Evolution Study Guide

Flashcards based on key concepts and definitions related to evolution and speciation from the study guide.

What are the types of reproductive barriers in speciation?

Pre-zygotic barriers (e.g., habitat isolation) post-zygotic barriers (e.g., reduced hybrid viability)

What is the Hardy-Weinberg principle?

The principle states that allele and genotype frequencies in a population will remain constant from generation to generation in the absence of other evolutionary influences.

List the conditions for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

1. No mutations; 2. Random mating; 3. No natural selection; 4. Extremely large population; 5. No gene flow.

What are the types of natural selection?

Directional selection, disruptive selection, stabilizing selection, sexual selection.

What are the key observations made by Darwin regarding evolution?

1. Individuals in a population vary in their heritable characteristics; 2. Organisms produce more offspring than the environment can support.

What are the two inferences from Darwin's observations?

1. Individuals that are well suited to their environment tend to leave more offspring than other individuals; 2. Over time, favorable traits accumulate in the population.

What is genetic drift?

Genetic drift is a mechanism of evolution that refers to random changes in allele frequencies in a population.

What are the types of genetic drift?

Founder effect and bottleneck effect.

Define allopatric speciation.

Allopatric speciation is the process of speciation that occurs when biological populations are geographically isolated from each other.

What is a cladogram?

A cladogram is a diagram that shows the evolutionary relationships among a group of organisms.

What are the three domains of life?

Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya.

Know the hierarchical classification acronym.

DKPCOFGS stands for Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

What is polyploidy in speciation?

Polyploidy is a condition in which a cell or organism has more than two complete sets of chromosomes, often leading to speciation.