"Doing Biology"
Phylogenetics & Tree Thinking
Evolution by Natural Selection
Evolutionary Processes
Evolutionary thought
100
1 kilometer is equal to _____ meters
1000
100
In a phylogenetic tree, the species or group that is least related to the others and branches off first is called this.
an outgroup
100
This phenomenon in biology and many other sciences is known as "the changing of allele frequencies over time."
Evolution
100
This is known as the ultimate source of variation.
Mutations
100
This English naturalist developed the theory of evolution by natural selection and published On the Origin of Species in 1859.
Charles Darwin
200
Hypothesis testing starts with the _______________, ie no "significant" difference between treatments.
null hypothesis
200
The point where two branches split on a phylogenetic tree, representing a common ancestor.
node
200
This kind of trait is what remains in a population as a reduced or incompletely developed structure that once had a much larger function to an ancestral population.
Vestigial traits
200
This is the evolutionary process that occurs as a result of a large part of a population dying off, or being "subsampled."
genetic drift
200
These population geneticists developed a fundamental equation that describes how allele frequencies remain constant in the absence of evolutionary forces.
Hardy and Weinberg
300
In an experiment, the variable that is deliberately changed by the researcher.
independent variable
300
What type of phyletic group is this?
Paraphyletic
300
This term describes the process where species diversify by filling different ecological roles in an environment.
niche differentiation
300
The Old Order Amish of Pennsylvania have a high frequency of Ellis-van Creveld syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes extra fingers or toes. This is because the Amish population originated from a small number of German immigrants. What is the phenomenon that is occurring in this scenario?
the Founder effect
300
Who was Darwin influenced by in his writing on radiometric dating and the vastness of geologic time?
Lyell
400
This principle states that a scientific hypothesis must be capable of being proven false through experimentation or observation.
Falsifiability
400
Shared derived traits, or _________, are used to diagnose clades/monophyletic groups.
Synapomorphy
400
When individuals with the average form of a trait are favored over extreme forms, this type of selection occurs.
stabilizing selection
400
What are the five conditions that must be met for a population to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?
-The population must have no natural selection
- The population must have only random mating (no nonrandom)
- The population must have no genetic drift
-The population must have no mutations
-the population must have no gene flow.
400
What were two main problems with Darwin's original thinking on evolution?
He knew nothing about mutation nor genetics
500
This term describes a factor that varies systematically with the independent variable and may produce misleading experimental results.
Confounding variable
500
How does homoplasy support the idea of convergent evolution?
Homoplasy occurs when similar traits evolve separately for reasons other than lineage. This shows that traits can evolve due to lifestyle and environmental conditions.
500
Determine what is incorrect in the following statement: Deer mice living on beaches mutated their genes so that they could have white fur color, providing better camouflage to survive on beaches.
Mutations do not occur because an organism wants or needs them. They just happen by random chance (usually caused by a molecular accident) and can be beneficial, neutral, or deleterious.
500
In the 1700s and 1800s, royalty in Europe often married their close relatives; furthermore, recessive genetic diseases such as hemophilia showed up much more often among royals than in the general population. Explain the likely connection.
When closely related individuals mate, the chances of inheriting two copies of a recessive gene, which would otherwise be rare, significantly increases, leading to a higher occurrence of recessive genetic disorders like hemophilia.
500
What three traits are evidence of descent from a single common ancestor?
Gene structure, developmental homology, and structural homology.