Biology Chapter 7 & 8 – Flashcards
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What prompted Darwin to publish his book decades after he began writing it?
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A colleague was about to publish a similar manuscript.
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Who wrote Principles of Geology?
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Charles Lyell
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Prior to the publication of Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species, what was the prevailing public consensus regarding species evolution?
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That species were permanent and unchanging
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Which two observations led Darwin to conclude that there is competition for survival?
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Overproduction and limited resources
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Individuals with variations that make them best suited to their environment will, on average, be more likely to ________
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survive and reproduce
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Others had suggested mechanisms for evolution before Darwin published his work. By what means did Darwin propose species evolved over time?
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Natural Selection
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Why or why is it not accurate to say that individuals evolve?
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It is not accurate because the evolution of one individual would not affect the entire species.
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Can you inherit physical traits that your parents acquired during their lifetime?
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No.
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Why is it inaccurate to say that humans are the most highly evolved species?
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Evolution is not goal oriented. It only acts in response to the present situation and all species, not just people, are equally "evolved" to fit their particular environment.
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What is radiometric dating?
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The process of determining the age of the fossils from radioactive isotopes
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The older fossils are typically found in the ________ sediments.
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Lower
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Have fossils of transitional forms been found?
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Yes, many have been found
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Which of the following are considered to be fossils? 1) Footprints or other impressions preserved in stone 2) Mineralized bones 3) Animals frozen in ice or preserved in amber
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All are true
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Comparing DNA and protein sequences to find evidence of a shared evolutionary history is called ________.
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Bioinformatics
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Comparing the body structures of organisms to find evidence of a shared evolutionary history is called ________.
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Comparative Anatomy
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What is the name for the study of the geographic distribution of species?
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Biogeography
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Why are animals more likely than plants to form new species while still in the presence of the parent population? 1) They can survive with multiple sets of chromosomes. 2) They have more isolating behaviors. 3) Both of these are why animals are more likely than plants to form new species in this situation. 4) Neither of these. Plants are more likely than animals to form new species in this situation.
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4
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What defines a population?
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Interbreeding members of the same species
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What is the original source of variation?
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Mutation
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The modern evolutionary synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s melded together evolutionary theory with ________.
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Genetics
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The varieties of species found on the different Galapagos Islands is most likely an example of which form of speciation?
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Allopatric
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Which of the following might be a cause of sympatric speciation?
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genetic incompatability
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Which model of evolution is closest to what was originally suggested by Charles Darwin?
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Graduated Model
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Which process of evolution does not change the total number of species?
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Non-branching evolution
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Another word for macroevolution is ________.
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Speciation
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A zombie apocalypse wipes out almost the entire human species before the zombie threat is eliminated. Only a group of 100 people who were at a family reunion on an uninhabited island survived. They returned to the mainland completely unaware of what had happened to everyone. Answer the following question regarding the few survivors that now begin to rebuild the human population. Despite an abundance of habitat, why will it be difficult for the human species to recover?
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The reduced genetic diversity will make it difficult for the population to adapt to new diseases or other environmental changes.
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A zombie apocalypse wipes out almost the entire human species before the zombie threat is eliminated. Only a group of 100 people who were at a family reunion on an uninhabited island survived. They returned to the mainland completely unaware of what had happened to everyone. Answer the following question regarding the few survivors that now begin to rebuild the human population. A straggler with green eyes stumbles into the last remaining human outpost. The green eye trait did not exist in the outpost before her arrival, but it does now. What is the name of this mechanism of evolution?
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Gene flow
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A zombie apocalypse wipes out almost the entire human species before the zombie threat is eliminated. Only a group of 100 people who were at a family reunion on an uninhabited island survived. They returned to the mainland completely unaware of what had happened to everyone. Answer the following question regarding the few survivors that now begin to rebuild the human population. Certain traits will have been lost from the gene pool forever. Some may be obvious, like people with red hair or double jointed thumbs. Others will be less obvious, like the ability to process cholesterol or being allergic to peanuts. This loss of diversity in a reduced population is called ________.
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Bottleneck effect
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What events can lead to offspring having a unique arrangement of their parents' genes?
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Crossing over and independent assortment
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What does "fitness" mean when speaking in terms of evolution?
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How many offspring an individual produces
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What is the smallest unit that can evolve?
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The population
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The rapid diversification of species seen in the fossil record followed by long periods of stasis is part of the ________ model of evolution.
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Punctuated equilibrium
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The slow drifting of sections of the earth's crust, sometimes separating, other times colliding, is known as ________.
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Plate tectonics
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What defines a geological time period known as an era?
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The distinct life-forms that were present
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During which geological era did life first appear on the planet?
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Precambrian
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What is the leading hypothesis for what might have brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs?
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An astroid impact
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In many ways a mule is a superior animal to the horse or donkey. They are often stronger and can jump higher than either of their parents. Why then are they considered to be a "weak hybrid"?
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They are sterile.
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Which would be a postzygotic barrier to reproduction?
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Hybrid weakness
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What is the term that defines when the sperm of one species fails to fertilize the egg of a different species?
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Gametic incompatibility
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What is an exception to the standard biological species concept used to define a species?
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Asexual species cannot be distinguished using the concept.
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What do scientists believe was the original genetic material able to copy itself without assistance?
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RNA
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Which was not a gas in Earth's earliest atmosphere? 1) H2 2) NH3 3) CH4 4) O2
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O2
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Many of the organic molecules associated with life can be created spontaneously under certain conditions. What do these conditions resemble?
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Primordial earth
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The origin of the first living organisms is called ________.
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Biogenesis
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True or False? There are more helpful types of bacteria on this planet than harmful types.
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True
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Which was first on the planet, prokaryotes or eukaryotes?
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Prokaryotes
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What is the vector of Lyme disease?
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Ticks
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Food poisoning is often caused by a bacterium called ________.
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Salmonella
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The practice of using bacteria to remove pollutants from the environment is called ________.
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Bioremediation
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Why is the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen (N2 gas) into ammonium (NH4) important for life on this planet?
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Ammonium is a plant nutrient.
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Which statement is true regarding bacteria?
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All pathogenic bacteria are harmful to humans.
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Where would you expect to find methanogens?
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In the digestive tract of cows
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Which organisms are called the extremophiles and flourish in extreme conditions?
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Archaea
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Halophiles are found in which environment?
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Salty
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Plants are in the domain ________.
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Eukarya
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Which are the smallest, least complex cell types?
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Bacteria cells
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What is the strategy used by many prokaryotes for obtaining their energy and their molecular building blocks directly from inorganic chemicals?
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Chemosynthetic
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Some bacteria have a spherical shape, called ________.
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Coccus
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If you looked at unknown cells under a microscope, what could lead you to correctly conclude that they are bacteria cells?
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They lack a nucleus
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Which protective structure forms to protect certain bacteria during periods of harsh conditions?
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Endospore
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By what means do bacterial cells typically divide?
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Binary Fission
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Which is not a method of introducing new genes into a bacterium? 1) Transduction 2) Transformation 3) Binary fission 4) Conjugation
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Binary Fission
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Which version of "bacterial DNA transfer" involves a physical connection between the two bacteria cells?
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Conjugation
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Are all bacteria in a colony genetically identical?
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No, there are ways for bacteria to acquire new genetic material.
