Adaptation By Natural Selection

Front 1

What are Darwin's three postulates?

Back 1

1) There is a struggle for existence
2) There is a variation in fitness for survival
3) Variation is inherited

Front 2

Define stabilizing selection.

Back 2

Selection that favors the average phenotype. Reduces the amount of variation in the population but does not alter the mean value of the trait

Front 3

Define continuous variation.

Back 3

Phenotypic variation in which there is a continuum of types, eg. human height

Front 4

Define discontinuous variation

Back 4

Phenotypic variation in which there are a discrete number of phenotypes with no intermediary types, eg. Mendelian pea color

Front 5

How do complex adaptations arise?

Back 5

Through the accumulation of small random variations by natural selection. All of the intermediate steps must be favored by natural selection

Front 6

Define convergence

Back 6

The evolution of similar adaptations in unrelated groups of animals (eg. marsupials and placental mammals)

Front 7

Describe Batesian mimicry

Back 7

Mimic is palatable, model is not. Good when model is common

Front 8

Describe Mullerian mimicry.

Back 8

Both the model and the mimic are unpalatable. Good when mimic is common

Front 9

Describe the contribution of Thomas Malthus to Darwin's theory.

Back 9

Wrote "Essay on the Principle of Population;" postulated that there was a "point of crisis" where the population outstripped the resources

Front 10

Describe Carolus Linnaeus's contribution to Darwin's theory

Back 10

Wrote "Stystema Naturae," which classified all species. However, he believed species were fixed

Front 11

Describe directional selection

Back 11

Changes the average value of a trait

Front 12

Describe disruptive selection

Back 12

Creates a bimodal variation in a trait

Front 13

Who was the author of "Principles of Geography?"

Back 13

Charles Lyell

Front 14

Who believed that exercised-based traits were inherited?

Back 14

Lamarck

Front 15

Who was the scientist who came up with the idea of natural selection at the same time as Darwin?

Back 15

Alfred Russell Wallace

Front 16

Which modern anthropologist didn't believe the accepted explanation for the evolution of complex adaptation?

Back 16

Stephen Gould

Front 17

In what year did Darwin publish "The Origin of Species?"

Back 17

1859