Darwin's Voyage of Discovery
Who observed variations in the characteristics of plants and animals on different islands of the Galapagos?
Who is Charles Darwin?
According to Malthus, what factors limit population growth?
What is war, famine, and disease?
An inherited characteristic that increases an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in its specific environment is called what?
What is an adaptation?
Structures that have different mature forms but developed from the same embryonic tissue are called?
What are homologous structures?
Why was Darwin puzzled by the fact that there were no rabbits in Australia?
What is because some Australian habitats seemed to be ideal for rabbits, and similar grasslands in Europe had rabbits?
In addition to observing living organisms, Darwin studied the preserved remains of ancient organisms called?
What are fossils?
What would an animal breeder use to increase the number of cows that give the most milk?
What is artificial selection?
How well an organisms survives and reproduces in its environment can be described as its what?
Intermediate fossil forms are important evidence of evolution because they show what?
What is how organisms changed over time?
Why did Malthus's ideas apply to other organisms better than they did to humans?
What is other organisms can produce many more offspring over their lifetimes than humans?
What connection did Darwin make between the Galapagos tortoises and their environments?
What is closely related Galapagos tortoises exhibited different traits depending on the environment of the island where they lived?
Which ideas proposed by Lamarck were later found to be incorrect?
What is acquired characteristics can be inherited and organisms have an inherit drive to become perfect?
How does natural variation affect evolution?
What is variation is necessary gif some organisms are to have greater fitness than others and to have a greater chance of passing on their traits to the next generation?
How does the geographic distribution of organisms support the theory of evolution?
What is patterns in the distribution of living and fossil species show how modern organisms evolved from their ancestors?
How does the process of natural selection account for the diversity of organisms that Darwin observed on the Galapagos Islands?
What is the Galapagos Islands varied in their environments, so organisms with different traits were better suited for different islands. Over time, natural selection for different traits on each island led to variation in species?
Explain what the term evolution means and given an example.
What is evolution means change over time? Example: The change over time in some bacteria that allows them to resist drugs (or other example given).
How did Lyell's Principles of Geology influence Darwin?
What is Lyell proposed that Earth is extremely old and processes that changed Earth in the past are still at work today, which allowed for the great time span Darwin believed was necessary for evolution to occur and provided a geological analogy for biological evolution?
Describe the conditions necessary for natural selection to occur?
What is for natural selection to occur, there must be overproduction of offspring and variation among heritable traits in organisms, and these variations must correlate to differences in fitness?
How do vestigial structures indicate that present day organisms are different from their ancient ancestors?
What is because these features are remnants of structures that functioned in the organisms ancestors?
Describe three lines of evidence that support the theory of evolution by natural selection.
What is geologic distribution of species, the fossil record, homologous structures, embryology, the universal genetic code in DNA and RNA, and the results of the Grant's investigation of the Galapagos finches?
What is Darwin's trip allowed him to observe, in a variety of habitats, patterns of biodiversity that result from evolution by natural selection?
How did the concept of artificial selection influence Darwin's thinking?
What is artificial selection showed Darwin how heritable traits of organisms could change over time?
Distinguish between fitness and adaptation. How are the two concepts related?
What is fitness refers to how well an individual scan survive and reproduce in its environment relative to other individuals of the same species. Adaptation refers to any heritable characteristic that increases an organism's fitness?
How do DNA and RNA provide evidence for common descent?
What is the universal genetic code in DNA and RNA shows that all living species descended from an ancient common ancestor?
In all animals with backbones, oxygen is carried in blood by a molecule called hemoglobin. What could this physiological similarity indicate about the evolutionary history of animals with backbones (vertebrates)?
What is the fact that the same molecule carries oxygen in the blood of all vertebrates indicates that all vertebrates have a common ancestor?