Evolution, Fitness, and Adaptation

• Evolution happens over time
• Fitness refers to the ability to survive, find a mate, and reproduce.
• Fitness depends on adaptation.
• Adaptation is a heritable trait that helps an organism survive better in its environment.
• Adaptations enable individuals to survive long enough to pass down favorable genes.
• The reproductive adaptation of frogs or fish laying thousands of eggs increases fitness because many individuals survive.

Evidence for Evolution: Fossil Record

• Letters A and B likely represent fossils.
• A and B did not live at the same time.
• B is older than A.
• Evolution happened relatively rapidly between A and B given the difference in appearance.
• Sample B is older and lived in a certain habitat while Sample A lived in a different one.
• Differences in appearance between samples A and B suggest different variations based on different habitats.

Evidence for Evolution: Molecular and Structural Homology

• Homologous strands of DNA have similar structures.
• DNA sequences can be matched in almost every living thing because they all use DNA bases.
• Humans and chimpanzees have the most recent common ancestor based on homologous DNA similarities.
• Adaptation to different environments helps explain the differences between species.
• Analogous structures have similar functions but different structure.
• Homologous structures have similar structure but different functions.
• Homologous structures indicate a common ancestor.
• Homologous structures show similar structures used for different functions, indicating divergent evolution.
• Analogous structures show similar functions but different internal structures, indicating convergent evolution.

Evolutionary Genetics

• The yellow allele would likely increase in the population.
• The scenario with parrots blown away to a new island is an example of the founder effect.
• The increase of blue parrots from 45% to 65% is likely an example of gene flow.
• Mutations create new traits in a population's genetics.
• Whether or not that allele increased an organism's fitness determines a new mutant allele will increase in a population.
• Reproductive isolation is defined as being genetically unable to produce viable offspring together.
• A population of mice separated by a new river is most likely to lead to two new species forming from a common ancestor

Biogeography and Common Ancestors

• The common ancestor for all the lizard species originally came from Africa.
• Lanzarote was likely the first island colonized.
• Green lizards are more fit in jungle environments, so there will be more of them.
• Adaptive radiation is a process by which one species rapidly adapted to fill many different niches.
• If two populations are separated by a geographic barrier, the chance of speciation increases.
• Species with greater genetic diversity will adapt faster to changing environments.
• All of the genetic variations in a population represent the gene pool.
• Only disruptive selection results in new species.
• Immigration into a population increases genetic diversity.
• Gradualism is the idea that evolution happens in bursts, with stasis in between.
• Punctuated equilibrium is the idea that evolution happens in bursts, with long periods of stasis in between.
• Meiosis would increase genetic diversity by randomizing parents' genes into new combinations.
• Fitness is the ability to survive, find a mate, and have offspring.

Types of Selection

• Disruptive selection, stabilizing selection, and directional selection are types of selection
• Disruptive selection most likely leads to speciation.
• Species B is more closely related to species C.
• Species E and G are likely not very related despite having similar names.
• Spongebobensis formus and plankton plantoni are the two species from Bikini Bottom that are least related.
• The common ancestor for Spongbob and Patrick would be at point B in the cladogram.
• The presence of a shirt wouldn't be evidence of a common ancestor.
• Patrick doesn't have a shirt, so it likely occurred after their branches diverged
• The trait being selected for in this scenario is color.
• The trait with initially had a higher frequency in the gene pool would be white.
• As more pollution is controlled, there would be less dark trees, which means less black moths and more white moths.