Voyage of Discovery
The process by which organisms have changed over time?
Evolution
James Hutton recognized that the Earth was much older than initially thought. How did this affect Darwin's thoughts about life on Earth?
Any heritable characteristic that increases an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in its environment is called
an adaptation
Many owls have serrations on the back side of each feather. This helps owls fly quietly. This is an example of:
a) variation
b) natural selection
c) a beneficial mutation
d) an adaptation
adaptation
What organelle makes proteins?
ribosomes
What did Darwin mean by "species vary globally?" (The ostriches and rheas example)
Similar, but slightly different, species are found in similar environments around the globe.
Charles Lyell coined this term meaning that laws of nature are constant over time and scientists must explain past events in terms of processes they can observe in the present.
uniformitarianism
The measure of how well an organism can survive and reproduce is known as the organism's
fitness
Explain why the following example is- or is not- an example of biological fitness.
A cheetah can run much faster than its prey- the antelope. Therefore, cheetah will have energy to reproduce.
Fitness is a relative measurement among members of a species or population.
How do the daughter cells differ from mitosis and meiosis?
Number of cells: mitosis (2) meiosis (4)
Amount of DNA: mitosis (diploid) meiosis (haploid)
Variation: mitosis (identical DNA) meiosis (different DNA)
What did Darwin mean by species vary locally? (Example of the two different tortoises.)
What can you predict using Lyell's principle of uniformitarianism in the following statement: subduction zones create volcanoes.
Subduction zones created volcanoes in the ancient Earth.
The struggle for existence is how Darwin described individuals within a _____________ to compete over a limited amount of resources.
population
Explain why the following example is- or is not- an example of biological fitness.
Female octopuses can lay up to 200,000 eggs at a time, but the female will die after the eggs hatch. Therefore, octopuses have a low fitness.
Fitness is mostly concerned with reproducing. Therefore, one octopus making 200,000 could be considered a high biological fitness.
Arrange these levels of biological organization from smallest to largest.
biome, cells, community, ecosystem, organ systems, organism, organs, population, tissues
cells => tissues => organs => organ systems => organisms => population => community => ecosystem => biome
Darwin used the fossil of the glyptodont to illustrate this point?
Species vary over time.
Traits altered by an individual organism during that organisms lifetime are called
Acquired traits
The process by which organisms with variations most suited to their local environment survive and leave more offspring is called
natural selection
What is the difference between "common descent" and "descent with modification?"
Common descent refers to the fact that all living organisms are descended from one common ancestor.
Descent with modification means that the offspring have phenotypic variations from their parents' generation.
List three differences between the structure of DNA and RNA.
DNA: double stranded, deoxyribose, thymine
RNA: single stranded, ribose, uracil
What did Darwin learn after sending the wren, warbler, and blackbird specimens to a bird expert after returning home from his travels on the HMS Beagle?
They are all finches!
What two processes create variation for artificial or natural selection?
mutations and crossing over
Living species are descended with modification from common ancestors is called
descent with modification
The carrying capacity for a certain population of fish in Lake Freeman is 2000 adult fish. There are currently 500 adult fish and 200 baby fish (also called fry). Describe if natural selection is occurring in this fish population.
Natural selection is not occurring because the fish are not in "the struggle for existence" because their population is below the carrying capacity of the lake.
The 3-D arrangement of one polypeptide chain in a protein is which level of protein structure?
tertiary (the third level)