Natural Selection Test

Define adaptation.

A change in which an organism becomes better suited to an environment.

Explain Darwin's findings.

Darwin found that species have changed over time, different shells on tortoises on different islands, all different types of birds, but all 14 species of birds he discovered were finches but only one species of finches on the mainland.

Who was Lamarck?

He was a French naturalist who proposed a theory that organisms were driven by some inner force toward greater complexity, but he also thought that original species could pass on traits to their offspring that they acquired during their lives.

Who was Charles Darwin?

He was the father of Evolution and proposed a way in how species evolved.

What is Darwinism?

It is a theory of the evolution of species by natural selection advanced by Charles Darwin.

What is stratigraphy?

It is when fossils from organisms that died longer ago are buried deeper in the sediment/rock than fossils from organisms that died more recently.

At one time, there were bright colored termites and dark colored termites. However, after several generations, termite populations now consist almost entirely of dark colored members. Identify the concept and explain how it occurred in the termite population.

Natural selection is the cause of this because the lighter ones are easier for the predators to find making the dark ones reproduce and pass on the trait.

What is natural selection? Give examples.

Organisms that are better adapted to an environment are more likely to survive and reproduce than animals that are less well adapted. One example is that there are red and green bugs living in the same area but the birds prefer the taste of red bugs so the green bugs reproduce while the red bugs population decreases.

What other factors besides natural selection may affect a population upsetting genetic equilibrium?

Other factors would be a genetic drift, mutation, nonrandom mating, and migration.

What factors affect natural selection?

Overproduction, Competition ("Struggle for existence") Variation, and Survival to reproduce ("Survival of the Fittest")

How do new species form?

Some are formed by natural selection, continental drift, changes in the environment, mutations, and man.

Penicillin is a drug that kills bacteria. Today, many bacteria are resistant to this drug. How does natural selection best explain this observation?

Some of the bacteria must have survived and reproduced, and passed their traits.

Describe how an adaptation, such as better running speed, relates to natural selection.

Someone/something with better running speed is more likely to win a race than someone who is lazy and not adapted.

Why is Lamarck's theory wrong?

Species inherit traits instead of acquiring them.

The praying mantis has few predators. Yet it is adapted to look just like the twigs and small branches where it is usually found. Explain how this adaptation helps the praying mantis survive.

The predators won't be able to notice them because of their camouflage as well as sneaking up on their prey without them noticing.

Name and explain the different patterns of evolution.

There is divergence which is when new species develop traits that differentiate them from their ancestors. There is convergent which is when untreated animals develop similar body forms to fill same niche. Finally there is adaptive radiation which is when mammals filled the ecological niches vacated by dinosaurs.

Explain the evidence that exists regarding evolution.

There is fossil records which are how fossils form. There is similarities in body structure which is when 2 organisms have a similar body structure then they must have a common ancestor. Then there is similarities in early development which is when scientists look at embryos of different organisms and find that many resemble one another. Then there is vestigial structure which is a structure found in an organism that is no longer in use but may have been useful at some point in the organism's life. Then there are similarities in DNA. The more similar the sequences of DNA are the more closely related the organisms are.

Vestigial structures have little or no function for an organism. How do these structures provide evidence for evolution?

These structure provide evidence of evolution because they show what the animals aren't using now but used in the past meaning they evolved.

Explain the importance of rocks that contain fossils.

They contain important information on the history of Earth. Evidence of evolution.

Explain how fossils provide information about extinct species.

They gave us an idea of what they might have looked like back then and how different plants and animals were back then as well as how long has life existed on Earth.

What observations did Lamarck made?

Use it or lose it which means individuals lose characteristics they don't require and develop those which are useful. The other one was inheritance of acquired traits which means individuals inherit the acquired traits of their ancestor.