Evolution and Migration Quiz

Natural selection favoring individuals with extreme traits, leading to a bimodal distribution.

Reduces the availability of small seeds, promoting survival of birds with large beaks for cracking hard seeds.

Process where organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce

Beneficial trait arising from natural selection. Helps organisms survive and reproduce.

Beak changes don't happen in a single generation, or by birds consciously trying to change.

Massive storm damage to meadowlark nests causes a significant drop in population size, and the resulting change in the frequency of traits (alleles) in the surviving population is an example of genetic drift and the bottleneck effect.

A sharp reduction in population size, resulting in a change in allele frequencies, often due to environmental disaster or human intervention.

Random changes in allele frequencies within a population, especially prominent in smaller populations.

Adaptations beneficial in one habitat may not be equally beneficial in others, as the precise environmental needs for survival change.

A specific type of genetic drift where a small group of individuals establishes a new isolated population, carrying a potentially different set of alleles compared to the original larger population.

The collection of all genes in a population.

A trait that increases an organism's chance of survival and reproduction in a specific environment.

Adaptation occurs when traits help organisms better survive in a particular place and time.

Species sharing a more recent common ancestor and more similar characteristics.

A diagram illustrating evolutionary relationships among species.

These species are likely more closely related evolutionarily, sharing a more recent common ancestor.

The connections between species based on their shared ancestry.

Relatively distant evolutionary relationship indicated by their placement in a phylogenetic tree.

The movement of different ethnic groups and cultures increases genetic variety in a country, creating a diverse population.

Some cave-dwelling creatures have lost their eyes over time due to Natural Selection.

Tapeworms have lost their digestive system due to changes in lifestyle which they don't need anymore.

Whales have lost their hind limbs, due to evolution and adapting to a new environment/way of life.

Natural selection leads to changes in species over time, as adaptations become more or less beneficial in different environments.

Body parts that have lost their original function over time due to reduced benefits.

Natural selection can lead to the loss of traits when the costs of possessing those traits outweigh their benefits.

In environments where sight is unnecessary, organisms may evolve to lose their eyes over generations.

If a tapeworm absorbs nutrients directly from its host, a digestive system becomes unnecessary and can be lost through evolution.

In the aquatic environment, hind limbs are not useful and can evolve to be lost when there's a reduced benefit.

Salamanders along the California Coast diversified into separate species due to geographic isolation.

Speciation that occurs when populations are geographically separated.

Species can't interbreed because males are too small for amplexus.

Costs of structures outweigh benefits, lead to evolutionary loss of the structure.

A type of prezygotic barrier where physical incompatibility prevents mating. This occurs when the reproductive structures of two species are incompatible, like differing sizes or shapes of genitalia.

Prezygotic barriers prevent the formation of a zygote (fertilized egg) while postzygotic barriers occur after fertilization and result in hybrid offspring with reduced viability or fertility.

A genetic cross that tracks the inheritance of a single trait, involving parents that differ in only one characteristic.

During gamete formation, alleles for different traits separate independently of each other, resulting in a variety of possible allele combinations.

Mendel determined that each pair of alleles is inherited independently of other allele pairs during gamete production. This means that traits are passed down independently of one another.

The study of the geographical distribution of species and how it relates to their evolutionary history.

The measure of an organism's reproductive success, assessed by the number of offspring it produces that survive to reproduce.

The process where unrelated species evolve similar traits or adaptations due to similar environmental pressures.

The number of offspring that survive to reproduce.

It helps explain the distribution of species and how their traits are shaped by geographical factors.

A genetic cross involving two different traits, each with two alleles. For example, a cross between a pea plant with round, yellow seeds and one with wrinkled, green seeds.

States that alleles for different traits are inherited independently of each other, meaning the inheritance of one trait doesn't influence the inheritance of another.

The plant has the homozygous recessive genotype 'dd'. This means it inherited two recessive alleles for leaf color from its parents, resulting in light green leaves.

This means the plant is either heterozygous (Dd) or homozygous dominant (DD) for the leaf color gene. Both these combinations result in the dominant phenotype: dark green leaves.

Each gene has two alleles, one from each parent. The alleles are alternative forms of the gene, determining specific traits.