The Basics
What is evolution?
The change in allele frequencies in a population over time.
What evolves, individuals or populations?
populations
This random process, especially common in small populations, can cause allele frequencies to shift dramatically.
What is genetic drift?
The process where separated populations diverge and can no longer interbreed.
What is speciation?
Within a species, no two individuals (except identical siblings) are exactly alike. Some of this variation is heritable
What is genetic variation?
What is a population?
All organisms of the same species living and interbreeding in the same geographical area.
Does evolution always result in speciation?
no
The two examples of genetic drift: a small part of a population surviving a catastrophe and a new population started by a few individuals.
What are population bottlenecks and the founder effect?
The concept that defines a species as a group of interbreeding populations that are reproductively isolated from other groups.
What is the Biological Species Concept?
Every habitat contains limited supplies of the resources required for survival.
limited resources
What is an allele?
An alternative form of a gene.
No, The correct way to think about it is that individuals with advantageous traits have more offspring, causing those traits to become more common over time
The movement of alleles between populations, which can reduce genetic differences between them.
What is gene flow?
The divergence of many new species from a single ancestral species.
What is adaptive radiation?
More individuals are born than survive to reproduce
What is overproduction of offspring?
What is fitness?
The concept of reproductive success, which includes surviving, reproducing, and having offspring that also reproduce.
Evolution is about what is coming in the future
wrong, Evolution is not about what's coming, but is a response to the past
The type of mating that occurs when a species chooses a mate based on certain traits or humans select for specific traits in a species.
What is nonrandom mating?
The single ancestral species that gives rise to many new species during adaptive radiation.
What is a common ancestor?
Individuals compete for the limited resources that enable them to survive
What is the struggle for existence?
What is natural selection?
The process where nature selects for reproductive success, requiring variation in traits, heritability, and differing fitness levels among individuals.
What process is random, mutations or natural selection?
mutations
Unlike natural selection, this evolutionary force increases genetic variation by introducing new alleles.
What are mutations?
This key component of the Biological Species Concept ensures that different species cannot produce viable, fertile offspring together.
What is reproductive isolation?
over many generations, a population's characteristics can change by natural selection, even giving to new species.
what is descent with modification?