Posted: September 13th, 2017

EVOLUTION

EVOLUTION

•    Explain the two forces that drive microevolution: adaptation and overproduction of offspring.
•    List two pieces of evidence that Darwin used to develop his theory of evolution by natural selection.
•    Explain the link between natural selection and reproductive success.
•    List the 5 conditions required for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. For each, give an example of how a real population would not meet that condition.
•    Compare and contrast directional, stabilizing, and disruptive selection.
•    Explain how natural selection can maintain harmful alleles in a population.
•    Explain how sexual selection can promote traits that decrease fitness.
•    Compare and contrast how mutation, genetic drift, non-random mating, and gene flow contribute to evolution.
•    How can natural selection favor different phenotypes at different times?
•    Explain why hard body parts are more likely to appear in the fossil record.
•    Describe two ways that the age of a fossil can be determined.
•    Explain how biogeography can be used to explain the evolution of a species.
•    Compare and contrast homologous, analogous, and vestigial structures. This would include giving an example of each.
•    Explain how embryonic development can be used to identify evolutionary relationships.
•    Describe how DNA sequences can reveal evolutionary relatedness.
•    Explain what is meant by a molecular clock.
•    Describe the forces that lead to the evolution of new species.
•    Compare and contrast microevolution and macroevolution.
•    Define a biological species.
•    Compare and contrast several forms of pre-zygotic and post-zygotic barriers to reproduction (3 of each)
•    Compare and contrast allopatric, sympatric, and parapatric speciation.
•    Compare and contrast gradualism and punctuated equilibrium. Give an example of how the fossil record exhibits both.
•    Describe three mechanisms of adaptive radiation.
•    Identify factors that can affect the extinction rate of species.
•    What is the advantage of a cladistics approach over a more traditional approach to phylogeny?
•    Summarize the evidence for the origin of life on Earth.
•    Describe how conditions on the early Earth could contribute to the production of biological molecules.
•    Explain why RNA may have been the first form of genetic material.
•    Describe how endosymbiosis contributed to the evolution of eukaryotes.
•    Describe the evidence for human evolution.
•    Describe the evidence supporting the Out of Africa model of human dispersal.