen with less effort

salamanders (amphibians)

amphibians with long bodies and long tails; they vary in size and can become up to 1.5m long; tend to live in moist places (tropical places, under rocks/ logs), and some are even entirely aquatic; hatch their larvae in water, but their larvae do not undergo metamorphosis

niche (formal definition)

an N-dimensional hypervolume that conscribes the activity of an organism; each factor is a niche dimension (ex. food size, temperature, etc.)

tuberculosis

an actinobacteria that causes an infectious lung disease;

increased energy hypothesis

an ecological hypothesis offering three predictions as to why there are more species in the tropics: 1. increased productivity- more sunlight in tropics= more plants= more herbivores= more predators (higher latitudes- less sun, fewer plants, less herbivores, less predators) 2. overwintering tolerance- no winter in tropics= no winter-related deaths= no energy loss (higher latitudes- harsher winters= more deaths= lost energy) 3. ambient energy- in the higher latitudes, animals use lots of energy maintaining warm internal temp. during cold winters- not necessary in tropics all three of these lead to the overarching concept that it is harder to live and maintain energy in the arctic and higher latitudes than it is in the tropics

paramecium aurelia, caudatum, bursaria

an experiment by ecologist GA. Gause found that, when paramecium aurelia and caudatum were put in the same culture, aurelia would dominate the culture until caudatum was killed off completely; in a separate culture, Gause found that caudatum and bursaria, another paramecium species, coexisted; these experiments proved the occurrence of competitive exclusion

falcultative anaerobes

anaerobes that can grow with or without oxygen because they switch between different forms of metabolism (ex. switching between fermentation and cellular respiration)

Obligative anaerobe

anaerobes that tolerate no oxygen

aerotolerant anaerobes

anaerobes that tolerate oxygen but do not use oxygen for their growth and metabolism

homalozoans

ancestral deuterostomes that have similar traits of both echinoderms and chordates, suggesting they are in fact an ancestral group

Cycads

ancient-seed bearing trees that have worldwide distribution and have gone through speciation due to the drifting of the continents splitting up populations of their species; example of vicariance isolation and allopatric speciation

Psuedomurein

another compound that makes up cell walls found only in ARCHAEA that have cell walls

resource

anything an individual needs consumes to support population survival and whose availability is lowered when it is used (food, space, places to live, etc.)

methanogens

archaea that release methane and contribute heavily to the greenhouse gas effect

euryarcheota

archaean group that contains methanogens (bacteria that produce methane), halophiles (salt-loving bacteria), and extreme thermophiles

Crenarchaeota

archaeans that love extreme environments- full of thermophiles (heat lovers), cryophiles (cold lovers), and acidophiles (acid lovers); most of them are common marine Archaeans, and they are carbon fixing, which means they produce solid Carbon and contribute to the greenhouse gas effect

visceral mass

area beneath the mantle of a mollusk that contains the internal organs

crustaceons (arthropods)

arthropod group most associated with the marine species; contains organisms with mandibles and two pairs of antennae; have five pairs of legs, with some modifying their front pair into claws; many species in this group have eggs that develop attached to the female underside; examples include lobsters, shrimp, and pill bugs

Insects (arthropods)

arthropods that are also called hexapods; have mandibles and one pair of antennae; they have bodies with three regions (head, thorax, abdomen) and three pairs of legs; most of them have wings; they also have a unique form of gas exchange using a system of air sacs and tubes; common examples include flies, grasshoppers, and dragonflies

brittle stars (asterozoans)

asterozoan species that is very similar to sea stars; have flexible arms that allow them to swim freely, but they do not adhere; arms are much more thin than sea star arms; they are a diverse and very nocturnal species; they also are the largest group of echinoderms

autotrophic vs heterotrophic

autotrophs make their own food to gain energy, while heterotrophs eat other organisms to gain energy

key traits of bacteria and archaea

bacteria and archaea are unicellular, use binary fission, have unenclosed DNA, circular chromosomes, no organelles, and are asexual

bacterial shapes

bacteria can either be coccus (spherical), bacillus (rod-shaped), or spirillous (spiral-shaped)

Hadobacteria and Hyperthermic bacteria

bacteria that are resistant to radiation and can live in extremely hot areas; "heat lovers"

mycoplasmas

bacteria that naturally lack a cell wall; example of a firmicute that lacks a cell wall (most firmicutes have cell walls)

colonial growth

bacterial growth in which cells aggregate (come together loosely) and perform a common function

filamentous growth

bacterial growth in which cells grow into a threadlike, filamentous shape

cutaneous respiration (amphibian traits)

because amphibian lungs are inefficient, they use a form of breathing that takes in oxygen directly through the skin to supplement the terrible job their lungs do at bringing in oxygen

object mimicry/ masquerade (crypsis)

being clearly visible, but mistaken for something that is not edible (ex. caterpillar mimicking lichen on a tree branch to appear unedible)

temperate deciduous forest

biome only found in Northern Hemisphere; warm/wet summers and cold winters; fluctuating temperatures between summer and winter; precipitation bump occurs in this biome- over 50cm more annual precip. than in tundra and boreal; relatively constant rainfall throughout year; trees are deciduous- lose leaves in winter, only photosynthetic in spring/summer

Boreal forest (Tiaga)

biome with long, cold winters and short summers with very long days; more large plants with evergreen tree dominance; low precipitation levels

temperate grasslands

biome with vegetation dominated by grasses- no woody plants; about same rainfall as boreal forest; typically very dry during one season of the year; grass plants adapt to grazing and fires by keeping most of their biomass underground- allows them to regrow quickly after being eaten/damaged

Finches

bird collected on the Galapagos Islands by Darwin. Very similar, but differences can be seen in the size and shape of the bill and/or beak. He originally thought he was seeing many different bird species before he realized he was seeing different species of this same bird

neognaths (birds)

bird group containing all other living birds- group is also called the "perching birds"; by far the most diverse bird group- almost 10,000 species; includes everything from owls to waterfowl to penguins to flamingoes, as well as parrots, woodpeckers, and countless others

palaeognaths/ flightless rattites (birds)

bird group containing large, flightless/poorly flying birds- ostriches, emus, kiwis, cassowrays, rheas; their group name means "old jaw" because they have jaws more similar to reptiles rather than birds

bird lungs

bird lungs are different from other vertebrate lungs- they maximize oxygen intake to fuel the tiring process of flight

bird skeletons

bird skeleton bones are fused to reduce weight and increase rigidity/ form a sturdy frame for the muscles to attach to; bird bones are also hollow, decreasing skeleton weight further; birds have an important and specialized bone called a keel connected to their breast bone- it is a very large, flat bone, and the muscles used for flight connect to it

bird feather facts

bird tail feathers are flexible and provide great strength- they hook together to form a continuous, connected surface, and they fan out and help to stabilize the bird; bird body feathers don't hook together as strongly, but they are smaller and more easily replaceable than tail feathers- they are more used for insulation and warmth

why are birds dinosaurs, and are they still considered birds

birds are now considered dinosaurs because it makes more sense in terms of evolution to classify them as dinosaurs; in addition, they did survive the K-T Extinction and carry on the dinosaur lineages through lots of speciation so that they now look how they do today

bird beak and foot diversity

birds have developed all kinds of beak shapes for specific kinds of food gathering, and have developed different feet types specialized for a variety of different environments

endothermy in birds

birds keep a higher endothermic temperature range than other endotherms, which allows them to supply more energy to their flight muscles

bison and dominant grass species

bison graze on the dominant grass species in the plains, limiting their dominance, and therefore limiting competition and allowing flora diversity; if the bison stop grazing, the grass species dominates the landscape and leaves no room for other flora; this is an example of how predation limits competition

cryptic coloration (crypsis)

blending in using camouflage so you are not seen (ex. butterfly blending into tree bark using colors)

pentaradial symmetry

body can be divided into 5 axes of symmetry

ectothermy

body temperature determined by external conditions; also known as being cold-blooded; reptiles exhibit this; can still control their temperature by going in and out of the sun

endothermy

body temperature regulated by internal metabolism- temp stays relatively constant as long as animal is healthy; seen in birds and mammals

Liger/Tigon

both of these crosses between lions and tigers lead to infertile offspring by the 2nd generation the latest; example of the effects of postzygotic reproductive isolation, specifically hybrid breakdown

does the founder effect or the bottleneck effect increase genetic variation

both the founder effect and bottleneck effect decrease genetic variation because they allow the alleles of a small sample of a population to become overrepresented, and they result in the loss of some rare alleles from the previous population that cannot be passed on in the new population

Cactus & Euphorbia

both these plants show convergence of traits despite not being in the same evolutionary lineage because they live in similar habitats that caused the convergence

labradors (genetics)

breed of dog that is a prime example of epistasis

terrestrial islands

by developing lands in/around forests and other habitats, humans are turning habitats into "isolated" islands- not surrounded by water, but by concrete and human development; humans are cutting through habitats and disconnecting previously connected patches land within ecosystems, creating patches of land isolated from each other, essentially becoming land islands

How are blood types determined?

by marker molecules on red blood cells

cartilage vs bone skeleton

cartilage skeletons are lighter and more flexible, and bone skeletons are heavier but more sturdy and allow for better muscle attachment

botulism

causes food poisoning

cell wall differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

cell walls are ubiquitous in prokaryotes (all of them have one), and they are either made up of peptidoglycan or psuedomurein; not all eukaryotes have cell walls, and if they do, their cell walls do not contain peptidoglycan

arthropod molting

cells underneath the arthropod exoskeleton secrete enzymes that digest the old exoskeleton; a new exoskeleton is then secreted underneath what is left of the old exoskeleton

genetic drift

changes in allele frequency due to small population size

acquired traits

characteristics or behavior not genetic or inherited; skills learned throughout an organism's life

chemical defenses (prey defenses)

chemical compounds released by prey to defend themselves from predators (ex. bombardier beetle spraying a noxious liquid that is the temperature of boiling water to deter predators)

chloroplast formation

chloroplasts formed as a result of primary endosymbiosis- a eukaryote engulfing a cyanobacteria and eventually producing red and green algae daughter cells both with chloroplasts; brown algae gained chloroplast by secondary endosymbiosis- engulfing a red or green alga

The implications of paired chromosomes

chromosomes are paired because both the mother and father contribute genetic material to them.

lake effect snow

cold winds move across long expanses of warm water and pick up moisture, freeze it, and drop massive amounts of snow (water takes longer to change temp than air, and is usually warmer than air in the winter and cooler than air in the summer); the effect dies down when the lakes eventually freeze as moisture cannot be collected at the same high level

Cytochrome C

common amino acid in many living organisms, used for genetic relation

white rust

common name usually used for diseases caused by oomycetes

tropical evergreen forest

commonly called tropical rain forest; most precipitation of all biomes; warmth and abundance of water creates lots of flora; most productive biome in terms of nutrients and species; majority of nutrients are tied up in the large trees, creating nutrient-poor soil; epiphytes are common- plants with no true roots that grow on top of other plants

nudibranch

commonly known as the sea slug; marine gastropod which can ingest jellyfish poisons and secrete them on its own skin

how does compartmentalization lead to internal structure

compartmentalization means cells have organelles that carry out independent functions, and the organelles that form lead to the internal structure of eukaryotic cells

why is competition hard to see

competition is hard to "see" because: 1. animals don't organize it into events like we do 2. many competitions in nature have already been resolved as the organisms now coexist, forcing ecologists to look into the past to analyze competition more accurately

Anueploidy

condition of a cell having an extra chromosome or missing a chromosome

arthropod body plan

consists of a segmented body (head, thorax, abdomen), hard exoskeletons made of chitin, and jointed appendages; arthropods also generally have variation in leg amounts, antennae, mouth parts, and wings

nonvascular

containing not tracheid cells or plant tissue through which water and nutrients can move more efficiently; other transport cells are not as efficient as tracheid cells

sinking air streams

create deserts

rising air streams

create rain forests

cyanobacteria

critical photoautotrophs that carry out photosynthesis; they are all gram - and can live as single strands or mass into giant colonies

Crocodilian Parental Behavior

crocodilian parents show high levels of parental care to their young: -they pick up eggs gently to sense if each egg is ready to hatch, and gently crack it with their teeth to hatch it -they let their young rest on their snout or in their mouth for protection -babies stay with mom for a long time to learn how to hunt and to develop fully

dihybrid crosses

crosses that examine the inheritance of two different traits

predator prey cycle variation

cycle length can vary depending on the predator and prey involved: - larger herbivores and their predators experience longer cycles (10 to 12 years) - smaller herbivores/ insects and their predators experience shorter cycles (3-5 years)

nurse plants

dead plants that provide nutrients to other growing plants

acacia and ferruginea ants

defensive mutualism: - acacia trees allow queen ants of the ant colony to birth their larvae inside of their thorns- queen ant drills hole into the thorn to do so; the acacia tree also produces nectar for the ants - in return, the ants protect the tree- they swarm any outside organisms climbing on the tree and toss them off; they even clear plant seeds in the surrounding area of the tree in order to limit plant competition

echinoderms

deuterostome group characterized by their internal skeletons covered by a thin skin, pentaradial symmetry, unique water vasculature system, and oral/aboral surfaces; larvae are bilateral, but adults are pentaradial; skeleton made of plates and acts almost like a shell covered by skin; most use sexual reproduction, but many can regenerate their own limbs through asexual reproduction- some can even shoot limbs off and the limbs grow into their own separate organism

gymnopodium

dinoflagellate that causes red tide, a deadly form of bacteria that forms in oceans and kills marine life

dinosaurs and feathers

dinosaurs likely only used feathers for warmth and for mating signals, while birds use them for more specialized purposes

disturbance limiting competition

disturbance occurs when natural events, like flooding and forest fires, lower population sizes, which reduces resource needs due to smaller population sizes and therefore limits competition; worse competitors in a competition who are also resilient to disasters can have an edge in the competition once disturbance occurs

haplorrhini/ dry-nosed primates

dry-nosed primates; contains two subgroups- platyrrhini and catarrhini; they are diurnal and have color vision- made this adaptation to adapt to daytime living; known for their complex social structures and intense parental care, which allows their offspring to further develop brain; includes monkeys, apes, tarsiers, humans

spruce trees

during last ice age, spruce trees spread southward to the frozen temperate zones; as they warmed again, the spruce trees could not adapt to the warm temps, and either moved back northward or moved to higher latitudes within the temperate zones; this also caused the species living in these spruce forests to move along with the trees so as not to die in the warmer climate- they conserved their niches as well to survive the warming

Pelycosaurs (synapsids)

early group of synapsids; gradually replaced amphibians; exhibited partial endothermy; not like modern reptiles at all

lampreys (Cyclostomes)

early, very basic vertebrate fish with complete skull, rudimentary vertebrae, and a single heart

Asterozoans (echinoderms)

echinoderm group that contains sea stars and brittle stars

crinoids (echinoderms)

echinoderm group with two subgroups divided based on movement ability- sea lillies and feather stars

echinoderm oral surface/ aboral surface

echinoderms have their mouth/oral surface underneath their body on the ventral/ belly side, and their aboral surface is on their dorsal/ back side

sand dollars (echinozoans)

echinozoan species with a flattened body form and clear, pentaradial symmetry; somewhat similar to a "slice" of the inside of a sea urchin; very common at beaches in shallow waters, although most people only ever encounter their shell and not the living organism

sea urchins (echinozoans)

echinozoan species with hemispherical structure and very sharp spines; it has a ball and socket joint system that allows it to move and sting other organisms

sea cucumbers (echinozoans)

echinozoan with elongated/ stretched body form that look bilateral at first, but are actually pentaradial when viewed from mouth down; their mouth and anus are on opposite ends of their body, and all of their tube feet are on one side of their body for better movement

what is not a resource

ecological factors like temperature are not resources; in addition, certain things considered a resource in one habitat may not be in another; for example, water is a resource on land because it is scarce and competed for, but it is not a resource in the ocean

how do animals in very cold climates stay warm

endothermy (warm-bloodedness) and fur

El Nino

equatorial winds weaken, sending warm water from Australia to South America (reversal of currents); causes warmer and wetter weather

defining traits of eukaryotes

eukaryotes are multicellular, compartmentalized, and sexual

How is ecology related to evolution

evolutionary forces don't happen in a vacuum- they are affected by ecological factors; where organisms are located and how abundant they are directly causes evolution and allows evolutionary forces to act and have an effect; "the ecology of the now shapes the evolution of the future"

Eryops megacephalus

example of a large, dominant amphibian from the age of amphibians; had body armor and was very large and intimidating

porcupine

example of a therian mammal with specialized sharp hairs called quills

ticks, spiders, scorpions

examples of arachnids

clams, mussels, oysters

examples of bivalves

scallop, octopus, squid, nautilus

examples of cephalopods

shrimp, lobsters, crabs, pill bugs

examples of crustaceans

grasshoppers, dragonflies, flies

examples of insects

coelancanths, lungfish

examples of lobe finned fish

koala, yapok, wombat

examples of marsupials

centipedes, millipedes

examples of myriapods

seahorses, leafy sea dragons, tuna, eels,

examples of ray-finned fish

euglenids (excavates)

excavate protist that can be heterotrophic or autotrophic depending on if they are cut off from the Sun or not (cut off= become heterotrophs, return to Sun= revert back to autotroph); arose via secondary endosymbiosis when a green alga was absorbed by their ancestor; only reproduce asexually

trilobites

extinct marine arthropods that had jointed appendages and were clearly segmented; over time, they evolved specialized segments

water bears/ Tartigrades (Ecydysozoan)

extremely small organisms that are found almost everywhere; can withstand extreme environments and are considered virtually indestructible; remain dormant for up to a decade

homologous traits

features that are inherited from a common ancestor

archegonium

female plant gamete structure that produces eggs

Female choice

females expend a lot of resources and time in the process of reproduction so their 'choice' of mate becomes a more serious consideration

self-fertilization

fertilization in which both egg and pollen come from the same plant

self-crossing

fertilizing a flower by using its own sperm and eggs to produce offspring

nutritional deficencies (fish traits)

fish are unable to synthesize certain amino acids, and must eat other organisms to gain them; they passed these deficiencies onto all other vertebrates

single loop blood circulation (fish traits)

fish blood circulation- goes from heart to gills to rest of the body to heart

sharks (Gnathostomes)

fish group with very efficient jaws and lightweight skeletons made of cartilage; they were the first fish to develop teeth- their teeth are a "conveyer belt" with rows of teeth that easily fall out and are replaced by tooth in next row up; remaining members of the group are now very diverse after being hurt by Permian Extinction with many different types and variations existing today

hagfish (Cyclostomes)

fish that are close to being vertebrates but aren't quite- have a weak circulatory system instead of strong, 3 hearts instead of 1, partial skull with brain that lacks a cerebrum/cerebellum, and no gut; DNA evidence linked them as close relatives to the lampreys, who are actual vertebrates, leading scientist to believe they were once vertebrates

jaws (fish traits)

fish use these to catch and eat larger prey

vertebrate groups

fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals

factors important to a niche

food availability, predators, temperature, landscape characteristics, soil nutrients, light, etc.

increasing elevation leads to adiabatic cooling (elevation)

for every 1000m of elevation, there is a temperature decrease of 6-11 deg C; in other terms, the temp change for every 1000m of elevation is equal to the temp change for every 800km of latitude

take home message of sexual selection

for males, sex is not costly; their goal most of the time is simply to mate with as many females as possible, and they need to maximize their mating fitness in order to do this. For females, sex is not cheap because the after effects are very costly, so they need to choose their mate carefully

Batesian mimicry

form of mimicry where species develops similar aposematic coloration to poisonous species of the same variety (ex. non poisonous butterflies mimicking the coloring patterns of poisonous butterfly species)

stabilizing selection

form of natural selection in which individuals near the center of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals at either end of the curve; selection that favors the average expression of a trait (ex. babies of average birth have a higher chance of survival than babies at either extreme of the birth curve) (selection that favors the average)

temporal isolation

form of reproductive isolation in which two populations reproduce at different times, and therefore cannot reproduce with each other (ex. lactuca graminifolia plant and lactuca canadensis plant live in close proximity to each other but can never reproduce because one mates in spring and one mates in summer)

mechanical isolation

form of reproductive isolation that occurs whenever a physical difference between organisms prevents them from mating (ex. different penis sizes that don't fit well)

gametic isolation

form of reproductive isolation where chemical cues can cause failure of sperm to fertilize the egg of another organism

The Sun (formation)

formed due to nuclear fusion of Hydrogen and Helium after collapse of solar nebula

three major amphibian groups

frogs/toads, salamanders, caecilians

Dominant life stage in bryophytes

gametophyte stage

slugs

gastropods which look like snails without shells

Does gene flow increase or decrease genetic variation

gene flow increases genetic variation because it introduces new alleles into populations; these new alleles then gradually pair with existing alleles in these populations, creating new genotype combinations which greatly increase the genetic variation of a population

how do chromosomes explain gene linkage

genes closer together on a chromosome will tend to "link" or stick close together and have a higher chance of both being passed on as a pair than being separated

microevolutionary forces and speciation

genetic drift and mutations support speciation as they increase the differences between two groups in a population and exacerbate the effects of isolation, but gene flow counters speciation because it keeps genes going between the two species

Does genetic drift increase genetic variation

genetic drift decreases genetic variation because it causes the alleles of a small portion of an entire population to be overrepresented in their new population

Founder Effect

genetic drift that occurs after a small number of individuals separate from their population and colonize a new area, therefore "founding" their own population where their alleles are overrepresented, changing the resemblance of the new population

genotype

genetic makeup of an organism

Asian apes

gibbons and orangutans

latitudinal gradient in species richness

global diversity trend- as latitude increases the number of species that are found at that latitude decreases; for almost any species, there are more types of them near the tropics than near the poles

African apes

gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos

two primate traits

grasping hands/ opposable thumbs, binocular vision

Other factors that determine what biome is found in a certain area

grazing, frequency of fire, etc.

lizards and snakes (reptiles)

group made up of all lizards and snakes; both species have paired copulatory organs and are generally carnivorous; for lizards, most of them are insectavoresl but some of them are herbivores or solely fruit eaters, and they all have limbs; snakes are all limbless and all carnivorous- they are able to eat very large animals by unhinging their jaw from its joint; some snakes produce venom and use it to immobilize prey, but most are non-venomous

bony fish (Gnathostomes)

group of fish divided into ray finned and lobe finned fish; characterized by heavy internal skeletons made of bone instead of cartilage- this strong skeleton allows for muscles to exert more force than in a cartilage skeleton

tarsiers

group of haplorrhine primates that behave like strepsirrhines

cyclostomes

group of jawless vertebrates consisting of the hagfish and lampreys

transmittable spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs)

group of rare degenerative brain disorders characterized by tiny holes that give the brain a "spongy" appearance; TSEs are all prion diseases

stramenopiles

group of three protist types identifiable by fine hairs on their flagella

amphibians

group of vertebrates that moved to land and adapted to land living while still relying on the water for certain things; amphibia literally means "double life"; developed partial solutions to challenges of land living

therians

group that includes all other mammals besides monotremes; divided into marsupials and eutherians

hominins (hominoids)

group within the hominoid subgroup containing all the humans and their immediate primate ancestors; diverged from apes and other hominoids by developing bipedalism

marsupials (therians)

groups of mammals known for carrying young in pouches; have a short internal gestation period, which leads to underdeveloped young- young develop more fully in the pouch; the nipple where milk goes through is also located in the pouch; typically found in Australia and S America, but S American marsupials don't have pouches; species include kangaroos, wallabies, wombats; only NA marsupial is the oposssum

types of prezygotic isolating mechanisms

habitat (geographical or ecological) isolation, temporal isolation, behavioral isolation, mechanical isolation, gametic isolation

where should hagfish be placed on the tree

hagfish are fish that are not quite vertebrates, but are close- they were always viewed as the outgroup to the vertebrates until DNA evidence linked them as closely related to the lampreys, a vertebrate fish group; this caused many scientists to group hagfish with the lampreys in a group called the cyclostomes, and they decided the hagfish was a very early vertebrate who lost vertebrate traits

hair (mammalian traits)

hair is a homoplasius trait in mammals; it is used for many different purposes: it is mainly used for insulation, but many mammals use it for camouflage or even as a sensory tool to avoid colliding into things in the dark or to sense prey; furry animals have a thicker undercoat with a fluffy overcoat of fur; some animals who have little hair use blubber for insulation (whales, dolphins); hairs can also be used for defense- some mammals develop sharp hairs called quills (porcupines, echidnas)

hemichordates/ acorn worms

hemichordates, also called acorn worms, are worms with a 3 part body plan, a probiscius collar, and a stalk; live/burrow in sandy sediments and can grow up to 2m long

oomycetes (stramenopiles)

heterotrophic stramenopiles that use external digestion (secretion of digestive enzymes that take up surrounding nutrients) to gain energy; they are filamentous and non-motile, and common examples include water mold and downey mildew

steep slopes can be locally dry (slopes)

higher up on steep mountain slopes with good draining soil, conditions stay continually dry and cause plants to be smaller/drought-resistant; at the base of slopes, water runs down and collects, leading to soil saturation and more water-tolerant plants - slope bases/valleys= support larger plants - slopes= support other types of vegetation

ferns

highly dominant monilophyte plant species who actually happens to be the most dominant tracheophyte overall; has leaves that contain sori

4 chordate traits

hollow nerve cord, notochord, pharyngeal slits/pouches, postanal tail

parasites have complex lifestyles

hosts are continually developing ways to eliminate parasites, forcing them to move from host to host to survive; this causes parasites to have very complex life cycles; some parasites have even evolved to alter host behavior to facilitate their moving from host to host

Hadley circulation general path

hot air rises from the ground at the equator and expands as it rises---> air cools high in atmosphere and continues to expand, releasing moisture as rain----> cool, dry air sinks and compresses due to high atmospheric pressure----> cool, dry air reaches ground and moves across land, picking up warmth and moisture as it goes

pursuit hunting

hunting that involves low energy for search time (predator already knows location of prey), but high energy for the long pursuit of the prey- chase can be extensive and exhausting; creates a coevolutionary relationship where the prey evolves to avoid the predator, and the predator evolves to better pursue the prey

Hydrobia snails

hydrobia ulvae and ventrosa are two very similar snails in the same genus; when they live allopatricly (separate), they have similar body sizes and feed on the same prey; when they live sympatricly (together), the ventrosa is smaller and feeds on smaller prey than the ulvae so they can coexist; example of character displacement

reserve design

ideal reserves will be large and have natural corridors between habitat areas to allow immigration and prevent extinction

gram negative

if a cell tests gram negative, they have a thin peptidoglycan cell wall, or they don't have peptidoglycan in their cell wall, and therefore, they can be classified as Archaea; cells that are gram negative will show a red color when stained

gram positive

if a cell tests gram positive, they have peptidoglycan in their cell wall, and therefore, they can be classified as bacteria; cells that are gram positive will show a blue color when stained

equilibrium species number/S*

if the decreasing line for immigration and increasing line for extinction are graphed, they cross at a point- this is known as the equilibrium point, or S*; at this level of species diversity, immigration and extinction balance each other, so species #'s should remain constant

intermediate disturbance theory

if there are too little disturbing events, there is no real effect on the competition, and the dominant competitors will continue their dominance largely undisturbed; if there is too high of a disturbance, there is not enough time for the more vulnerable species to recover to be able to compete again, allowing the resilient species to continually dominate; an intermediate level of competition balances competition and mortality, creating the greatest amount of diversity and lowest level of competition

sympatric speciation through disruptive selection

if two phenotypes are selected for through disruptive selection, and this creates two groups of a population that somehow end up avoiding each other and interbreeding does not occur, these two separate groups of the population can develop into new species; any lapse in the process (assortative mating, any form of interbreeding between the groups, gene flow) would disrupt this process

archosaurs (diapsids)

important group of diapsids who, at their peak, were some of the largest animals to ever exist; first animals to walk on two legs

Mendel's 2nd Law of Independent Assortment

in a dihybrid cross, the alleles of each gene assort independently

Paramecium and diditum

in a lab setting, these two bacteria show evidence of how predation can cause extinction, as the didinum eats the paramecium to extinction and then dies itself soon after

amniotic egg (amniote traits)

in amniotes, their egg has a food source called the yolk and 4 protective membranes helpful for gas exchange and waste removal, all enclosed in a watertight shell

what happens when parental investment is equal or when males invest more

in case with more even investment, both males and females choose their mates carefully. In cases with higher male investment, females can actually behave more promiscuously than males

high resource environments and niche packing

in high resource environments, there are many niches with overlap and little need to partition or pack niches because all the species have the resources they need; some resources even go unused, further spreading niches apart; when niches overlap, it means species are using the same resource, and this is okay in a high resource environment because there is enough of the resource available for both species

low resource environments and niche packing

in low resource environments, there are fewer species, and therefore, fewer niches; no overlap occurs and all resources are used, tightly packing niches together

medium resource environments and niche packing

in medium resource environments, there are less resources available, so niches pack closely together and don't overlap so as to avoid competition; in simpler terms, many niches can still exist in a medium resource environment, but the species don't overlap in terms of what resources they choose to use because they want to coexist, which means preserving access to their specific resources and avoiding competition

tube worms and chemoautotrophic bacteria

in the extreme environment near deep sea thermal vents, these two species have a mutualism; the tube worms feed on the waste and nutrients the chemoautotrophs produce, and in return, the tube worms keep the bacteria from being swept away by the current the vent creates; example of how stressful/ extreme environments can cause organisms to enter mutualisms

why is increased energy an ecological hypothesis

increased energy is an ecological hypothesis because it argues that current climate factors make life difficult in higher latitudes

virions

individual virus particles

heterozygote advantage (balancing selection)

individuals who are heterozygous at a particular point or in a particular environment have greater fitness than do both kinds of homozygotes; (ex. sickle cell anemia- A= normal oxygen delivery and a= resistance to malaria; heterozygotes will deliver oxygen well and be resistant to malaria, while homozygotes will either deliver oxygen very well (AA) or have sickle cell anemia and be malaria resistant (aa). In this case, there is a clear advantage to being a heterozygote)

epistasis

interaction between alleles in which one allele masks the effects of another allele (ex. genes that affect lab coat color also affect how dark the coat is and the color of the lab's noses); results in a small amount of outcomes

ammensalism (-/0)

interaction where one species is harmed and the other species is unaffected

nodes

intersection points on the phylogeny branches that indicates a common ancestor between two species; space after nodes indicates a speciation event

mistletoe

invasive, yellow colored plant that is very abundant where it can grow; example of an ectoparasite and a parasitic plant- most species of this plant are facultative hemiparasites, which means they can photosynthesize, but must supplement their photosynthetic eating by consuming nutrients from other plants through parasitism

why are island chains beneficial for facilitating rapid speciation

island chains help to facilitate rapid speciation because they limit inter-island gene flow between different populations of the same species and they encourage isolation

island isolation

island isolation affect immigration rate, or how many species can arrive on the island; the closer the island, the higher the immigration rate (closer island= easier to get to= more species will immigrate= higher S*; further the island= less species can get to= lower immigration rate= lower S*)

island size

island size affects extinction rate, or how many species the island can keep living; the larger the island, the lower the extinction rate (larger island= more resources= less extinction= higher S*)

dispersal isolation

isolation mechanism that causes a small group to be separated from a population; essentially the same as Founder Effect

Vicariance isolation

isolation mechanism that occurs when a geographic barrier (ex. river, mountain range) splits a population into two, non-interbreeding populations (ex. Cycad plants have worldwide distribution on 4 continents, but they develop separate from each other today due to the tectonic plate shifts that separated them)

"Missing Link" isolation

isolation mechanism that occurs when an intermediate population in a chain of interbreeding populations dies out, therefore separating the two outer populations of the chain and forcing them to develop separately of each other (ex. the middle population in a chain of three interbreeding pine tree populations is cut down, leaving the outer groups of pines to develop on their own)

ecological isolation (habitat isolation)

isolation that occurs when populations of a species live in the same area without being technically separated, but do not reproduce with each other because they live in different habitats and rarely encounter each other (ex. two lizard populations living in the same area, but in different habitats, rarely interact enough for gene flow to occur between the two populations, causing them to develop separately)

geographic isolation (habitat isolation)

isolation that occurs when two populations of a species cannot reproduce because they end up separated in different habitats due to physical barriers, like a river or mountain range; form of allopatry (ex. two lizard populations separated by a large river never reconnect and evolve separately)

Endosymbiosis leading to mitochondria and chloroplasts

it is believed a eukaryotic cell engulfed a prokaryotic bacteria but did not digest it, and the prokaryote helped to break down oxygen for the eukaryote, which was toxic at the time; over time as the relationship developed, the oxygen breakdown process coupled with the process of energy production, and the prokaryotic cell became a mitochondria; the same process occurred for the development of chloroplasts, except the cell that was engulfed was a cyanobacteria that eventually became a chloroplast

Mendel's quantification of his results (why was it important?)

it was so important that Mendel quantified his results because it allowed him to discover different phenotype ratios in generations of plants that indicated organisms pass on traits according to hereditary patterns

synapsids

jaw muscles connect to ONE hole behind eye sockets; mostly extinct group except for modern mammals

Gnathostomes

jawed fish

Agnathans

jawless fish- hagfish or lampreys

diapsids

jaws connect to TWO holes behind eye sockets; all reptiles, including birds and dinosaurs, fall into this category of jaw structure

non-vertebral chordate groups

lancelets and tunicates

charismatic megafauna

large animals with widespread popular appeal that many environmental activists focus on for achieving environmental action

Protoplanetary disk

large rotating cloud of dust and matter with Hydrogen and Helium and other heavier elements

ray finned fish (bony fish)

largest group of bony fish with very thin fins that are moved mostly by using internal muscles; fins supported by parallel bony rays that support fin and give it structure so it doesn't fall apart; have swim bladders for buoyancy

arthropods (Ecydysozoan)

largest group of organisms on the planet- almost 2.1 million named so far; have jointed appendages, an exoskeleton, and reproduce sexually; includes insects, arachnids, millipedes and cenitpedes, and crustaceans

lemurs

lemurs are unique from other strepsirrhines; they have long tails, are diurnal (awake during day), highly social and have matriarchal societies; they went through adaptive radiation on Madagascar, and 99 species currently exist on the island

lichen

lichen are not their own organism- they are a symbiotic relationship between two types of fungi (a basidiomycete and an ascomycete) and green algae cells (most commonly cyanobacteria); the fungal cells absorb the algae, providing it with water and minerals, and the algae cells produce sugars to feed the fungi cells- this allows lichen to grow in dry areas; lichen also indicate how polluted the air is in an area- more lichen= less air pollution

haplodiplontic life cycle/ alteration of generations

life cycle used by some plants where both the haploid and diploid stages are multicellular; mostly occurs in mosses and ferns

biotic

living

notochord

long supporting rod that runs through a chordate's body just below the nerve cord- eventually forms around spinal cord and helps support chordate's back

ambush hunting

lying in wait for prey to come along; low frequency of success, but it requires minimal energy

why do mammals have a winning design

mammalian design can be considered winning because it is the most versatile of all the vertebrates; it allows them to adapt and thrive in a wide array of environments

endothermy (mammalian traits)

mammalian warm-bloodedness allows them to survive in a variety of different environments from the coldest arctic to the warmest tundra; however, mammals can get too hot for it to be healthy, which is why they sweat to cool down

eutherians (therians)

mammals also called the placental mammals; have extended internal gestation periods and produce more developed young; this mammal group includes humans and the majority of mammals; this group of mammals underwent adaptive radiation (extremely quick diversification) after the dinosaurs went extinct; their diversification also mirrors the breakup of the continents- explains why the group is so diverse today

how do mammals gain nutrients

mammals can gain nutrients in many different ways; some eat only plants (herbivores), some eat only other animals and meat (carnivores), and some eat both (omnivores)

size variation in mammals

mammals can grow to be extremely big- the elephant is the largest land animal, and the blue whale is the largest sea animal- both are mammals; however, the majority of mammal species are shrew species, which are very small and rodent like; overall, just know that mammals show great variation in size

herbivores and gut symbionts

mammals do not have the enzymes necessary to digest the cellulose they gain from plants; as a result, herbivores have gut symbionts

mammalian ancestors

mammals evolved from the members of the therapsids who survived the K-T Extinction

mammalian teeth

mammals have highly specialized teeth that are specified for their diet and that adapt to their diet as it changes

mammary glands (mammalian traits)

mammals have mammary glands, which connect to nipples and produce milk; milk is high calorie and good for nourishing young, and the fat in milk helps the infant brain grow

mammal habitats

mammals live in varying habitats; from tundra to desert, from land to ocean; from jungle to plains; mammals can be found in all types of habitats, climates, and environments

mammal hooves

mammals use keratin to develop these, which protect their feet from the impact of constantly hitting the ground; mostly develop in running animals like bison, wildabeasts, etc.

mammal horns

mammals use keratin to develop these; they develop around a bone core on the heads of mammals, and they are attached to their skull- different from antlers, which are lost yearly

community formation due to species interactions

many species interacting and forming relationships in certain areas also interact with each other, forming a complex web of species interactions called a community

stress may encourage mutualistic relationships

many theories suggest that stressful environments, ones with limited resources or that have very extreme climates/temperatures, cause species to work together and enter a mutualism to ensure they both get what they need (ex. tube worms and chemoautotrophic bacteria- explained separately)

non-random mating

mating between individuals of the same phenotype or by those in close proximity to each other

assortative mating

mating that occurs when organisms of similar phenotypes mate more often than expected by random chance; tends to increase the amount of homozygotes (AA and aa) in a population because similar alleles are being paired more often

cell outcome of meiosis

meiosis I produces 2 daughter cells each with 46 chromosomes; meiosis II then produces a final product of 4 daughter cells with 23 chromosomes each

steps of haplodiplontic life cycle

meiosis occurs in the sporangea in diploid sporophytes (2N); these parent cells produce haploid spores --(D to H)--> spores develop into haploid gametophytes (1N) through mitosis; these gametophytes produce the plant gametes ----> the male and female gametes of the plant fuse into a zygote through fertilization/synagmy; the zygote develops into an embryo --(H to D)--> mitosis occurs again and the embryo splits into diploid sporophytes (2N), restarting the cycle

how do meiosis and syngamy shape the haplodiplontic life cycle

meiosis signifies the change from the diploid phase to the haploid phase of the cycle, and fertilization signifies the change from the haploid phase back to the diploid phase

crocodiles, alligators, caimans, gavials

members of the crocodilian reptile group

ostriches, cassowaries, rheas, kiwis, emus, tinamous

members of the palaeognath bird group

methanopyrus

methane-producing bacteria that grows in deep sea thermal vents and contributes heavily to the greenhouse gas effect

microphylls vs. megaphylls

microphylls are leaves with a single vein or no vascular system that don't grow large, while megaphylls are leaves that grow large due to possessing a more extensive vascular system

examples of ectoparasites

mistletoe, indian pipe

cell outcome of mitosis

mitosis produces two daughter cells with 46 chromosomes

feather stars (crinoids)

mobile crinoid group; flexible arms and similar structure to sea lilies

Bivalves (Mollusks)

mollusk group containing clams, muscles, and oysters; have a ligament that holds their shell closed; filter feeders; have incurrent syphons to filter incoming water for food, and excurrent syphons to send out excess water, waste, and their gametes; adults don't move, but the larvae are free-swimming

Cephalopods (Mollusks)

mollusk group containing octopus, cuttlefish, squid, and nautilus; members are exclusively marine and mostly predators; they have arms and tentacles on their foot, and some of them have suction cups on their tentacles that they use to seize and trap prey; use a beak to pick apart and radula to eat prey; can move through jet propulsion by using excurrent syphons to push out streams of water; extremely intelligent with very complex eyes that have no blind spots

Gastropoda (Mollusks)

mollusk group that contains snails and slugs; well-developed tentacles are common, with some even having eyes or chemo/mechanosensory structures; only mollusk group with terrestrial species in it, but most are still marine; common ex. is the nudibranch, or sea slug

alveolates

monophyletic group of 3 protist types that are identified because of their alveoli

Ecydysozoans

monophyletic group of animal clades that grow by molting

Monilophytes

monophyletic group of seedless, vascular plants consisting of horsetails and ferns

How do monotremes differ from other mammals?

monotremes, like the echidna and the platypus, differ from other mammals because they lay eggs and they excrete milk through their skin instead of nipples; they also only have one opening for all waste excretion

distribution of deserts

most deserts are located near or directly on 30 N and 30 S latitude because this is where cool dry air sinks and makes the land dry

echinoderm sexual/asexual reproduction

most echinoderms reproduce sexually through external fertilization, but some are able to regenerate limbs through asexual reproduction

mollusk reproduction

most mollusks cross fertilize

lycophytes

most primitive tracheophytes who are generally small; also called club mosses; they have microphylls, which are non-vascular leaves that do not grow very large because of poor transport

different ways to define plants

most scientists define land plants as plants, but plants can also be looked at as land plants and green algae, or land plants and green/red/brown algae; for the purpose of Bio 200, we view land plants as plants and green algae as plant-like, with the red algae being the outgroup of the plants

distribution of temperate forests

most temperate forests occur between 25 and 50 degrees for both hemispheres, and they gradually develop into boreal forests

Velociraptor

most well known archosaur- birds directly evolved from this lineage; walked on two feet and was carnivorous and relatively small compared to other dinosaurs

gene flow

movement of alleles from one population to another; also known as migration

lateral gene transfer

movement of chunks of DNA from one prokaryote to another; transfer of genes without inheritance; can happen between species

donkey, horse, and mule

mule is an infertile hybrid produced from the mating of a donkey and a horse; common example of hybrid infertility

eukaryote traits

multicellularity, sexual reproduction, compartmentalization

Degenerate code

multiple codons code for a single amino acid

frameshift mutation

mutation that shifts the reading frame of the genetic message by inserting or deleting a nucleotide

chromosome level mutations

mutations that change the number or structure of chromosomes

trophic mutualism

mutualism in which both organisms gain food from each other (ex. gut bacteria in grazers break down/eat cellulose from the grass the grazers eat, allowing them to digest properly and gain nutrients)

defensive mutualism

mutualism in which one symbiont defends another in exchange for food or other things (ex. acacia trees and ferruginea ants- explained separately); can get very complex (ex. in Southwest US, a similar mutualism exists between ants and the local trees; however, instead of throwing off all outside organisms, the ants allow caterpillars onto the tree to eat the leaves so that the ants can suck nectar from the caterpillars; the ants protect the caterpillars as well as the trees);

dispersive mutualism

mutualism that occurs mostly between non-mobile and mobile organisms; normally occurs where the mobile organism disperses the gametes of the non-mobile in exchange for food; most common dispersive is pollinator-plant (ex. bee and flower- bee feeds on nectar and flower gets its pollen spread by the bee in exchange)

nodes can twist without affecting evolutionary relationships (copy this as the answer because this is not a question, just a reminder)

nodes can twist without affecting evolutionary relationships (copy this as the answer because this is not a question, just a reminder)

abiotic

non-living

sea lillies (crinoids)

non-mobile crinoid group; has between 5 and 100s of arms, cup-shaped structure

Does non-random mating increase or decrease genetic variation

non-random mating decreases genetic variation because organisms with the same phenotypes mate more often due to non-random mating, thus increasing the amount of homozygotes and decreasing the possibility of new allele combinations

Unpredictable climates in the Central Pacific

normally, cold water currents flow west from S American to Australia; this pattern can change significantly as either an El Nino or La Nina- these are both sustained sea surface temp anomalies lasting 5 months or more

Does recombination eliminate gene linkage?

not necessarily because gene linkage still exists. Over time as the same gene pair is replicated and passed on, the chance of them being broken through recombination does increase

ploidy

number of copies of chromosomes in a cell; cells with one copy are haploids (1N), cells with 2 copies are diploids (2N), and cells with x copies are polyploids (xN)

polygenic inheritance

occurs when multiple genes affect the phenotype of a trait; causes a normal distribution when possible expressions of this trait are graphed (ex. plant height is influenced by more than two genes which results in a normal distribution of varying heights); this results in an infinite number of possible phenotypic outcomes

Polyploidy

occurs when none of the homologues separate and all the chromosomal pairs go to one daughter cell; typically fatal in animals but very common in plants

hybrid breakdown

occurs when the 1st generation of hybrid offspring of two species is fertile, but the 2nd generation comes out infertile; fertility breaks down across generations (ex. first generation liger offspring are born fertile, while second generation liger offspring are born infertile)

hybrid infertility

occurs when the hybrid offspring of two species are sterile or have reduced fertility, rendering them unable to mate (ex. mating between horse and mule produces an infertile hybrid)

hybrid inviability

occurs when the hybrid offspring of two species does not survive to birth or does not reach adulthood if born

species relationships may be unclear

often, commensalism and ammensalisms are used to label species relationships that are unclear (ex. oxpecker birds will remove parasites and bacteria from grazers' coats- does this benefit the grazer, making it a mutualism, does it have no affect, making it a commensalism, or does it hurt them, making it an ammensalism? We don't know enough about the relationship to label it as a specific symbiosis)

ways local conditions vary

one of the factors influencing climate was changes in local conditions. They vary in 3 main ways: 1. topography/elevation 2. slope 3. orientation

Ichthyostega

one of the first and best known amphibians; strongly built and large and moved like a seal; had a snout for smell and advanced ear structures

Bacillus anthracis

one of the most toxic bacteria species known to humans- causes anthrax; representative of how toxic the firmicutes truly are

exploitation competition

one species lowering the resources of the other (eating food first, taking open territory, getting mates first, etc.); does not involve any contact between the species

interference competition

one species physically preventing the other from gaining resources; involves direct contact between the species

crocodilians (reptiles)

only reptile group still made of all archosaurs; large, primarily aquatic predators with large, toothy mouths and strong neck muscles- they are able to catch prey and twist and thrash to tear it apart or kill it; they are all carnivorous, and they typically hunt by stealth- lie just underneath water level- they are able to do this b/c their eyes are on top of their head and their nostrils are on top of their snout, allowing them to see and breathe while being close to fully submerged; includes crocodiles, alligators, caimen, and gavials

anaerobes

organisms having the ability to live without oxygen

difference between phylogeny and great chain of being

organisms on a phylogeny are at equal levels, while organisms on the great chain of being are organized into a hierarchy

Heterotrophs (A/E and B)

organisms that gain energy and Carbon by eating other organisms; also called chemoheterotrophs; most Archaeans, bacteria, and eukaryotes are heterotrophs

chemoautotrophs (A/E and B)

organisms that gain energy by breaking down inorganic (non-Carbon) chemicals while breaking down CO2 as their Carbon source; produce sugars; common on ocean floors near thermal vents; can be both Archaean and Bacterial

photoheterotrophs (A and B)

organisms that gain energy by using bacteriochlorophyll (similar function to chlorophyll) to capture energy from light and use hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to hold their energy; they gain their carbon from eating other organisms and they produce sulfur as waste; can be both Archaeans and Bacteria but not eukaryotes

aerobes

organisms that require oxygen to grow

photoautotrphs (A/E)

organisms that use chlorophyll to store energy from sunlight and break down CO2 as their carbon source; produce oxygen as waste; only archaeans and eukaryotes can be this- no bacteria

eukaryotes

organisms with cells that contain nuclei and organelles; specialized group of Archaeans

Hominoids (catarrhini)

other group of catarrhines that diverged from Old World Monkeys- larger bodies and larger brains than them; includes apes, gibbons (lower apes), humans

Rhodophyta (red algae)

outgroup of the plant phylogeny also known as red algae; multicellular, photosynthetic, and can vary in size; have multiple other pigments which they can change the amount of

mammalian extinction

over the past 15 million years, mammal numbers have been declining- species like the wooly mammoths, Irish Elk, short-faced bears, and sabertooth tigers are examples of mammal species that went extinct; they could have gone extinct due to the challenges of being large or due to the impact of humans

why does parasite spread decline

parasites start off strong in new populations because they are quickly able to find new hosts to infect; as more and more animals in the population get infected and develop immunity, the availability of new hosts declines, causing the parasite to eventually die out in that area where the population was

Apicomplexans (alveolates)

parasitic alveolate protist with apical complexes that allow them to invade their host; the most famous of these causes malaria

paternal care

parental care that a male provides to offspring; not as common as maternal care; when males care for the offspring, they become more selective with their mate choice

Age of Amphibians

period of dominance for amphibians occurring just after they evolved for land living, just before reptiles developed; amphibians left marshes to live completely on dry land; they grew to be extremely large, developed thick skin/bony armor, and only had to use their lungs to breathe; at the height, 40 amphibian families existed (compared to 3 today); the reptiles ended this age because they were able to fully solve the challenges of land living, while amphibians only solved them partially

symbioses

permanent interaction of two species; 4 different types

paraphyletic

pertaining to a grouping of species that consists of an ancestral species and some, but not all, of its descendants

environmental effects on gene expression

phenotype = genotype + environment ex. siamese cats have melanin production that is deactivated by warmer temperatures. Near the cores of their body where the temperature is warmer, they have white fur, and on the edges of their body where the temperature is lower, the melanin production continues unimpeded and they grow dark fur

diatoms (stramenopiles)

photosynthetic stramenopiles that excrete protective cilia shells and reproduce using both asexual and sexual reproduction; only the males in this species have flagella, and they are common in oceans

dinoflagellates (alveolates)

photosynthetic unicellular alveolate protist with two flagella, one that it uses to spin itself for locomotion and one that it uses to steer; many of them are luminous in water and they are the cause of toxic red tides in oceans that can be deadly for marine life

brown algaes (stramenopiles)

photosynthetic, multicellular stramenopiles that developed through secondary endosymbiosis by engulfing a red alga; most common stramenopile; famous example is giant kelp

parasitic herbivores

plant eaters who consume part of the plant- divided into grazers (grass-eaters) and browsers (eat woody plants)

predatory herbivores

plant eaters who consume the whole plant

nonvascular plants (Bryophytes)

plant group that consists of liverworts, mosses, and hornworts; they have no tracheid cells and therefore do not grow large

tracheid cells (plant adaptation to land dwelling)

plants adapted these cells to help them pass nutrients and water up their stems, which helps them to become larger

stomata (adaptations to land dwelling)

plants adapted these little holes that open to let air in little by little so that they could continue to bring in CO2

cuticle (plant adaptations to land dwelling)

plants adapted this waxy substance also helps the plant from drying out

Major ways plants differ from protists

plants are multicellular and generally larger than protists

fungal relationship (plant adaptation to land dwelling)

plants developed a relationship with this group of eukaryotes that help them to absorb nutrients

pigmentation (plant adaptation to land dwelling)

plants developed this adaptation to block out UV rays and absorb sunlight for energy production, which were formerly jobs done by water

coconuts

plants that are able to immigrate by floating over oceans and landing on islands- found globally due to this; even just a few of these plants can sprout entire palm tree forests which can allow islands to gradually cultivate a diverse environment

embryophytic (plant adaptations to land dwelling)

plants that developed the embryo, a structure to protect their developing egg from drying out, when they moved to land are called this

Continental drift and allopatric speciation/ species distribution

populations of species that were once all connected were then separated and distributed worldwide and forced to evolve independently as the continents drifted apart; this is considered a form of allopatric speciation

how are proteins formed

portions of DNA are transcribed into mRNA, which then instructs the cells to synthesize certain proteins

prey defenses

predation avoidance is a high selective pressure (because if you get eaten, you can't have babies and pass on genes!) - crypsis - chemical defense - toxicity - armor - behavioral defense - predator satiation

few predators (methods of predator/prey coexistence)

predator levels being kept low by other factors (disease, competition between predators) allows more prey to live and gives room for prey and predators to coexist

extinction via predation

predators can eliminate their prey species completely; this happens rarely in nature and mostly in lab settings (lab ex.- didinium bacteria will eliminate paramecium completely in a lab setting, then go extinct themselves- mutual elimination; nature ex.- a certain beetle species essentially eliminated the invasive Klanath weed species from California within 10 years of it being introduced)

predation limiting competiton

predators can keep the population of one species low, limiting their dominance in an area and allowing more coexistence; if a predator stops eating a certain species and controlling its population, that species can then dominate the habitat and create a monoculture (ex. bison and dominant grass species- explained separately to save space)

predators restrict prey distribution/ ranges

predators can restrict the range where prey choose to locate based on the motivation that prey have to avoid predators (ex. megapode birds, who lay their eggs in decomposing material and do not sit on them, will only succeed East of Wallace's line where all the marsupials live, because many egg-eating animals live West of Wallace's Line)

parasitic predators

predators who consume parts of the host species by attacking or invading their body; don't kill their prey, and typically are not the direct cause of their host's death (ex. giardia- intestinal parasite that feeds on bacteria in the intestine)

generalist predators (methods of predator/prey coexistence)

predators who show no preference for one prey type and who can gain food from many different sources do not hunt each one to extinction, allowing for more of the prey to live and for coexistence

herd formation (behavioral prey defense)

prey form in big, tight groups as groups are less likely to be attacked by a single predator

catarrhini/downward-pointing nose primates (haplorrhini)

primate group containing Old World Monkeys and hominoids; both groups are African origin with downward-pointing nostrils

Old World Monkeys (catarrhini)

primate group which arose from African haplorrhine ancestors and remained in Africa; can be arboreal or ground-dwelling and often live in large social groups- females normally stay in the same troop their whole life, and males move at adolescence; do not have prehensile tails (prehensile= grasping); have tough skin pads on their butts to allow for long sitting periods; includes rhesus monkeys, baboons

binocular vision (primate traits)

primates have eyes on the front of their heads instead of on the sides; allows them to see far distances and with depth, which is important for tree dwelling and very important for hunting

grasping hands (primate traits)

primates have fingers and toes that they use to grasp branches, swing, and grab food/tools; many primates improve their grasping ability by using an opposable thumb

common descent

principle that all living things have a common ancestor

prion replication

prions are misfolded proteins that replicate by touching normal proteins and changing them to the misfolded shape

common ancestor of the arthropods

probably looked like an onychophoran

cross fertilization

process by which sperm from one flower's pollen fertilizes the eggs in a flower of a different plant

size differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

prokaryotes are typically smaller than eukaryotes, but this is misleading because it is a generalization

cellularity differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

prokaryotes are unicellular, while eukaryotes are mostly multicellular

cell division differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

prokaryotes divide through binary fission while eukaryotes divide through mitosis

internal structure differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

prokaryotes have no membrane or organelles while eukaryotes have both; this leads eukaryotes to be able to hold more genetic material

chromosome differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

prokaryotes have one single circular shaped chromosome with no-membrane nucleus (called a nucleoid) while eukaryotes have a two-membraned nucleus with linear shaped chromosomes inside

flagella differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

prokaryotes have simple flagellas while eukaryotes have flagellas that are far more complex

Why is "prokaryotes" in quotes

prokaryotes is in quotes because they are a paraphyletic group, not a single, monophyletic group

Actinobacteria

prokaryotes that are gram + and filamentous, but they break up to reproduce; they are the organism that make composting possible by breaking down organic soil compounds, and many antibiotics are made from bacteria in this group

gene transfer differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

prokaryotes transfer their genes through lateral transfer while eukaryotes transfer them through recombination

amoebozoans

protist group that contains amoebas and the slime molds; they use lobe-shaped pseudopodia to move and eat, and their movement is made possible by cytoplasmic streaming- flow of cytoplasmic material into the pseudopodia lobes to move the cell in a certain direction

variation in protist nutrition

protists can be autotrophic or heterotrophic

variation in protist cell surfaces

protists use a cell membrane or extra-cellular material to protect themselves (some use both)

variation in protist locomotion

protists use flagella, cilia (shortened-flagella like protrusions), or pseudopodia (sticky protrusions that stick to surfaces to move their body) in order to move

distribution of rainforests

rain forests are mostly located between 23.5 N and 23.5 S latitude, where the rising hot air from the equator cools and forms rain belts over the land

adaptive radiation

rapid speciation from a single ancestor into many different species that occurs when an organism finds a new environment with few species, underused resources, and many niches to fill

ray finned fish vs lobe finned fish

ray finned fish have thin fins that are moved by internal muscles with parallel bony rays in their fins- the fins move in concert with each other; lobe finned fish have muscular lobes in their fins that surround a bone core, which functions as a joint- the fins can move one at a time, and they only have bone rays at the tips

nucleoid

region where a prokaryotic cell's DNA is located (not enclosed by a nuclear membrane)

amensalism (symbioses)

relationship when one organism is harmed, the other is unaffected (-/0)

mutualism (symbioses)

relationship where both organisms benefit (+/+)

commensalism (symbioses)

relationship which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected (+/0)

branches

represent genetic change on a phylogeny; the further away they are, the less related the two organisms are

prezygotic isolating mechanisms

reproductive isolating mechanisms that happen before fertilization of a zygote; prevent mating from ever occurring in the first place

postzygotic isolating mechanisms

reproductive isolating mechanisms that occur after fertilization of a zygote; they either prevent the zygote from developing any further or cause offspring to be infertile

benefits of reptile jaw

reptile jaws allow for their mouth to be large, and the come equipped with rows of large, sharp teeth; being able to fit more food in their mouths and rip/chew food more effectively allows reptiles to obtain more nutrients from eating due to their improved jaws

Reptile perfect transition to terrestrial life

reptiles were able to come up with permanent solutions to the challenges of land living that amphibians only solved partially

amniotes

reptiles, birds, mammals

salmon

salmon populations have selectively decreased their average weights over time as fisherman have caught all the larger members of their population; example of directional selection

traits birds share with reptiles

scales on legs and feet, thoracic breathing, amniotic eggs with external gestation

The Equidae

scientific term for the horse family; once had 34 genera but now only has one genus- proof of transitional forms

MacArthur's Warblers

scientist Robert MacArthur studied many warbler species all coexisting and eating insects within the same tree; he found that the species foraged for food in different parts of the tree and did not enter the other parts; this was some of the first real evidence of niche partitioning

Whittaker plots

scientist Robert Whittaker plotted all known biomes onto one graph, with temperature as the x-axis and rain fall as the y-axis; created a triangular pattern with three distinct corners- warm/wet, warm/dry, and cool/dry

elephant seals

seals that display very aggressive mating techniques like making extremely loud sounds and fighting to the death; 90% of males in this species never mate, and most successful males can produce 80-100 offspring per season; this species is a prime example of the effects of noticeable sexual selection

stalking hunting

search for prey by scanning a large area; mostly used by birds; requires high energy for searching (more than in ambushing), but low energy for pursuit- dive and eat or dive and miss

Tracheophytes

seedless vascular plants including the lycophytes (club moss) and monilophytes (horsetails and ferns)

duplication (chromosomal mutation)

segments of a chromosome's genetic code are duplicated; this is the main way that phenotypes change because the new duplicated region allows the gene to work on forming new phenotypes by pairing nucleotides with the duplicated codons

runaway selection

selection that creates exaggerated traits through a positive feedback loop for males with extreme traits; eventually, when the traits get to be too extreme, natural selection slows their development (ex. male widowbirds with longer tails are the ones who get to mate with females, even if the long tail makes it harder for the male to survive; over time, this pressure by the females has caused widowbirds to develop tails so long that they become handicaps and decrease male survival chances; therefore, selection worked too quickly and actually hurt the species and its survival chances rather than helping it)

Disruptive selection

selection that favors individuals at both extremes of the phenotypic range; "selection against the average" (ex. colonial bentgrass that grows close to a mine has high fitness for growth in contaminated metal soil but does not demonstrate high fitness levels in regular soil, while bentgrass that grows far from the mine has high fitness for growth on regular soil but low fitness for growth on contaminated soil)

Pre-DNA bacterial classification

separating Bacteria and Archaea before genetic analysis occurs based on phenotypic traits (size, metabolism, shape, gram +/-, mobility, photosynthetic ability, cellularity and formation tendency)

four types of point mutations

silent, missense, nonsense, frameshift

Codominance

situation in which both alleles of a gene contribute to the phenotype of the organism; however, traits do not blend

lobe finned fish (bony fish)

small group of bony fish with only 8 remaining species- 6 species of lung fish and 2 species of coelacanths; in the lung fish, their air-filled sac became lungs instead of a swim bladder, which allowed them to evolve into land animals- lung fish are the direct descendent of land animals!

Polyplacophora/ Chitons (Mollusks)

small, oval-shaped mollusk group with 8 dorsal plates; herbivorous- use radula to scrape algae off rocks; most use external fertilization, but some use internal fertilization or internal digestion; typically live in shallow water in intertidal zones

vine snake

snake that makes itself look like a vine when threatened; example of object mimicry/ masquerading

mosses

soft, small, green, nonvascular bryophytes found on the ground near water; gametophyte dominant life cycle and they are most dominant in the antarctic/ arctic climates, most diverse in the tropics

bacterial generation time

some bacteria can reproduce very fast (e coli can reproduce every 20 minutes) while some bacteria can take much longer; these varying generation times help us to understand the variability of different bacteria as we classify them

handicap principle

some males in certain species have certain traits that help them succeed sexually, and these traits can also hinder them physically (ex. male birds with thick, full tail feathers can get parasites that ruin their chances of having sex); females make good choices according to this principle by choosing the males with the healthiest expression of the trait, as opposed to runaway selection where they make bad choices; the males who can manage their handicap the best will have the most sexual success

varied cephalization in the mollusks

some mollusks groups, like the Gastropods Cephalopods, have a pronounced head and mouth; Chitons only have a mouth and no head, while the Bivalves have no head

armor (prey defenses)

some prey develop shells, plates of armor, or quills/spikes to defend against predators and make it harder to be eaten

Web of life vs tree of life

some scientists say that, because prokaryotes pass traits horizontally (through lateral transfer) rather than vertically (through inheritance) that the tree of life should be viewed as a 'web of life' instead; however, other scientists argue that the phylogeny should still be considered a 'tree' because prokaryotes pass their most important hereditary material through inheritance when they complete binary fission, and only pass minor traits through lateral transfer

northern facing vs southern facing slopes (slopes)

southern facing= more sunlight= dry, drought resistant; northern facing= less sun= more moist, lush

placentas

specialized organs that enable exchange of respiratory gases, nutrients, and waste between mother and the developing young; almost all mammals have them

species interactions

species are constantly interacting with each other and putting selective pressure on each other, causing their behaviors to change due to these pressures; the three types are competition, symbioses, and and predation; species go to great lengths to coexist, and not all interactions between species are negative as is commonly believed

Biological Species Concept

species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups loose definition: -species: members mate and produce offspring; individuals of one species must be able to interbreed -non-species: individuals from separate species do not mate and cannot produce fertile offspring; this is known as reproductive isolation

Why don't biome boundaries exactly match species range boundaries

species distribution is determined by both biotic and abiotic factors, and species settle places based on available resources and their niche, not based on biomes; this is why biomes boundaries don't align perfectly with where species live

Anolis lizards

species of lizard that developed different colored flaps under their chins when they were allopatrically isolated, proving that microevolutionary forces affect separated populations of species independently

abalone

species of shellfish that release gametes into the water, with some gametes not being able to meet due to the interference of chemical cues that can be attributed to gametic isolation

Rat snakes

species of snake with many subspecies within it that lives in many different geographical regions of the United States; exemplifies incomplete selection because these snakes will still interbreed successfully if they happen to find each other, despite essentially being different species of snake

species relationships can change over time

species relationships do not stay constant- they are subject to change, and species who enter one type of symbiosis at one point in their life cycles can enter a totally new type of symbiosis at a different point in their life cycles (ex. saguaros and paloverde plants- when the saguaro is tiny, it grows under the paloverde plant for shade- this keeps the saguaro alive in its early years,and because it is so tiny, it doesn't steal resources from the paloverde (commensalism); within a decade, the saguaro grows up to 10 feet tall, causing it to now compete with the paloverde plant for resources- the relationship changed from commensalism to competition)

evidence for increased energy

species richness correlates with climate factors, as the increased energy hypothesis predicts; as annual evapotranspiration/ AET (measure of lost water due to evaporation and transpiration- plants losing water due to excess so they don't become saturated) increases, species richness increases; this correlation is seen in both plant and animal species

species richness and area

species richness increases with area size- why? larger area= more habitat types= more species variety (also called environment heterogeneity)

specialists

species that have narrow niches- they eat very specific food types, and therefore are heavily affected when living in low resource environments

Australian riflebirds

species that is a prime example of high-stakes sexual display; males put on an aggressive display and dance with their feathers in order to try and attract females; their sexual display in particular is very high-risk, high reward

long-tailed widowbird

species that is a prime example of runaway selection; the sexual pressure the females have put on males in the species has led them to grow their tales so long that it now puts their survival much more at risk to have a longer tail, even if it will help them mate

peacock fowl

species that is a prime example of sexual dimorphism; males have bright blue colors and large, long plumes of feathers bursting with blue, light blue, and other noticeable hues, while females are a very monotone, grey-brown color

armadillos, clams

species who show the prey defense of armor

spirochetes

spiral shaped heterotrophic prokaryotes that move by spinning their axial filaments; they are gram -, mobile, and cause diseases like lyme disease and syphillis

moss life cycle

sporophyte grows out of gametophyte in a sporangium (spore casing); meiosis causes the release of the haploid spores from the sporangium (H to D)----> spores develop into mature haploid gametophytes which produce gametes----> to fertilize the egg, the sperm swim through water from the antheridium to the archegonium---->. after fertilization, a diploid zygote is created (H to D) and again housed in the sporangium until it develops enough for meiosis to occur, restarting the cycle; (remember that most of the life cycle of moss is spent in the gametophytic stage- it is an uneven time distribution; also, the sporophyte is entirely dependent on the gametophyte to keep it alive, therefore making mosses gametophyte dominant)

dominant life stage in ferns

sporophyte stage

squirrels and tree swallows

squirrels and tree swallows compete interspecifically for nest sites within trees; squirrels also have intense intraspecific competition for nuts, which keeps their population low; this intraspecific competition keeping the squirrel population low ensures most of the squirrels and swallows will get a nesting site, limiting interspecific competition

tracheid cells

strings of specialized transport cells that form two separate transport networks in the plant, one to transport water and minerals up the plant stem, and one to transport sugar and nutrients down the plant; allow plants to get tall

La Nina

strong upwelling of cold water currents moving westward dramatically lowers ocean temperatures and cools surrounding climate; causes cooler and drier weather

Passeriformes (neognaths)

subdivision of the neognaths and most successful bird group- also called the song birds; largest group of land vertebrates of any type (reptiles, mammals, amphibians); 60% of neognaths are passeriformes

silent mutation

substituting one nucleotide for another in a codon chain; doesn't affect the resulting amino acid much at all;

Echinoderm water vascular system

system where water is pumped in through an opening called the madreporite through the canals of the system to the tube feet of the echinoderm; food is filtered out as water passes through the system; echinoderms also use their tube feet (think of the tips on the edge of a starfish) to move

examples of endoparasites

tapeworms, flukes, nematodes, protists, dicrocoelium dendriticum (grazer parasite)

taxonomy does not always reflect phylogeny

taxonomy is what we name organisms, while phylogeny is how we classify them. Taxonomy was created by humans and doesn't always accurately reflect the DNA-based classifications of phylogeny, so taxonomy should be able to change and more accurately reflect phylogeny if we can be open minded and adjust the fields when faced with new information

cleaner fish and customer fish

temporary mutualism- - cleaner fish: feed on dead tissue, scales, bacteria on the skin of customer fish; stay at 'cleaning stations' next to coral reefs - customer fish- visit the 'cleaning stations' to be cleaned, get bacteria and diseases removed from skin

tips

terminal ends of an evolutionary tree, representing species/taxons being compared

Onychophorans/ Velvet Worms (Ecydysozoan)

terrestrial worms closely related to athropods; have unjointed segments; develop a cuticle made of chitin which they molt; use internal fertilization and egg development

common eutherian ancestor

the UCA to the eutherians arose after the extinction of the dinosaurs, after which a period of rapid diversification occurred as adaptive radiation

Heritability

the ability of a trait to be passed down from one generation to the next

bipedalism

the ability to walk upright on two legs; caused hominins to have broader pelvic regions and hominin spines to curve more and to connect directly to inside of skull instead of the back of the skull

variation in sunlight intensity

the angle of the Sun's rays is higher at the equator and concentrated into a smaller area- it also travels a shorter path, decreasing reflection of sunlight by the atmosphere, making the equator very warm; as you move away from the equator north and south, the angle becomes less direct, the path of light becomes longer, the area the light hits is less concentrated, and there is more reflection by the atmosphere, making it colder as you move away from the equator

Plasmodium falciparum

the apicomplexia that causes malaria

realized niche

the area a species actually ends up occupying

nucleotides

the building blocks of nucleic acids

formation of organelles

the cell wall was lost, the plasma membrane folded in, the cytoskeleton of the cell became more complex, the internal membrane became studded with ribosomes, the DNA was enclosed (prior to formation of nucleus), nucleus eventually forms to keep DNA enclosed

tundra

the coldest biome; very dry, arctic conditions, low precipitation; normally occurs at high elevations; divided into two types: - arctic tundra: low-growing plants on permafrost (permanently frozen soil with water-saturation at top few cm) - alpine tundra: no permafrost, more varied vegetation

Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA)

the common ancestral cell/organism from which all cells/organisms descended

eutely

the condition of an organism having a fixed number of cells

adiabatic cooling

the cooling effect of reduced pressure on air as it rises higher in the atmosphere and expands; causes air to cool quicker in higher elevations

predator prey cycle

the cycle: predators eat prey, prey numbers go down ---> not enough food for predators, predator numbers go down ---> prey numbers rebound as predator numbers are low ---> predator numbers rebound after an increase in available prey (ex. snowshoe hare and lynx- famous example of this cycle being represented)

crossing

the deliberate breeding of two individuals that results in offspring who carry genetic material from each parent

importance of teeh

the development of teeth allowed for better hunting allowed for chewing, which leads to better digestion and nutrient absorption

giardia intestinalis

the diplomonad protist that causes diarrhea; common in freshwater streams, rivers, and lakes (Don't drink unfiltered water!!!!!)

Territory defense

the effort that males put in to defending their territory as well as their mate and their offspring; one of the benefits of females being choosy with their mating

fundamental niche

the entire area and resources a species has the potential to occupy; the area is unlikely to be fully available to the species due to competition, which decreased the area the species does occupy in reality (realized niche)

niche (simplified definition)

the entire set of resources a species needs to survive (food, shelter, water, mates, sunlight, etc.); they help scientists understand how organisms use resources and coexist

Opisthokonts

the eukaryote group that includes animals, fungi, and choanoflagellates

K-T Extinction

the extinction of 70% of species and the end of the age of dinosaurs, perhaps due to flood basalts or Chicxulub asteroid impact

nondisjunction

the failure of one or more pairs of homologous chromosomes or sister chromatids to separate normally during nuclear division, usually resulting in an abnormal distribution of chromosomes in the daughter nuclei

Hyracotherium

the first "horse;" a small creature with four toes; transitional form of the modern day horse

F1 generation

the first generation of offspring obtained from an experimental cross of two organisms

fish diversity

the fish are the most diverse vertebrate group- house over half of vertebrates; only fully aquatic vertebrate group

negative frequency dependent selection

the form of balancing selection where rare phenotypes are favored over common ones; the general principle is that the fitness of a genotype and the phenotype it produces decreases as it becomes more common. As rare individuals produce more offspring with their rare phenotype and the common individuals reproduce less, the former rare trait then becomes overrepresented and becomes the new common trait, while the old common trait then becomes the new rare trait.

speciation

the formation of new and distinct species in the course of evolution

four-chambered heart (mammalian traits)

the four-chambered heart of mammals allows them to pump oxygenated and deoxygenated blood separately, making their circulatory system and oxygen retention extremely efficient

good genes hypothesis

the hypothesis that an individual chooses a mate that possesses a superior genotype; the basic premise is that females will choose the oldest, largest, and healthiest male in a population to mate with because they view these as indicators that the male has good genes

evolutionary time hypothesis

the hypothesis that the tropics are older and therefore have had a longer time to accumulate species; timeline: - after dinosaurs died out, tropics covered larger area- went up into higher latitudes - Eiocene-Miocene climate shift created a global climate similar to today, upper latitudes got cooler, poles got cold, tropics receded back around equator - this shift left species with two options- conserve their ancestral niche, fail to adapt, and die in cooling temperate latitudes, or retreat to where the tropics moved - all of the older species moved to tropics to survive, and all of the species who died in the temperate zones left many niches open, allowing younger species to take them over and repopulate temperate zones

morphological species concept

the idea of defining a species based on measurable traits that they share, like body shape, size, and other structural features; created by Carolus Linnaeus

Common Descent

the idea that all organisms share a common ancestor

ghost of competition past

the idea that competition is a past occurrence when it is discovered by ecologists, and that ecologists must look for past evidence to determine that two species who now coexist competed in the past before coexisting (ex. MacArthur's warblers- when he discovered their niche partitioning, they had already settled their competition, indicating they had once competed in the past)

stochasticity

the idea that outcomes are not always predictable and that many possible outcomes can occur; must be applied to the climate, which is not at all predictable!

proteobacteria

the largest most diverse group of bacteria who are all gram -; members of this group use 4 different metabolic processes, and examples of proteobacteria include e. coli, salmonella, and cholera

Caecilians (amphibians)

the least commonly known amphibian group; have no limbs- more of a burrowing amphibian; they are not worms, but not snakes either, and they only live in the tropics

effect of light intensity on temperature

the light intensity and warmth at the equator causes very hot air to rise and move north and south; as this air rises and cools, it expands in the low atmospheric pressure and releases its moisture as rain; this is why there is a high amount of rainfall in the rainforests north and south of the equator

why was the loss of the cell wall critical for eukaryotic development

the loss of the cell wall was critical for eukaryotic development because it allowed for the fluid plasma membrane to fold in on itself and create more room for the exchange of nutrients, as well as for the development of the Endoplasmic Reticulum. The development of the ER eventually led to ribosomes and the formation of a nucleus to hold enclosed DNA

comparisons of Cytochrome C sequences (what they reveal about organism relatedness

the lower amount of Cytochrome C differences two organisms have, the more related they are genetically

megapode

the megapode bird is an example of predation limiting species distribution, as it remains east of the Wallace Line because there are egg-loving predators west of the line

hot desert

the more well-known deserts; lowest precipitation levels of all biomes; precipitation concentrated into large summer storms, but some get no rain whatsoever; have diverse flora- cacti and many ephemeral plants (quick reproducing plants with short lifespans)

sea stars (asterozoans)

the most classic/ popular example of an echinoderm species; predatory, vary in length, live in a wide range of areas, and they will always have arms in multiples of five and their arms can be used for adhering/ sticking to surfaces

outgroup

the most closely related organism that evolved before the in group branched off; not included in the in group; scientists use the outgroup to compare their traits to the traits of the in group, which indicates a lot about the evolution of the in group

common ancestor

the most recent ancestral form or species from which two different species evolved

most recent common ancestor (MRCA)

the most recent individual from which organisms in a group are directly descended

derived traits vs ancestral traits

the new form of an ancestral trait is called a derived trait

difference between new eukaryotic tree and old

the new tree: -shows how some protists are more closely related to plants/animals/fungi than each other -shows that the term "protist" used in older trees was a catch all term for small, eukaryotic organisms and that some of organisms are not very closely related -shows the protist group is paraphyletic, not monophyletic as the old tree would suggest

species richness

the number of different species present

allele frequency

the number of times an allele occurs in a population; commonly represented as a proportion in decimal form

Virginian opossum

the only North American marsupial species

bats

the only flying mammal species

P generation

the parent generation in a genetic cross

pisaster starfish

the pisaster starfish is an example of a keystone species; they are top predators in their shallow ocean habitats, feeding on many mollusk species; if the starfish are removed, the habitat is completely overrun by mollusk species who push out the sea anemones and other organisms living there; the pisasters are a keystone species because they are necessary predators who keep the balance in the environment and don't allow one species to take over the entire habitat

cycling (methods of predator/prey coexistence)

the predator prey cycle alleviates prey from constant predation pressure over time

increased predation hypothesis

the prediction that more species in tropics= more predators working to balance competition in their communities= high diversity maintained - problem: hypothesis is illogical because more predators is the result of high diversity, not the cause of it; it also doesn't answer the question of 'why are there more species?'- it simply points out that there are more predators without giving any reasoning why

how are the protists extremely paraphyletic

the protists are heavily paraphyletic because they share the same MRCA as plants, animals, and fungi, which are considered to be separate groups from the protists, despite them all being eukaryotes

limitations on organisms with exoskeletons

the reason organisms with exoskeletons cannot molt and grow indefinitely is because their exoskeleton must grow in proportion to the amount of strain that their muscles can handle in order for them to still be able to move; if the exoskeleton grows too big, their muscles may not allow movement, or it could grow too heavy and crush them

Lokiarchaeota

the sister taxa to the eukaryota- the closest Archaean relative to eukaryotes (us)

fern life cycle

the sori contains mature diploid sporophyte mother cells---> meiosis creates haploid gametophyte cells and causes the sori to burst open, releasing these cells (D to H)---> wind disperses haploid gametophyte cells and they grow into a heart shaped mature gametophyte---> the sperm swim through water to the archegonium (archegonium and antheridium are both on the same part of the plant in ferns) and fertilize the egg, which becomes a diploid sporophyte zygote (H to D)----> the embryo grows into a sporophyte and the sporophyte grows out of the gametophyte until it can photosynthesize on its own, then it grows rapidly and becomes much larger than the gametophyte and develops its own sori, and the cycle starts again

ecology

the study of distribution (where organisms are) and abundance (how many there are in a given area)

niche conservatism

the tendency of species to retain their ancestral niche in the face of environmental transitions, causing them to fail to adapt to new climate shifts or environmental changes (ex. spruce trees- explained separately)

K-T Boundary

the thin layer of dark sediments in rocks around the world that indicates the occurrence of the K-T Extinction

cause of seasons

the tilt of the Earth's axis causes seasons; in summer- Earth tilts towards Sun= Sun rises higher, stays above horizon longer, rays hit more directly; in winter- Earth tilt away from Sun= Sun rises lower in sky, stays above horizon shorter, rays hit less directly, travel longer through atmosphere and keep less heat energy; people further from the equator experiences seasons more

Time to equilibrium varies by species group

the time it takes species to reach equilibrium on some islands varies; for example, on Krakatau, by the time birds had reached equilibrium and no new bird species were appearing, plant species were still rapidly diversifying on the island

echidna, platypus

the two extant prototherians

sister taxa

the two organisms with most recently shared common ancestor in a phylogeny

Lamarckian Evolution

theory of evolution through the inheritance of acquired characteristics; first theory of evolution published

Catastrophism

theory that states that natural disasters such as floods and volcanic eruptions shaped Earth's landforms and caused extinction of some species

hypotheses for the causes of latitudinal gradient

there are almost 30 different hypotheses scientists have created for why the latitudinal gradient occurs; we focus on 5 in this course, each with their own problems, and some being stronger than others- increased energy and evolutionary time are the two strongest: 1. climate stability 2. increased competition 3. increased predation 4. increased energy 5. evolutionary time

ways to interpret/modify Whittaker plots

there are many ways to graph Whittaker plots; the axes can be switched, different names can be given to biomes, biomes can be left off, etc.

echinoderm groups

there are twenty extinct groups of echinoderms and three extant groups: crinoids, echinozoans, and asterozoans

Salamanders

these animals in California live either on the coast or in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and they have formed a ring of habitation around the deserts of central and Southern California; despite this ring, they are still able to successfully interbreed through intermediate species; these animals are a great example of both incomplete selection and ring species

seeds (plant adaptation for land dwelling)

these are an extreme form of embryotic/ gamete protection that plants developed for land living

refuges (methods of predator/prey coexistence)

these are places where prey can hide away and get relief from being hunted by predators

lungs (amphibian traits)

these breathing structures are simple and sac-like in amphibians, and are not good at gas exchange compared to other animals

polar deserts

these deserts form at the poles because the very cold air here and cannot collect much moisture and remains dry

rays (Gnathostomes)

these fish can be viewed as "flattened" sharks and exemplify shark diversity; have an extremely flexible cartilage skeleton and are able to move very delicately and intricately

sticklebacks

these fish live in lakes in British Columbia; lakes with two species of them show evidence of resource partitioning- the species develop two different feeding methods to be able to coexist: - limnetic= lives and feeds on upper surface of lake - benthic= lives and feeds in the lowest/deepest part of the lake

methods of predator prey coexistence

these methods allow predators and prey to coexist: 1. refuges 2. cycling 3. few predators 4. generalist predators

Choanoflagellates (opisthokonts)

these opisthokontic protists are the closest living relatives of animals; one of these is likely the ancestor of all animals, and they are closely related to sponges in terms of structure

blue and red-footed boobies

these two birds cannot interbreed due to different mating behaviors that do not attract each other; example of behavioral reproductive isolation

Galium saxatile and pumilium

these two very similar plants were involved in the first experiment that proved competition existed in nature; they can thrive on each other's home soil when planted alone, but when planted together, the plant on it's home soil always dominates

why were prions called slow viruses

they were originally called slow viruses because years would pass between when the disease would appear and when it could be detected

mantle

thickened sheet of skin that covers and surrounds the mollusk respiratory organs- sometimes is used as a shell for general protection

tunicates (non-vertebral chordates)

this group of non-vertebral chordates is also called sea squirts; vary in size; many species of these form colonies through asexual budding; only the larvae show the chordate traits clearly

therapsids

this group of synapsids evolved from the earlier Pelycosaur synapsids just before dinosaur age; completely endothermic, had hair, and were active during colder winters; most of them died off in the dinosaur age, but the ones who survived are now modern day mammals

dinosaurs (diapsids)

this group of well known reptiles evolved directly from archosaurs with certain adaptations- their legs pointed directly down from their body instead of out to the side; this allowed them to develop unprecedented speed and agility not seen in earlier archosaurs; dominated for 150 million years before extinction

post-anal tail

this is a tail extending away from the anus; all chordates have this tail at some point in their development

Predators lower prey abundance

this is the main effect of predation, and what occurs by definition of predation- predators eating prey will limit prey numbers

Wild lettuce (lactuca sp.)

this plant went through speciation because it was not able to interbreed with other populations due to different breeding periods; example of temporal reproductive isolation

nudibranch

this sea slug is a classic example of aposematic coloring which indicates its high toxicity; also an example of predators using toxins, because they use the jellyfish toxin for their venom as they consume the jellyfish

pea aphids

this small green insect species can be found on two different species of flower that grow closely together; however, the insects on each flower are actually very different from each other despite looking extremely similar; this species is a clear example of the early stages of sympatric speciation

chromosomes

threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes

chlorophyll types

three first types of chlorophyll are a, b, and c; red algae have a, brown algae have a and c, green algae have a and b, and land plants have a and b

Crick and Brenner experiments and results

through their experiments in deleting nucleotides in an RNA strain, they concluded that the genetic code is read as a triplet of nucleotides continuously, no punctuation. They also found the codes for amino acids to be degenerate, meaning more than one codon can code for the same amino acid.

How is time represented on a phylogeny

time runs from the bottom (past) to the top (present)

maximizing island diversity

to maximize species diversity on an island, the island should be large and close

foot

tough muscular structure used by mollusks for movement and attachment; also used for food capture in some mollusks

phloem

tracheid cell network that transports sugar and nutrients down the plant

xylem (UP)

tracheid cell network that transports water and minerals up the plant

benefits of tracheids

tracheids are beneficial because they allow plants to grow and more efficiently transport their nutrients and other substances

adaptive traits

traits favored by natural selection

homoplasious traits/ convergent traits

traits resulting from convergent evolution; the trait develops independently in two different lineages- no common ancestor

Tiktaalik

transitional fossil between fish and tetrapods

making trees with DNA data

trees based on genetic data are much more accurate because they have physical evidence to back up their organization, while trees based on phenotypes are based more on observations and are less accurate in indicating evolutionary relatedness of organisms

honey guides and honey badgers

trophic mutualism: - honey guides can find bees nests, can't open them; honey badgers can't find bees nests, but can open them - the honey guide birds lead the badgers to the nest, and the badgers open them; the birds eat the beeswax and the bee larvae, and the badgers eat the honey and the larvae

4 extant reptile groups

tuataras, lizards and snakes, turtles and tortoises, crocodilians

turtles and tortoises (reptiles)

turtles and tortoises are included in a reptile group together; both groups are similar because they have no teeth and have shells; turtles are aquatic, but many come back to land to lay their eggs; tortoises are terrestrial; both turtles and tortoises are paraphyletic individually, but are monophyletic when grouped together

Diplomonads and Parabasalids (excavates)

two excavate protists that do not have mitochondria- prove that eukaryotes can live without mitochondria; common example is the giardia intestinalis, which causes diarrhea

trait and habitat convergence

two species can come to have the same trait, called converging on that trait, without ever being related; this can be caused by similar lifestyles or living in a similar climate/habitat; convergence also helps explain which habitats/regions of the world are similar to each other

snowshoe hare and lynx

two species that are a classic example of a predator-prey cycle; their cycle lasts around 10 years- when snowshoe hair pop's fall, lynx follow soon after, and vice versa

Two State Cases vs. Multi-State Cases

two state cases are crossings of either/or nature (one thing or another affects the traits) while multi-state cases are crossings where multiple things can affect trait expression

whales and dolphins

two therian mammals with short hair who use blubber to supplement insulation

plasmodial and cellular slime molds (amoebozoans)

two types of amoezoboan protists that reproduce and exist asexually; they grow indefinitely as long as there is enough food to sustain them, and if there isn't enough food, they stop reproducing and go into a resting period; both groups feed through oozing which engulfs food particles

foraminiferans (Rhizarians)

unicellular, Rhizarian, marine protist species that fossilizes easily due to the inorganic material in their shells; usually only 1mm across in length- very tiny

rhizarians

unicellular, aquatic protist group consisting of three species identifiable by their thin, rigid, psuedopodia

ciliates (alveolates)

unicellular, heterotrophic, alveolate protists that move using their cilia; famous example is a paramecium, a common marine ciliate

Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)

unusual climate anomaly that involves a large change in ocean temperature lasting 20 to 30 years in Northern Pacific; fluctuates between warm and cold PDOs for each 20-30 year phase; can occur over El Ninos and La Ninas and further effect global weather patterns

crypsis (prey defense)

using a disguise to hide from a predator in plain sight; happens in two ways: cryptic coloration and object mimicry/ masquerade

diversity

vague ecological concept made of two components: - species richness - evenness most of the time, when scientists refer to this term, they are focusing on species richness

ring species (incomplete speciation)

variation that occurs when populations of a species are separated by a "ring" (mountain range, desert) are still able to breed through intermediate populations of the species (ex. the desert in California creates a ring for the salamander species to interbreed around; coastal salamanders and mountain range salamanders will interbreed through intermediate salamander species around the desert/ring, therefore making their speciation incomplete)

subspecies (incomplete speciation)

variations of a species that live in different geographic areas, but that will still interbreed if they encounter each other; common example is the rat snake- lives in many different geographic areas in American which causes its variation as a species

tetrapods

vertebrate animals with four limbs

endoskeleton supported by vertebrae (vertebrate traits)

vertebrates have endoskeletons (internal skeletons) made of bone and cartilage that replaces their notochord in development; these skeletons are made of living, growing, strong tissues, which allows for large size and easy movement

internal organs (vertebrate traits)

vertebrates have lungs, liver, kidneys, endocrine glands, stomach, etc. all suspended in a coelem

circulatory system powered by a muscular heart (vertebrate traits)

vertebrates possess a highly advanced circulatory system powered by a muscular heart; good circulation allows vertebrates to be big so they can effectively circulate blood across their large bodies

snails

very common Gastropod with shell

firmicutes

very diverse group of prokaryotes that are gram + with thick cell walls; some can be extremely deadly and toxic, and some can form endospores, which are heat resistant structures that help the organism to survive harsh conditions when needed; these prokaryotes can also remain dormant (inactive) for thousands of years

C. elegans

very famous nematode that exhibits eutely with 959 cells by the time it reaches maximum development; the model organism of the field of developmental biology because of its low cell count that has a limit and its easily observable development

lanceletes (non-vertebral chordates)

very small chordates who use their notochord to burrow- they retain their notochord in adulthood; gonads burst during reproduction; chordate traits can be clearly seen for their whole life

tuataras (reptiles)

very small, rare group of reptiles- used to be widespread, but only two species remaining; they only live on certain islands off the coast of New Zealand

chlamydias

very small, spherical, parasitic cells that cause STDs and other infections; they are obligate parasites, which means they cannot live independently

Nematodes/ Roundworms (Ecydysozoan)

very species rich group- almost 2.5 million estimated to exist; they are typically parasitic and found almost everywhere- all organisms have some kind of parasite of this organism on them; covered by a cuticle that they molt; famous species is called C. elegans, which exhibits eutely

horsehair worms (Ecydysozoan)

very thin worm group that has variable length; can either be free-living in fresh water or parasitic; it is believed that the adults may not eat because they have no mouth and a non-functional gut

viral hereditary material

viruses contain either DNA or RNA, but never both of them

icosahedral virus shape

viruses with this shape have a capsid made up of triangles of protein that form a spherical shape optimal for holding lots of genetic material in as small a space as possible

helical virus shape

viruses with this shape have capsids made of proteins arranged in a helix shape around genetic material

binal virus shape

viruses with this shape have elements of both the icosahedral and helical shape (ex. a virus with a icosahedral head and a helical body structure); normally complex viruses come in this shape

distraction displays (behavioral prey defense)

visual display used to distract predators away from a nesting site or from other individuals of the prey species

reproductive strategy

ways a species uses its energy to produce offspring, helps determine fertility rates; includes factors like mate choice, mating frequency, mate defense, and parental care among other factors; males and females have different strategies for reproduction

what evolutionary force is causing the trends seen in Dawkin's experiment

we don't know which force is causing this trend for sure, but we are deciding from three: 1. speciation in the tropics 2. extinction in the temperate zones 3. immigration of species Dawkins' study asserts that extinction of basal groups who remained in the temperate zones was likely a crucial force because there are very few basal groups seen in the temperate zones today- far fewer than if all of them just simply migrated to the tropics

why do we only spend one day on 2/3rds of the tree of lif

we only spend one day on 2/3rds of the tree of life because we know very little overall about prokaryotes

Strepsirrhini/ wet-nosed primates

wet-nosed primates; they are the most ancient primate group who were once prevalent globally, but now mainly live in Africa (Madagascar) and East Asia; they are aboreal (tree-dwelling) and nocturnal, which causes them to have large eyes with incredible vision so they can see in the trees and in the dark; contains lemurs, galagos/bush babies, and lorises

transcription

when a copy of a DNA strand is transcribed into RNA

intraspecific competition leading to less interspecific

when a species engages in intraspecific competition, its keeps its population low, allowing them to compete less with their interspecific competitors for resources (ex. squirrels and birds- explained separately to save space)

coevolution

when a species evolves due to interactions with another species; the interactions act as a selective pressure (competitor/competitor, predator/prey)

character displacement

when competition leads to a change in a physical trait of a species, which then leads to less physical similarities between the two competing species and eventual coexistence

resource acquisition

when males in a species bring back food and other necessary items to keep their mate and offspring alive; another benefit of the choosy mating process for females

parasitism (symbioses)

when one organism benefits and the other is harmed; most common is one organism eating another (+/-)

predation

when one species eats another; positive for predator and negative for prey; conflict between the two causes prey to develop hiding/evasive strategies and predators to develop location strategies (+/-)

competitive exclusion

when one species wins a competition and permanently eliminates another competitor (ex. Paramecium Aurelia and Caudatum- explained separately)

alarm calling (behavioral prey defense)

when prey make loud calls and noises to alert the entire group that a predator is nearby

Balancing selection

when selection maintains multiple alleles at larger than expected frequencies; two different ways this happens: - heterozygote advantage - negative frequency dependent selection

incomplete speciation

when species still find ways come into contact and interbreed despite having varied phenotypes and being from different habitats or geographical areas (ex. six types of rat snake with different colors and patterns that live in different regions of the United States will still interbreed if they encounter each other)

Klamath weed and chrysolina beetle

when the klamath weed was introduced, it became invasive, so the beetle was brought in to predate it, and the beetle eventually predated the weed to extinction- an example of mutual extinction observed in nature

symbiosis

when two or more organisms interact in more or less permanent relationships

competition

when two or more species need the same resource, and the use of it by one reduces its availability for the other (-/-)

Immigration must be possible to prevent extinction

whether it is concerning oceanic islands or terrestrial islands, immigration must continue so species do not go extinct; if a species is confined to a single area and cannot move between areas to fulfill its resource needs, it will go extinct

both ecological and evolutionary forces support the gradient

while evolutionary factors likely caused the gradient, modern ecological factors maintain it and can change it for the future- nothing suggests that this gradient will remain constant, and the ecological climate shift we are experiencing in modern times can potentially change the gradient drastically in the coming decades

coastal mountains and rain shadows (topography/ elevation)

winds collect moisture as they cross ocean; coastal mountains force warm/wet air upwards, dropping rain as the air cools; the dry air swoops downward on the other side of mountain and warms, creating desert - windward side= lush/moist - leeward= dry/desert-like

Difference between incomplete dominance and codominance

with incomplete dominance, the traits of the parents blend; this blending does not occur with codominance

Given a DNA or RNA transcript, can you "build" a protein

yes you can by using an amino acid table