Evolution (Chapters 16-17)
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taytaymarmarriesries on May 29, 2012
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5 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Describe the process of evolution. Define fitness, adaption, variation, and natural selection. | Process of Evolution: (variation needs to be present) The animal's fitness, which is based on its adaptions, will determine natural selection. The process of evolution is driven by natural selection. Adaptions need to be good enough to enable an organism to pass its genes to the next generation. Fitness: how well an organism can survive and reproduce in its environment Adaption: heritable characteristic that increases an organism''s ability to survive and reproduce in an environment Variation: differences of characteristics ins a population Natural Selection: process by which organisms that are most to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully |
| What is a vestigial organ? Why are they important in supporting the theory of eveolution? | vestigial organ: homologous structure that has lost its original purpose because of different requirements of the current generation important: Darwin realized similar patterns of embryological development offer clues that organisms descend from a common ancestor |
| Why is variation important in biology? How do mutations help increase the variation in a population? How does sexual reproduction help increase the variation in a population? | Variation is important because it is the raw material for natural selection and the evolution of a population over time Mutations: introduce new types of variation to whole population Sexual Reproduction: different genotypes are created in each generation (recombination) |
| Describe the three major types of selection. | Directional Selection: individual at one end of the distribution curve have higher fitness that at the middle or other end Stabilizing Selection: individual near the center have higher fitness than either end Disruptive Selection: individual at upper and lower ends of curve have higher fitness that an individual in the middle |
| Explain how genetic drift, gene flow, geographic isolation, the founder effect, and the bottleneck effect are important in evolution. | genetic drift - source of evolutionary change in a small population gene flow - disrupts genetic equilibrium geographic isolation - results in a new species founder effect - allows small populations to flourish into a large, diverse one bottleneck effect - sharply reduce genetic diversity of a population (BAD THING) |
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