BIOL417: Chapter 1 - An Overview of Evolutionary Biology

are major advances in evolutionary science common or rare?

rare

what did charles darwin theorize?

1. that all organisms share common ancestry

2. that organisms’ fit with their environments are a result of natural selection

what is natural selection?

the gradual process in which forms are better suited to their environment increase in frequency in a population over long periods of time

what are the five ways we can study evolutionary biology?

1. fossil records

2. behavioral data

3. morphology data

4. embryology data

5. DNA data

what is evolutionary biology?

the study of the origin, maintenance, and diversity of life on “Earth”

what two things are responsible for the modifications that take place over the generations?

1. natural selection

2. genetic mutation

what is evolutionary fitness?

a measure of an organism’s survival rate and reproductive success

how do genetic mutations usually affect an organism’s fitness?

usually decrease or have no effect on fitness; rarely will they increase fitness

what is selective breeding?

a human-directed choosing of parental matings in which favorable traits are selected for

is pesticide resistance in insects a result of natural or artificial selection?

natural selection; the pesticide acts as an evolutionary pressure

how does antibiotic resistance come about so quickly in bacteria?

they reproduce quickly and have large population sizes

what is the tree of life?

a map of the history of life

what are the three domains of life?

bacteria, archaea, and eukarya

on a phylogenetic tree, what does a tip represent?

a species

on a phylogenetic tree, what does a branch represent?

a divergence event

what is extinction? how would it be represented on a phylogenetic tree?

the loss of a species; the part of the tree that held said species would be permanently removed

when looking to conserve species, what is our main goal?

to preserve the maximum amount of phylogenetic diversity, not necessarily the most amount of species

is a big branch or small twigs on a phylogenetic tree more important to save?

a big branch

what are the two approaches to study evolution?

1. theoretical research

2. empirical research

what is empirical research?

may be observational (observe fossil record, behaviors, etc.) or manipulative (changing one part of a system to test a specific hypothesis)

what is theoretical research?

research that utilizes mathematical models to understand how complicated systems work; can lead to future predictions and inferences

does theoretical or empirical research come first?

it can go either way