BIOS 1710 SI Week 11 Session 2

Test Review

  1. What is the scientific method and why it is so important?
  1. What are the characteristics of science?
  1. Define theory, hypothesis, assumption, inference, control variables, dependent vs independent variables
  1. Why do we distinguish the comparative (correlative) method of scientific hypothesis testing from experimental science?
  1. Biologists claim that both populations and species evolve. Would a geographically widespread species, for example, White-tailed Deer, having millions of individuals at any one point in time actually evolve as a single unit? Explain and defend your answer.
  1. Natural selection acts on individual organisms but can individuals evolve? Explain.
  1. Why must adaptations have a genetic basis? Explain.
  1. Define structural, developmental and genetic homologies.
  1. How do we know that the bones supporting a bird wing are homologous with the forearm bones of a person?
  1. Why do whales and manatees appear to be the same type of animal? Or bats and birds?
  1. Why are most pathogenic bacteria that cause human disease and infections resistant to penicillin (the earliest antibiotic used in medicine)?
  1. How can we prevent this (or at least minimize) from happening with new generations of antibiotics?
  1. What is wrong with the concept of a ladder of progressively more complex phyla of organisms?
  1. Natural selection is not the only process that causes evolution to occur. Identify, compare and contrast the other mechanisms.
  1. Why is the Hardy-Weinberg Principle (HWP) so important in evolutionary studies?
  1. If the HWP null hypothesis is statistically rejected, then what is likely happening in that population?
  1. Why is the bell-shaped curve (the normal distribution) an important statistical tool when studying the evolution of populations?
  1. Define evolutionary fitness and how is it measured.
  1. Individuals of some animal species can have very low reproductive rates but high evolutionary fitness. How can that happen?
  1. Are all mutations bad? Explain.
  1. Which definition of a species would a paleontologist (for example, my research) apply? Why? How accurate do you think it would be?
  1. Define, compare and contrast prezygotic and postzygotic reproductive isolating mechanisms.
  1. Geographic isolation of populations can take place in several ways: describe them.
  1. What is inherently interesting about hybrid zones?
  1. How genetically different are the traditional races of humans?
  1. How is a phylogenetic tree or cladogram constructed? What assumptions are being made?
  1. Compare and contrast monophyly, paraphyly and polyphyly. Give examples.
  1. Describe the “molecular clock” and how it is used in evolutionary studies? What are some shortcomings of the molecular clock?
  1. Important persons who have contributed to evolutionary biology whom you should know and what they have contributed: Darwin, Wallace, Mendel, Lyell, Malthus, Linnaeus, Lamarck
  1. What is the difference between genetic homology and morphological homology? But why should they be interlinked or correlated positively?