Exam 1 Review

Lecture 2+4

100

Rosemary Grant and Peter Grant

What is Daphne Major, Finches, La Niña, and El Nino 

200

main events of the paleozoic era

what is the Cambrian explosion, first land plants and animals, and permian extinction

300

the proximity problem

what is clay and protobionts

400

five factors necessary for natural selection 

what is 

1) Individuals vary
2. Populations tend to overbreed relative
to available resources, leading to a
struggle for survival
3. Better variations have better survival
(survival of the fittest)
4. Survivors will reproduce and non-
survivors won’t
5. Traits leading to better survival and
reproduction must be heritable.

500

the four steps to formation of life

1) abiotic synthesis of organic materials (miller and Urey)

2)formation of polymers (clay)

3)formation of protobionts (liposomes)

4)origin of hereditary material (RNA)

Lecture 3

100

The Invisible Hand

What is Adam Smith

200

Use and disuse and importance of acquired traits

What is Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

300

Role of disasters in populations and food supplies

Thomas Malthus 

400

The Great Geological cycle 

What is James Hutton

500

Malaya Archipelago 

 Alfred Wallace

Lecture 5+6

100

phenotype and genotype

what is an individual's physical appearance vs an individual's genetic makeup

200

Polygenic Inheritance 

what is Traits can be controlled by multiple factors

300

crossing over occurs during 

What is Meiosis

400

The Central Dogma

DNA to RNA to Protein

500

Mendel's three laws

The Principle of Segregation –
Two alleles segregate during gamete
formation to be rejoined at random during
fertilization

The Principle of Independent Assortment –
In a dihybird cross the alleles of each gene
assort independently

Law of Dominance: In cases where two different alleles for a trait are present, one allele may be dominant and mask the effect of the other, recessive allele. The dominant allele determines the organism's appearance for that trait

Lecture 7+8

100

Handicap principle and runaway selection 

Handicap Principle:

• Definition: Suggests that costly, extravagant traits in animals (like a peacock's tail) serve as honest signals of fitness because only the strongest individuals can afford the "handicap" of carrying these traits.
• Effect: Signals to potential mates that the individual is strong and healthy, despite or because of their costly trait.
• Example: A male peacock’s large, colorful tail is a handicap because it makes it harder to escape predators, but also shows it’s healthy enough to survive with it.

2. Runaway Selection:

• Definition: Describes a feedback loop where a particular trait becomes increasingly exaggerated over generations due to a preference for it by mates, regardless of its practical function.
• Effect: Leads to traits becoming extreme, driven by mate choice rather than survival benefit.
• Example: Female preference for long-tailed male birds leads to ever longer tails, even if it eventually becomes impractical for survival.

Both concepts explain how sexual selection can drive the evolution of exaggerated traits, but the Handicap Principlefocuses on the cost as a sign of fitness, while Runaway Selection emphasizes mate preferences driving traits to extremes.

200

Types of selection

Stabilizing Selection: Favors the average traits in a population, selecting against extreme variations

Directional Selection: Favors one extreme trait, leading to a shift in the population toward that extreme

Disruptive Selection: Favors individuals at both extremes of a trait, while selecting against the average

300

Founder effect

what is population genetics that occurs when a small group of individuals separates from a larger population to establish a new population. This small "founding" group may carry only a limited genetic variation compared to the original, larger population. As a result, the new population's gene pool may significantly differ from the source population, leading to reduced genetic diversity

400

3 types of point mutation and 1 other type of mutation

• Silent mutation: The change does not affect the amino acid due to the redundancy in the genetic code.
• Missense mutation: The change results in a different amino acid being incorporated into the protein.
• Nonsense mutation: The change introduces a premature stop codon, terminating protein synthesis early.
• frameshift: disrupts the reading frame, shifting it and altering how the entire sequence downstream is translated into amino acids

500

Changes in allele frequncies 

What is 

1. Gene flow
2. Non-random mating
3. Genetic drift (founder and bottleneck)
4. Mutation
5. Selection

Lecture 9+10

100

Reproductive isolating mechnisms 

pre zygotic: 

1. Habitat (AKA Geographic or ecological)
2. Temporal
3. Behavioral
4. Mechanical
5. Gametic

postzygotic: Hybrid inviability and hybrid infertility 

200

Parsimony

1. A preference for the least complicated
explanation for a particular phenomenon
2. A phylogeny that requires the fewest
independent evolutionary events

In short, parsimony favors simplicity when multiple explanations are possible.

300

Isolation of species

dispersal isolation (founder)- Occurs when a small group of individuals from a population moves to a new area, becoming geographically isolated from the original population

vicariance isolation- Happens when a geographic barrier (like a river, mountain range, or tectonic event) divides a population into two isolated groups

In dispersal, individuals move to new areas, while in vicariance, an environmental change splits a population, but both processes can lead to geographic isolation and eventual speciation.

400

same evolutionary relationship?

lecture 10 slide 19

No!

500

Homoplasious Traits, Homologous Traits, and Analogous Traits

Homoplasious Traits:

• Definition: Traits that are similar in different species due to convergent evolution or evolutionary reversals, rather than common ancestry

Homologous Traits:

• Definition: Traits that are similar due to shared ancestry. These traits can serve different functions in different species but arise from the same underlying structure

Analogous Traits:

• Definition: Traits that are similar in function and appearance but have evolved independently in different species, often due to similar environmental pressures (convergent evolution)