Genetic Inheritance
What do we call the physical trait you can see, like eye color or hair type?
Genotype or Phenotype
Phenotype
What device do scientists use to predict the chances of offspring having certain traits (a simple 2x2 chart)?
Punnett square.
What word describes the gradual change in living things over long periods of time?
Evolution
In natural selection, who decides which individuals survive and reproduce more: people or the environment?
The environment.
What is an adaptation?
A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce in its environment.
What is the name of a pair of instructions for a trait that come from a parent and are found in an organism's cells?
A. Gene
B. Phenotype
C. Allele
D. Homozygous
C. Allele
If tall (T) is dominant and short (t) is recessive, what is the expected chance that two parents with Tt will have a tall child? (Answer in percent)
75% chance (3 out of 4).
Name one kind of evidence scientists use to show that many species share a common ancestor (simple example).
Examples: fossils, similar bone structures, DNA similarities.
Name one of the three conditions required for natural selection (choose from: overproduction, inherited variation, struggle to survive).
Any one: overproduction, inherited variation, struggle to survive.
Name one physical adaptation and one behavioral adaptation
Physical: sharp teeth; Behavioral: migration.
Dominant Traits are represented by what?
Capital Letters
Draw a Punnett square for parents Tt and tt. Which offspring genotypes appear?
Square shows Tt and tt possibilities; genotypes: 50% Tt, 50% tt.
What happens to a population over many generations if individuals with a helpful trait survive and have more babies?
The helpful trait becomes more common; population changes over generations.
Explain in one sentence how pesticide or antibiotic resistance is an example of natural selection.
Individuals with resistance survive and reproduce, so resistance becomes common.
How might a long beak help a bird survive in an area with many small, deep flowers?
A long beak can reach nectar deep inside flowers, giving that bird food other birds can't get.
What is the name of the European Scientist that studied pea plants to determine genetic inheritance?
Gregor Mendel
What would we call these alleles? (RR)
Homozygous Dominant
What does genetic variation mean?
Differences in genes among individuals (example: some children have curly hair, others straight).
If food becomes scarce, which type of individuals are more likely to survive—those best suited to find the new food or those not suited?
Best Suited to find the new foods
True or false: Adaptations always happen because an individual decides to change. Explain your answer in one sentence.
False — adaptations result from changes in the population over generations, not choices by individuals.
What are the type types of Alleles?
Dominant and Recessive (T and t)
Correctly complete a punnett square to cross a Homozygous Recessive parent with a Heterozygous parent.
(Use the letters B and b)
Bb Bb
bb bb
How could geographic isolation (like an island) cause populations of the same animal to become different over a long time?
Isolation can stop gene flow; each group adapts to its island environment and can become different species over long time.
Give an example of how Natural Selection works?
If a forest of birch trees (trees with white bark) is home to white and black moths. The Black moths will eventually die off because they are easier to spot by predators.
Describe in two sentences how a change in the environment (like a long drought) could change the number of individuals in a species and lead to different adaptations over time.
Drought can reduce food and water, so fewer individuals survive; those with traits that help survive drought reproduce more, causing those traits to become more common; over many generations this can change the population and lead to new adaptations or even fewer individuals.