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(This activity contains 21 total essay questions. Each new question will be revealed once you complete the preceding question.)
1. Describe one benefit of conducting research on evolution in a short-lived species such as fruit flies.
2. Describe three commonly held Western beliefs about the natural world that were overturned in the 18th and 19th centuries.
3. How did Darwin’s time on the Beagle help him develop his ideas on evolution?
4. How did the study of fossils give Darwin insight into natural selection?
5. Who came up with the theory of evolution by natural selection, independent of Charles Darwin? Why might he be less well-known today?
6. What is evolution?
7. Describe three causes of mutation.
8. What is genetic drift? Why is it a more potent agent of evolution in small populations than in large populations?
9. What does it mean when fixation for an allele occurs in a population?
10. Distinguish between evolution and natural selection.
11. Do recessive alleles tend to decrease in frequency in a population? Why or why not?
12. Describe three important components to an organism’s evolutionary fitness.
13. How does the increasing frequency of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria represent an example of the occurrence of evolution?
14. In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin wrote: “We may look with some confidence to a secure future of great length. And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.” Describe three reasons why he is wrong.
15. Describe two examples of artificial selection in agriculture and/or animal breeding.
16. How does modern medicine alter the selective pressures on birth weight in humans?
17. Describe an example of a trait selected for one function that later was modified to serve a different function.
18. Describe two limitations of the fossil record in documenting evolution.
19. How is biogeography useful when studying the evolutionary history of a population?
20. Giving an example of each, compare and contrast homologous and analogous structures.
21. When evolutionary biologists speak of a “molecular clock,” what do they mean?
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