Natural Selection IRL
A population changes when individuals with certain traits survive and reproduce more successfully.
What is natural selection?
Which rock layer is oldest according to the Law of Superposition?
The bottom layer.
Structures with similar bone patterns but different functions are called ________.
Homologous structures.
Who proposed natural selection?
Charles Darwin
What is the strongest evidence for evolution?
DNA
Why do bacteria become resistant to antibiotics over time?
Resistant bacteria survive and reproduce.
What does the fossil record show about life on Earth?
Organisms have changed over time.
True or False: Homologous structures suggest common ancestry.
True
Who believed acquired traits could be inherited?
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
Why is DNA strong evidence for relatedness?
Similar sequences indicate common ancestry.
Does the environment create new traits?
No, it selects from existing variation.
Why are simpler organisms found in deeper rock layers?
They lived earlier in Earth’s history.
Structures with similar functions but different origins are called ________.
Analogous structures.
Which tenet of natural selection did Lamarck’s ideas conflict with?
Inheritance
What does high DNA similarity between species suggest?
They are closely related.
Which condition is REQUIRED for natural selection to occur?
Traits must be inherited.
How do fossils support evolution?
They show gradual change and transitional forms.
True or False: Analogous structures indicate close evolutionary relationships.
False
Why was Lamarck’s hypothesis rejected?
Acquired traits are not passed genetically.
Which provides more accurate evolutionary relationships: anatomy or DNA?
DNA
Explain why individuals do NOT evolve, but populations do.
Individuals don’t change genetically over their lifetime; populations shift trait frequencies over generations.
If two fossils are found at different depths, how can you infer their relative ages?
Deeper fossils are older
Give one example of a vestigial structure and what it shows.
Appendix; shows traits inherited from ancestors.
How does natural selection lead to evolution?
Favorable traits increase in frequency over generations.
How does DNA evidence support the fossil record?
Both show patterns of shared ancestry and change over time.