Question | Answer |
What evidence did Charles Darwin collect in addition to specimens of organisms alive during his time? | Darwin collected many fossils. |
Why might genetic drift occur if a small number of individuals colonize a new habitat? | A small group of individuals may carry alleles in different relative frequencies from those of the original
population. |
Were Darwin’s hypotheses about natural selection and evolution similar to the ideas of most other scientists of his
time? Explain. | No; Darwin’s hypotheses challenged the fundamental scientific ideas of the times. |
What did observations of the tortoises of the Galápagos lead Charles Darwin to hypothesize about these animals’
ancestry? | Darwin hypothesized that they were descended from a single ancestral species. |
What was the source of the oxygen gas that began to accumulate in the atmosphere more than 2 billion years ago? | The oxygen gas that was added to Earth’s atmosphere was produced by photosynthetic bacteria that lived in the
sea. |
What information does relative dating provide? | Relative dating allows paleontologists to estimate a fossil’s age compared with that of other fossils. |
Why is the fossil record an incomplete history of life? | The formation of a fossil depends on a precise combination of conditions, therefore many ancient organisms died
without leaving a trace. |
Charles Darwin viewed the fossil record as | detailed record of evolution. |
In genetic drift, allele frequencies change because of | chance |
Primates have opposable vision, which is the ability to merge images from both eyes. | false |
If an allele makes up one fourth of a population’s alleles for a given trait, its relative frequency is | 25% |
Members of the genus Australopithecus used tools. | false |
When a farmer breeds only his or her best livestock, the process involved is | artificial selection. |
A single species that has evolved into several different forms that live in different ways has undergone | adaptive radiation. |
In a population, the sum of the relative frequencies of all alleles for a particular trait is | equal to 100% |
A factor that is necessary for the formation of a new species is | reproductive isolation |
Genetic drift tends to occur in populations that | are small |
The type of genetic drift that follows the colonization of a new habitat by a small group of individuals is called | the founder effect |
In a population of finches in which one group of birds has a short, parrotlike beak and another group has a long, narrow beak, what process has probably occurred? | disruptive selection |
When individuals with an average form of a trait have the highest fitness, the result is | stabilizing selection. |
The allele frequencies of a population are more likely to remain unchanged if | all mating is random. |
How would you date a sample of rock that you suspect as being one of the earliest on Earth? | Use a radioactive isotope with a long half-life. |
Which of the following statements describe what all members of a population share? | They are members of the same species. |
To compare the relative ages of fossils, scientists sometimes use an easily recognized species called a(an) | index fossil |
Which statement is in agreement with Darwin’s theory of evolution? | More offspring are produced than can possibly survive. |
Modern experiments similar to Miller and Urey’s demonstrate that simulating conditions thought to exist on early Earth can produce | some bases contained in RNA. |
The number of possible phenotypes for a given trait depends on how many _ control the trait. | genes |