AP Biology Evolution Chapter 19 Descent with Modification In Focus

1. How did Darwin define evolution?

2. How do biologists define evolution today in a more narrow way?

3. What were the prevailing ideas about the origins of life prior to Darwin’s lifetime?

4. Many individuals’ ideas influenced Darwin in developing his mechanism for evolution. Briefly, give the major contribution of the following people.

Individual / Ideas
Aristotle
Linnaeus
Cuvier
Hutton
Lyell
Lamarck*
Wallace

6. * Maybe Lamarck was not entirely incorrect in his thinking. What discovery in biology may lead credibility to some of his ideas?

7. When Darwin went on his trip on the Beagle, he was most impressed by what feature of organisms that he observed that would culminate in his idea of natural selection?

8. Darwin published his book in 1859, about 24 years after his trip. What are the two main points developed in the book?

9. How did Darwin use the results of artificial selection (selective breeding of plants and animals by humans) to persuade people to accept the idea of natural selection?

10. How did Darwin incorporate the ideas of the economist Thomas Malthus in formulating his theory of natural selection?

11. Refer to Figure 19.9,

(a) Explain how Darwin’s Tree of Life is similar to the modern phylogenetic tree of elephants and their relatives.

(b) Approximately when did the most recent ancestor shared by wooly mammoths, Asian elephants, and African elephants live?

12. In summary, heritable characteristics may lead to better adaptations to the current environment and lead to natural selection. Remember - ______selects the inidividuals of a population to survive. Individuals do not change to survive.

13. Also, remember, ______evolve, NOT individuals. Natural selection can only work on ______traits. A trait that is favorable in one place may be ______in another place. The ______is the determining factor about the “fitness” of the trait,

Concept 19:3 Evolution is supported by an overwhelming amount of scientic evidence.

1. List four evidences for evolution that are described in this concept.

2. Give two examples of direct observations of evolutionary change.

3. Refer to the research and graph in Figure 19:14, p. 387. What has happened to the beak length of the soapberry bugs when the introduced species goldenrain tree was available. Notice that this change in beak length was the result of rapid evolution.

4. How has the advent of antibiotics caused an “arms race” between the bacteria and the researchers that develop the antibiotics? Notice the rise of MRSA admissions in the graph in Figure 19:15. Why should this be bothersome to us?

5. What are homologies? Give two broad categories of homologies.

6. What are vestigial structures?

7. Organisms that are only distantly related can resemble each other. Explain convergent evolution and describe how analogous structures can arise.

8. List three pieces of information that fossils can give to paleontologists.

9. According to the tree in Figure 19:20, cetaceans (whales) originated from what type of animals. Be specific. Is this verified by the ankle bones in Figure 10:19?

10. What is biogeography?

11. In the experiment below,

(a) What was the prediction of this experiment?

(b) What conclusion do you draw from the data presented?