Evolution, Ecology, and Phylogeny Flashcards

Flashcards about Evolution, Ecology, and Phylogeny

What is artificial selection?

Selective breeding where breeders choose desired traits and curate the gene pool.

What is the outcome of sexual selection on phenotypes?

It results in sexual dimorphism, where males and females of a species have different phenotypes.

What type of selection selects against one extreme trait?

Directional selection

What is directional selection driven by visual predators called?

Adaptive melanism

What is a gene pool?

All the alleles of all the genes in a population.

Name factors that can cause evolution.

Genetic drift, natural selection, gene flow, sexual selection, and directional mutation.

What is it called when a large percentage of individuals are wiped out, leaving only a few survivors?

Population bottleneck

What is gene flow?

Movement of alleles from one population to another, diminishing differences between adjacent populations.

What are homologous traits?

Traits that share a common underlying structure and embryological origin, indicating descent with modification from a common ancestor.

What is it called when one parent species produces several descendant species, each with unique adaptations filling different ecological niches?

Adaptive radiation

What are vestigial structures?

Structures with no apparent function but were inherited from an ancestor for whom it had a function.

What are analogous features?

Similar function but different underlying structure, arising through convergent evolution.

What are pseudogenes?

Nonfunctional genes that are variants of functional genes in related species.

What are some examples of deep homologies?

DNA as genetic material, ATP for energy coupling, the same genetic code, ribosomes, and shared metabolic pathways.

In relative dating, what principle suggests that younger material is on top of older material in sedimentary layers?

Superposition

What is half-life in absolute dating?

It is the time it takes for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay into another element.

What are the different prezygotic isolating mechanisms?

Behavioral, temporal, mechanical, habitat, and gametic isolation.

What are the postzygotic barriers that can occur after the formation of a zygote?

Hybrid inviability, hybrid sterility, and hybrid breakdown.

What type of speciation happens when a geographic barrier splits a species apart, ending gene flow and leading to genetic differentiation?

Allopatric speciation

What is speciation without a geographic barrier called?

Sympatric speciation

What is a phylogenetic tree?

A branching diagram showing evolutionary relationships, built using morphological and molecular evidence.

What type of light does Chlorophyll a absorb?

It absorbs more red light and is best in direct light.

What is it called when small, isolated populations experience genetic drift, inbreeding, and loss of genetic diversity, leading to reduced fitness and higher mortality?

Extinction vortex

What is a clade?

A group of organisms that consists of a common ancestor and all its descendants is called?

What is a shared derived character?

A trait that identifies a clade, evolved in the common ancestor of that clade, and sets it apart from other clades.

The value of a gene is not based on whether it promotes survival in a single individual, but also how it affects survival in the individual’s relatives is called what?

Kin selection

A social structure in which some individuals within a colony breed, while others are non-reproductive is what.

Eusociality

What is metabolic rate?

The amount of energy that an organism expends during a given amount of time.

What is it called when body temperature conforms to the environmental temperature?

Ectotherm

What makes up an ecosystem?

Community and abiotic parts of the environment.

What are the two categories biogeochemical cycles are divided into?

Reservoirs and Fluxes or Flows

What is competition, parasitism and predation examples of?

Density dependent limiting factors

Exploiting different parts of the same resource during evolution is called what?

Resources partitioning

Action within a biological community that structures the community is called what?

Keystone species

How a community undergoes predictable changes following a disturbance is called what?

Ecological succession

What is Simpson’s Diversity Index formula?

D=1−∑(n/N)^2