Biol 467 Evolution Study Guide 2 p XXX
This is intended to be an exercise, i.e., practice for the exam, not a complete list of material for which you are responsible. Exams will concentrate on lecture material, but you are responsible for any material in the assigned readings from the text book. In general, your text goes into more detail with examples than you will be examined on. Understand the principles, be able to define all italicized or boldfaced terms, and be able to cite some examples (i.e., of history, phenomena, or concepts) accurately without concerning yourself on memorizing every detail of every example provided in the text.
The questions on this study guide are posed in the same format as they will be on the midterm exams. Some questions are taken directly from the exams of previous semesters. Your best preparation for exams will be to formulate concise written answers to these questions as though they were to be graded for a real exam. Read each question carefully and, minimally, answer exactly what it asks. Answer with complete sentences within only four inches of space; but don't be too brief. A complete answer will include an explanation, e.g., definition of term, explanation of how or why, for all technical terms and concepts either posed in the question or used in the answer.
1) Explain how a particular trait can be both a synapomorphy and a symplesiomorphy at the same time.
2) Discriminate between phylogeny as a fact and phylogenetic inference as a hypothesis.
3) Give a specific example of phyletic gradualism using names of taxa and timescale as best as you can.
4) Exactly what does it mean to say that a node or branch on a cladogram has a bootstrap value of 95%? How often would this tree be obtained from these data but be incorrect?
5) Distance matrix: A B C
A - 6 6
B - 2
C -
Was the evolution of species "A" clocklike? Why? Explain any conclusions you can draw from the application of Sarich and Wilson's (1967) relative rate test to these data.
6) Contrast the two competing hypotheses that account for disjunct endemism. Provide examples of the types of events (not taxa) that comprise each.
7) Give a specific example of the evolution of a lineage as it is inferred from the fossil record. Cite the names of hypothesized ancestors and descendents and their position in the geological timescale as best you can. Briefly describe salient aspects of the evolution of their morphology.
8) Provide an overview of plate tectonic theory, including an account of the large geophysical structures that characterize the surface of this planet.
9) Distinguish a priori from a posteriori assessments of homology. How are they dependent or independent? What does the latter teach us about homoplasy?
10) Describe MacArthur and Wilson's theory of island biogeography verbally and graphically.
11) Why is RNA thought to probably have been the first autocatalytic and hereditary material?
12) Describe Miller's (1953) experiment, its result, and its significance.
13) Define and explain five generalities about the evolution of organisms and characters we have learned specifically from the study of systematics or paleontology?
14) Contrast different methods of inferring "confidence" in phylogenetic reconstructions, both in the broad and statistical senses.
15) Exactly what does it mean to say that a node or branch on a cladogram has a bootstrap value of 95%? How often would this tree be obtained from these data but be incorrect?
16) Perform parsimony analysis on the data set below. Calculate consistency index for each character. What is the decay index for the anteater-bluebird clade? Draw a majority rule consensus tree for all three networks, rooted to dandiliuon. Show all work.
12345 67890
anteater: aatgt agcga
bluebird: aatgt ggcgg
catepillar: agcgt gatgg
dandilion: aacgt aatac
Define each of the following as specifically as possible in one sentence. Remember, an example is not a definition, and a term should not be used in the definition of itself.
17) pseudoextinction
18) paraphyletic
19) parallelism
20) cladogenesis
21) phylogram
22) mosaic evolution
23) paraphyletic
24) labyrinthodont
25) prebiotic
20) autocatalysis
21) Phanerozoic
22) grade
23) superposition
24) character state
25) synapsid
26) Hyracotherium
27) systematics
28) adaptive radiation
29) synapomorphy
30) chronospecies
31) phenetic data
32) phylogeny
33) carbonaceous chondrite
34) Gondwana
35) Cenozoic
36) DNA X DNA hybridization
37) Sarcopterygii
38) Latimeria
39) RFLP
40) ontogeny
41) heterochrony
42) homoplasy
43) microcompliment fixation
44) punctuated equilibrium