Study Guide For Exam #1

Front 1

What is biological anthropology? (L1)

Back 1

Anthropology that deals mostly with human evolutionary biology (how and why evolution happened)

Front 2

What is science? (L1)

Back 2

Science is the process to understand the natural world

Front 3

What are the 2 types of science? (L1)

Back 3

1) Experimental (science that creates controlled experiments in the lab or in the field to test hypotheses
2) Historical (science that produces hypotheses to explain past events using currently observable phenomena)

Front 4

What is a hypothesis and how is it tested? (L1)

Back 4

A hypothesis is a reasonable explanation for a pattern or a phenomena we observe in nature. Hypotheses are tested by making predictions and then testing them to see if your predictions can be supported by evidence

Front 5

What is a theory and how does it compare to a hypothesis? (L2)

Back 5

A theory is an explanation of natural phenomena that is tested and proven. It is broad and explains a lot of things in nature (can be applied to a lot of other problems). It also has tons of evidence and is tested over and over again. A theory differs from a hypothesis because a hypothesis is more narrow and looks at something small

Front 6

How did people think about life before Darwin and did they believe that species changed or were immutable? (L2)

Back 6

Before Darwin, people believed that all species were not linked in a "family tree" and they also believed that species were immutable (meaning they did not evolve)

Front 7

What was Darwin's contribution to evolutionary theory and what aspects of evolution was he not able to explain? (L2)

Back 7

Darwin's contribution to evolutionary theory was natural selection. Darwin was not able to explain inheritance, variation, or speciation.

Front 8

What were Darwin's observations that helped him formulate his theory of natural selection? (L2)

Back 8

1. Tendency in all species to overpopulate
2. Lots of variations (inheritable)
3. Competition over scarce resources
4. Best fit variants most likely to survive and reproduce

Front 9

What did Mendel discover when working with pea plants? (L2)

Back 9

1. Genes come in pairs and control phenotype traits
2. Each member of each pair splits into into a sex cell (either egg or sperm)
3. One member of the pair might be dominant

Front 10

Be able to describe the Synthetic Theory of Evolution (L2)

Back 10

A. Production of genetic variation in pops.
1) DNA by mutation
2) Individuals by the shuffling of genes in a sexual cycle
3) Populations by gene flow (migration)
B. Reduction o genetic variation in populations by natural selection and genetic drift
C. Species formation by reproductive isolation

Front 11

How do we define evolution in class? Do individuals evolve? Do populations evolve? (L3)

Back 11

1) How allele frequencies change over time
2) No, individuals do not evolve they just grow older. Yes, populations do evolve.

Front 12

DNA contains the instructions to make what? What is a gene? (L3)

Back 12

1) Protein
2) A segment of DNA that contains instructions to make one protein

Front 13

What is a mutation? How does mutation effect evolution? Are most mutations good , bad, or neutral? (L3)

Back 13

1) A blind/random/mistake when copying DNA
2) Mutations effect evolution because it produces entirely new genes and thus creates variations
30) Most mutations are BAD

Front 14

Are mutations random or do they come out because they are needed? (L3)

Back 14

They are random. (Cite the lederberg experiment of 1952)

Front 15

What is mitosis? What is meiosis? (L4)

Back 15

1) Mitosis is the process in which a cell makes a copy of its chromosomes to create two identical "daughter" cells. You body must do this all the time as it grows
2) Meiosis is the process which creates 4 sex cells (sperm and egg)

Front 16

In what ways does meiosis increase genetic variations in populations? What is crossing over? (L4)

Back 16

1)Meiosis increases genetic variations because mutations can occur
2) Crossing over is process during meiosis in which 2 chromosomes become a pair and share segments of their genetic material

Front 17

Many people take the term dominant to mean that an allele is common. However, dominance and recessiveness have nothing to do with frequency. What, precisely, do these two terms mean? (L4)

Back 17

1) Dominance is when the gene is expressed and shown phenotypically
2) Recessiveness is when the gene is not expressed phenotypically but rather it is masked by the dominant gene

Front 18

Homologous (L4)

Back 18

Similarity between traits that comes form common ancestry

Front 19

Locus/loci (L4)

Back 19

The location of the gene (on the chromosome)

Front 20

Allele (L4)

Back 20

One or two forms of a particular gene

Front 21

Homozygous (L4)

Back 21

2 copies of the same alleles (like BB, AA, DD, cc, ll, yy, etc)

Front 22

Heterozygous

Back 22

2 different alleles (like Bb, Yy, etc)

Front 23

Genotype (L4)

Back 23

Genetic makeup of a person that cannot be seen from the outside

Front 24

Phenotype (L4)

Back 24

Determined by the genotype, the expression of physical traits

Front 25

Co-dominant (L4)

Back 25

When alleles in a heterozygote are fully expressed thereby resulting in offspring with a phenotype that is neither dominant nor recessive

Front 26

What is gene flow? How does it effect allele frequencies in a population? (L5)

Back 26

1) Gene flow is the transfer of alleles from one population to another
2) It increases allele frequencies in a population by presenting new alleles

Front 27

If people of different races have children, will their children be weak or somehow compromised in some way? (L5)

Back 27

NOOOOOOO

Front 28

Does natural selection act on genotypic or phenotypic variation? Explain. (L6)

Back 28

Natural selection works on phenotypic because genotypes are simple an ogranism's genetic makeup

Front 29

Does natural selection produce or reduce genetic variation? Explain. (L6)

Back 29

Natural selection reduces because some phenotypic are less likely to be passed on to then others

Front 30

What stabilizing selection? What is directional selection? (L6)

Back 30

Stabilizing selection is when selection favors the average phenotypes. Stabilizing selection reduces the amount of variation in a population but does not alter the mean value of the trait. Directional selection is when selection favors one extreme phenotye over the others. Over time, the less favored genotype loses prescendence while h

Front 31

What does the term differential mortality mean? What does differential fertility mean? (L6)

Back 31

1) The differences in mortality between subgroups in a population (the deaths)
2) The difference in fertility between subgroups in a population (the births)

Front 32

What does the term balanced polymorphism mean? How is sickle cell anemia a balanced polymorphism? (L6)

Back 32

1) Balanced polymorphism is a situation in which two different versions of a gene are maintained in a population of organisms because individuals carrying both versions are better able to survive than those who have two copies of either version alone
2)

Front 33

Be able to complete this sentence: "Natural selection acts on _______________ to reduce genetic variation in __________" (L6)

Back 33

1) individuals
2) populations

Front 34

What is genetic drift? What are the three requirements for genetic drift to affect allele frequencies in a population? (L7)

Back 34

Genetic drift is the random fluctuations in allelic frequencies. 3 requirements for genetic drift are the following: 1) small populations 2) complete isolation 3) selective neutrality

Front 35

What is founder's effect? (L7)

Back 35

Founder's effect is an example of genetic drift. In founder's effect is the lost of genetic variation when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population

Front 36

Why will different populations of a species sometimes be different? (L7)

Back 36

Different populations of a species sometimes can be different due to behavioral changes and adapting to their local habitat.

Front 37

What may happen if a population becomes geographically isolated from other populations of the same species? (L7)

Back 37

Reproductive isolating mechanisms may occur due to adapting to a new environment (speciation)

Front 38

Do different traits in humans tend to have similar geographic distributions or different geographic distributions? (L8)

Back 38

???????

Front 39

What is lactose intolerance? Are most adult mammals, including humans, lactose tolerant, or lactose intolerant? (L8)

Back 39

Lactose intolerance is the inability or insufficient ability to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and milk products. Most adult mammals are lactose intolerant.

Front 40

Why do some populations of humans have a high frequency of an allele that allows adults to digest milk? What mechanisms of evolution affect different populations allele frequencies for lactose tolerance? (L8)

Back 40

Some populations of humans have a high frequency of an allele that allows adults to digest milk because they have a long history of dairy stock.

Front 41

What is the rickets hypothesis? (L8)

Back 41

The rickets hypothesis is the evolution of skin color (the affect of the equator on skin color)

Front 42

How many chromosomes are in a normal human being? (HOMEWORK #1)

Back 42

There are 46

Front 43

How many chromosomes are in a human egg or sperm? (HOMEWORK #1)

Back 43

There are 23

Front 44

Complex eyes with lenses have evolved how many times in distantly related aquatic organisms? (HOMEWORK #1)

Back 44

8 times

Front 45

Explain the quote "evolution produces adaption like a tinkerer not an engineer" in chapter 1 of the textbook (HOMEWORK #1)

Back 45

A tinkerer is a person that basically fixes stuffs and changes things while an engineer is a person who produces from scratch. Evolution is not a process that brings about completely new life, but instead it is a process that brings about altered versions of the original.