Ecology

can happen whenever any of the conditions for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium are not met.

Evolution

Well-adapted individuals leave more offspring, and thus contribute more to the next generation's gene pool, than do poorly adapted individuals.

Natural selection

Members of two different species possess a similar-looking structure that they use in a similar fashion to perform the same function. Which information would best help distinguish between an explanation based on homology versus one based on convergent evolution?

The two species share many proteins in common, and the nucleotide sequences that codes for these proteins are almost identical.

Allows new species to occupy different habitats

adaptive radiation

Two plant species live in the same biome but on different continents. Although the two species are not at all closely related, they may appear quite similar as a result of

convergent evolution.

You are maintaining a small population of fruit flies in the laboratory by transferring the flies to a new culture bottle after each generation. After several generations, you notice that the viability of the flies has decreased greatly. Recognizing that small population size is likely to be linked to decreased viability, the best way to reverse this trend is to...

cross yours with some from another lab.

Which of the following is most likely to produce an African butterfly species in the wild whose members have one of two strikingly different color patterns?

disruptive selection

If one excludes the involvement of gender in the situation described in the paragraph above, then the pattern that is apparent in the fossil record is most similar to one that should be expected from...

disruptive selection.

Ichthyosaurs were aquatic dinosaurs. Fossils show us that they had dorsal fins and tails, as do fish, even though their closest relatives were terrestrial reptiles that had neither dorsal fins nor aquatic tails. The dorsal fins and tails of ichthyosaurs and fish are

examples of convergent evolution and adaptations of the environment.

Although each of the following has a better chance of influencing gene frequencies in small populations than in large populations, which one most consistently requires a small population as a precondition for its occurrence?

genetic drift