30 Questions
What is a common characteristic of vertebrate development?
They all go through a fish-like stage
What is the term for structures that are remnants of ancestral traits?
Vestigial structures
What is an example of a vestigial structure in humans?
Appendix
Why do closely related organisms tend to be found in close geographic proximity?
Because they have limited dispersal opportunities
What is the main reason why marsupials dominate the mammalian fauna in Australia?
Because placental mammals were physically separated from the continent
What is a limitation of natural selection?
It can only mold available genetically based variation
What is the primary function of penguins' wings?
Swimming
What is the role of selection in the evolution of a population?
It favors beneficial genetic changes when they occur by chance.
Why is it incorrect to refer to selection as a force?
It implies that the environment pushes a population to a more adapted state.
What is a common pitfall when discussing selection?
Anthropomorphizing on behalf of living things.
What is the implication of referring to selection as a force?
That it has a mind of its own.
What should biologists avoid when discussing animal behavior and evolution?
Imputing conscious motives to animals or genes.
What type of plants dominated the landscape during the Carboniferous and Permian periods?
Ferns and their relatives
What adaptation helped gymnosperms disperse more efficiently?
Evolution of seeds
What was a key modification that contributed to the success of dinosaurs?
Evolution of an upright stance
Why do splay-stanced animals need to stop frequently to breathe?
Their chest cavity is compressed during movement
What benefit did warm-bloodedness provide to dinosaurs?
Increased vigor of movements
What is the evolutionary relationship between birds and dinosaurs?
Birds evolved from sauriscian dinosaurs
What is the average rate of nucleotide substitution per 10^9 years at silent sites?
4.61
What is the common feature shared among the bones of human hands, bat's wings, and whale's flippers?
Similar muscle insertion points and ridges
Why do evolutionary changes in development tend to occur at the periphery of development?
Because changes at the periphery have a lower risk of being deleterious
What is the primary reason for the slower evolution of replacement sites?
Because they are more conserved
What is the implication of sharing similar developmental pathways across different organisms?
They are modified descendants of a common ancestor
What is required for a change in early development to be propagated?
The benefit of the early alteration must outweigh the consequences to later development
What was the major difference between the traits studied by Mendel and biometricians?
Mendel studied discrete traits, while biometricians studied continuously varying traits
What did Hardy and Weinberg's model assume about the alleles?
That all alleles reproduced at the same rate
What did biometricians think about Mendel's laws?
They thought they only held for a few traits
Why did biometricians consider Mendel's traits aberrations?
Because they were not continuous
What was the result of Hardy and Weinberg's independent work?
They showed that the frequency of an allele would not change over time simply due to its being rare or common
What was the significance of Mendel's discovery of discrete genes?
It showed that genes exist at some frequency in natural populations
Learn about the evolution of penguins from flying ancestors and common misconceptions about natural selection, including the concept of selection pressures.
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