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237 Cards in this Set
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In the 18th/19th century, the proposal of this geological idea strongly influenced Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin agreed with the geological idea that states that profound change could take place through the cumulative effect of slow but continuous processes. Since Darwin agreed with this idea, he too thought that the Earth was older than a few thousand years. Then, Darwin took this idea and applied it to biological evolution. Darwin thought that slow and subtle processes, which would take place over millions of years on Earth, could produce substantial biological changes.
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What are the two ways that the geological idea of gradual change influenced Darwin?
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In the 18th/19th century, the proposal of this geological idea strongly influenced Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin agreed with the geological idea that states that profound change could take place through the cumulative effect of slow but continuous processes. Since Darwin agreed with this idea, he too thought that the Earth was older than a few thousand years. Then, Darwin took this idea and applied it to biological evolution. Darwin thought that slow and subtle processes, which would take place over millions of years on Earth, could produce substantial biological changes.
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What are the two ways that the geological idea of gradual change influenced Darwin?
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In the 18th/19th century, Geologists evidenced these two pieces of established information to support this idea, and as a result, geologists indirectly, but importantly, influenced the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Firstly, geologists established that the earth was old because they evidenced the thick layers of sedimentary rocks. Secondly, geologists established that the earth’s surface was dynamic and changing because they evidenced volcanisms, valley formation, etc. To explain these two pieces of information, geologists proposed this idea. The idea influenced Darwin. He agreed with this idea and applied it to his theory of evolution. Darwin thought that slow and subtle processes, which would take place over millions of years on Earth, could produce substantial biological changes.
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What are the two pieces of information that geologists evidenced in order to support the idea of gradual change, profound change that takes place through the cumulative effect of slow but continuous processes, and what is the importance of gradual change to Darwin’s theory of evolution?
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In 18th/19th century, this principle stated that mechanisms of change are constant over time. That is, the same geological processes are operating today as in the past, and at the same rate. As a result, major changes in geological features can be produced by continuous and gradual changes.
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What is uniformitarianism?
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In Darwin’s time, this principle stated that mechanisms of change are constant over time. That is, the same geological processes are operating today as in the past, and at the same rate. As a result, major changes in geological features can be produced by continuous and gradual changes.
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What is uniformitarianism?
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In the 18th/19th century, this French geologist analyzed fossil records, and from his analysis, he established two pieces of information that influenced the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Firstly, he established that many fossil organisms were extinct and very different from existing forms because he observed that some species go extinct and new species arise as you go up through the rock layers (i.e. up through time). Secondly, he observed that fossils in deeper (older) rock layers were more different from existing species, which suggests that species were accumulating differences over time. These two important pieces of information influenced Darwin’s theory of evolution because they provide evidence for natural selection.
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What are the two pieces of information about fossil records that were established by Cuvier, and what is the significance of Cuvier’s work in regards to its influence on the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution?
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In Darwin’s theory of evolution, Darwin defined this term as “descent with modification.”
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What is Darwin’s definition of the term, “evolution?”
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In Darwin’s theory of evolution, Darwin defined this term as “descent with modification.”
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What is Darwin’s definition of the term, “evolution?”
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As a part of Darwin’s theory of evolution, Darwin defined this term as “a process in which individuals with certain inherited traits leave more offspring than individuals with other traits.”
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What is Darwin’s definition of “natural selection?”
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This definition of evolution defines evolution as “a change in the genetic composition of a population from generation to generation” (a change in the frequencies of alleles or genotypes in a population).
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What is the modern definition of evolution?
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This geological principal of the early 19th century stated that major changes in geological features could be produced by the mechanisms of change, which are constant over time. That is, the geological features that we see today are caused by continuous gradual change as in the past, and at the same rate. For example, rivers carve canyons because they gradually erode rocks that are in their path. This principle influenced Darwin. As a result, he applied it to biological evolution. Darwin thought that ongoing processes that we can still see today cause the biological features that we do see today. Namely, Darwin saw that organisms adapt to their environment. He applied the geological principle to explain how organisms adapt to their environment. He explained that natural selection was a slow and subtle but continuous and constant process that caused species to adapt to their environment, a process that is a part of evolution.
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What is uniformitarianism and what is the influence that uniformitarianism had on the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution?
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Developed by this man, this system of classification groups species together in a hierarchy of similarities. That is, this system is a nesting classification system, grouping similar species into increasingly general categories. Importantly, this system used the binomial system to name organisms, which is still used today. Finally, this system importantly can be drawn as a dichotomous tree that implicitly shows evolution of organisms (although at times the tree is incorrect).
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What is the Linnean system of classification, and what is the importance of the Linnean system to modern biology?
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This French biologist importantly proposed his theory of evolution. In his theory, he hypothesized that organisms evolve through the traits that they acquire by striving to survive in environments. These acquired traits caused changes in anatomy, physiology, etc., are passed on to offspring, inheritance of acquired characteristics. He also assumed that life arose spontaneously and then evolved toward perfection. Although he was wrong about evolution, he importantly published his theory about evolution.
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Who is Lamarck, what is Lamarck’s theory of evolution, what is incorrect about Lamarck’s theory of evolution (the answer is not provided, think about it), and what is the significance of Lamarck’s theory of evolution, even though it was wrong?
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During this man’s voyage of the Beagle, he made three important observations that impacted the development of his theory of evolution. Firstly, he observed that fossils on a continent are related. For example, fossils in Australia resemble the living animals in Australia. Secondly, he observed that organisms from one climatic zone are related to organisms of other climatic zones on the same continent. For example, plants that grow in the jungles of South America are related to plants that grow in the mountains of South America. Thirdly, he observed that organisms on islands are related to organisms of the nearest mainland. For example, the finches that inhabit The Galapagos are related to finches from the South American mainland. Importantly, all of these observations point to descent with modification, because they all fit a pattern. This pattern shows that living creatures that inhabit a region came from a common ancestor instead of seemingly coming from nowhere to in habit a region.
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What are the observations that Darwin made during his voyage the Beagle, and what is the importance of these observations in regards to the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution?
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This man published a treatise on economics. In it, he stated that human populations grow exponentially but are then eventually limited by resources. Limited resources cause members of populations to compete with one another in a struggle for existence and some will die. Darwin read this treatise and applied it to biological evolution. He realized that the capacity to overreproduce was characteristic of all species and he realized that limited resources cause the death of many offspring. Thus, individuals whose inherited traits give them a higher probability of surviving and reproducing in a given environment ten to leave more offspring than other individuals. This unequal ability of individuals to survive and reproduce will lead to the accumulation of favorable traits in the population over generations (i.e. natural selection. Note: Darwin made two other observations that are not related to this man’s treatise of economics).
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Who is Malthus and what is his impact on the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution (note, only two of 4 observations are stated in the answer, and both inferences that Darwin made are stated in the answer. Darwin’s other observations include, one, members of a population often vary greatly in their traits, and two, traits are inherited from parents to offspring)?
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The inherited traits that promote an individual’s survival and reproductive rates, according to natural selection.
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What is an adaptive trait?
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A process where humans modify other species over many generations by selecting and breeding individuals that posses desired traits.
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What is artificial selection?
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This theory faced two early criticisms. One critique said that the earth was too young for such extraordinary diversity to arise by natural selection (assumed to be a very slow, gradual process). The other critique said that blending inheritance would decrease variation that is required for natural selection to work.
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What are the two early criticisms of natural selection?
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This early critique of natural selection was proven wrong by knowledge about radioactive decay. Radioactive decay dates Earth to be 4.6 billion years old.
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What is the new data that counters the early critique of natural selection that pointed out that the earth was too young for natural selection to occur?
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This early critique of natural selection was proven wrong by knowledge of Mendelian genetics. Although most offspring represent an average of their parents’ traits, Mendelian genetics states that some qualitative traits are inherited in an all-or-none fashion and not an average of inherited traits. Since some qualitative traits are passed in an all-or-nothing fashion, genetic diversity survives from generation to generation (think about Punnett squares and dominant and recessive genes).
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What are the counter arguments that refute the early criticism of natural selection that states that blending inheritance would decrease variation that is required for natural selection to work?
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Most of these types of traits are inherited in an all-or-nothing fashion, because only one or two genes act on these traits. In contrast, its opposite, the other form of inherited traits, are averaged their representation in the offspring because many genes act on these traits.
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What is the difference in the way that qualitative traits are inherited by the offspring in regards to its phenotype representation and its genotype representation in comparison to its opposite, quantitative inherited traits?
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This term states that there is an agreement across disciplines on questions of evolution. This agreement provides overwhelming support for evolutionary theory. That is, different attitudes and different perspectives from different scientific disciplines all come up with theories that support evolutionary theory. For example, geologists’ findings with the earth support the uniformity and diversity of fossil records
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What is consilience?
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This theory’s misconceptions include the presumption that it has a goal, that it is goal oriented towards making the perfect organism.
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What are the misconceptions about evolution?
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This theory is not goal oriented, it can only apply to populations adapting to current environmental conditions, which for the most part constantly change and are fragile to change. As a result, this theory may show trends in organisms that oscillate, regress, or constantly changing in connection to the environment. For example, this theory’s trends explain why body sizes of animals may increase and then decrease over time.
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What are the trends of evolution, according to the first lecture?
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This theorem is an important contribution to the study of evolution by natural selection because it created a null hypothesis where a population is not evolving. This null hypothesis can be tested against the alternative hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis occurs when a population is evolving. Thus, this theorem can be used to see if populations in the wild are evolving or not evolving, and by doing so, it implicitly proves that evolution is occurring or not occurring.
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What is the importance of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium theorem to the study of evolution?
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This theorem has five conditions: one, no mutations are occurring within a populations genetics; two, random mating is occurring; three, no natural selection is occurring; four, there is an extremely large population size; five, there is no gene flow occurring into the population or out of the population.
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What are the five conditions of the Hard-Weinberg equilibrium?
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This condition of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is not met when alleles alternate do to large scale changes like deleting or duplicating genes, point or base mutations of nucleotides. These changes modify the gene pool of the population.
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What are the ways that the “no mutations” condition of the Hard-Weinberg equilibrium is not kept?
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This condition of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is not kept when individuals mate preferentially within a subset of the population, such as their close relatives (inbreeding), random mixing of gametes does not occur, and genotype frequencies change.
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What are the reasons why the “random mating” condition of the Hard-Weinberg equilibrium is not kept?
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This condition of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is not kept when differences in the survival and reproductive success of individuals carrying different genotypes can alter allele frequencies.
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What is the reason why the “no natural selection” condition of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is not kept?
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This condition of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is not kept when alleles move into or out of populations, which can alter allele frequencies.
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What are the reasons why the “no gene flow” condition of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is not kept?
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This process occurs when chance events can also cause allele frequencies to fluctuate unpredictably from one generation to the next.
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What is genetic drift?
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As a result of the statistical laws that state that statistical results are more likely going to deviate from the statistical mean in a small number of trails than in a large number of trails, genetic drift most strongly affects this type of population size.
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What is the statistical reasoning that states that genetic drift most strongly affects small populations rather than large populations?
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This is an effect that occurs because a few individuals become isolated from the larger population for some reason, this smaller group establish a new population whose gene pool differs from the source population. For example, a storm may blow ants from one mountaintop over to another mountaintop. The newly isolated ants may then start up their own population of ants and through evolution may become a new species of ants, separate from the population.
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What is the founder effect?
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A sever drop in the population size can cause this effect. For example, a sudden change in the environment, such as fire or flood, may drastically reduce the size of a population.
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What is the bottleneck effect?
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This effect drastically impacts the following two effects. When the founder effect and the bottleneck effect takes place, a small group from a larger population becomes isolated. When either of these two effects occurs, certain alleles may be overrepresented among survivors, alleles may be underrepresented, and some alleles may be absent altogether. Additionally, because of the small population size of the present alleles, statistical laws are more likely to phase out an allele.
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What are the reasons why the founder effect and the bottleneck effect can drastically reduce the number of alleles present in a population and then genetic drift strongly influence small population of alleles?
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This occurs when natural selection consistently favors some alleles over others. As a result, it results in a better match between organisms and their environment.
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What is adaptive evolution on a genetic level?
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These agents of evolution are unpredictable in their effect on populations because they can be adaptive, maladaptive, or natural.
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What are non-adaptive agents of evolution?
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Examples of these agents of evolution include genetic drift, including bottleneck effect and founder effect, immigration/emigration of gene flow, non-random mating, and mutation of genes.
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What are examples of non-adaptive agents of evolution?
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Natural selection is the only agent of this type of evolution.
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What is the only agent of adaptive evolution?
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When this effect occurs, genetic diversity is lost within a population. When the loss of genetic diversity happens, in breeding may occur more often than before. In breeding is harmful to a population because it leads to a loss in genetic variation and an increase in the frequency of harmful alleles. These harmful alleles may be detrimental to the success of a population. Additionally, the loss of genetic diversity may make a population more susceptible to pathogens like viruses or bacteria. For example, one virus may kill an entire population.
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What are the harmful effects that the bottleneck effect has on populations like when they try to conserve endangered species?
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This is the contribution an individual makes to the gene pool of the next generation relative to the contributions of other individuals.
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What is relative fitness?
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This is a level, which is relative because it can change, especially in comparison to the contributions of another individuals genes. It is affected by environmental conditions and social conditions of a population. For example, an individual’s adaptive traits may be suited for warm weather but its traits may not be suited for cold weather. Therefore, this individual’s level of this type of contribution may be high in warm climates but low in warm cold climates. Likewise, an old bull may lose this level of contribution to the population because it may lose matting opportunities to young, healthy, and strong, bulls.
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What are the reasons why an individual’s relative fitness can change?
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When these two effects occur, new genes will not be reintroduced into the population again. New genes can only be introduced into the population from another population of a closely related species that can interbreed with the effected population.
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What is not reintroduced in the populations that are effected by the founder effect and the bottleneck effect?
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This part of evolution only acts on the phenotype, the expression of genes. It does not act on the genotype, the genes themselves.
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What is natural section only acting on in an individual?
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Some individuals have this trait because some individuals have the same genes and the same alleles but these individuals have very different phenotypes. This happens when certain phenotypes change with environmental conditions. For example, different environmental conditions can affect an individual’s development, and as a result, produce different phenotypes in individuals with the same genetic makeup.
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What is phenotypic plasticity and what is an example of phenotypic plasticity?
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This mode of natural selection occurs when conditions favor individuals exhibiting one extreme of a phenotypic range, thereby shifting the frequency curve (the frequency curve is in reference to the frequencies of the alleles that get expressed into this new phenotype) for the phenotypic character in one direction or the other. For example, if a population of mice lives in dark areas, mice with black fur would have a higher survival rate and this would cause the frequency curve would only move towards the black mice rather than white or brown mice. This mode of natural selection is common when environmental conditions change.
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What is directional selection?
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This mode of natural selection occurs when conditions favor individuals at both extremes of a phenotypic range over individuals with intermediate phenotypes. For example, this can occur when a population of insects lives on a plant and that plant dies. When the plant dies it sends the insects into two different directions. One small population of insects moves towards the light and one moves towards the dark (lol). As a result, only the best phenotypes will be lightly colored insects or darkly colored insects, but not an in-between one (Don’t Go To The Light!!). This mode of selection may be important in speciation.
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What is disruptive selection?
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This mode of natural selection occurs when conditions act against both extreme phenotypes and instead favors intermediate variants. For example, if the environment consists of rocks of an intermediate color, both light and dark mice will be selected against. Instead, the intermediate variant will be favored, which will cause the population of mice to express brown fur. This mode of natural selection favors the status quo.
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What is stabilizing selection?
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In this type of selection the relative fitness of a phenotype may decrease if it becomes too common in a population, and as a result, the frequency of phenotypes may oscillate over time. Since this type of selection causes the frequency of phenotypes to oscillate over time, it may help it maintain polymorphisms in a population. Polymorphisms are different forms of a phenotypic trait that is maintained in a population. For example, the right and left mouthed fish phenotypic trait oscillates in frequency over time.
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What is frequency-dependent selection, and what is its importance?
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This occurs when the selected pressure for or against phenotypic traits depends upon the frequency of phenotypes in a population. In other words, if a phenotype becomes too common in a population, its relative fitness may decrease.
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What is frequency dependent selection?
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One of the reasons why this process does not produce perfect organisms is the following reason. Selection can only act on existing variations. Just because this process is acting on a population does not mean that the population will constantly move towards a more perfect organism. Why? This process only favors the fittest phenotypes among those currently in a population. These phenotypes may not be ideal traits, and the process that picks these traits cannot stop and completely rebuild the individual from the ground up with new super traits (this process doesn’t say, “Stop! Let me give that bat laser eyes so that it can compete with dinosaurs!). This process needs a sufficient amount of genetic and phenotypic variability to occur.
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What is importance of natural selection only being able to select existing variations?
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One of the reasons why this process does not produce perfect organisms is as follows. This process is limited by historical constraints. It does not scrap individuals and builds them from the ground up again. Rather, it adapts individuals to new situations. These new situations may be changing all the time, which causes this process to constantly move towards matching individuals with their environment (this process doesn’t say, “Hold the phone! Bats just aren’t working. Let’s just erase and make it into a Giant Bat with Venom!).
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What is the importance of natural selection and evolution being limited by historical constraints?
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One of the reasons why this process does not produce perfect organisms is as follows. This process often makes adaptations to organisms but it makes these adaptations, it compromises some other aspect of the organisms. For example, sea turtles can swim well but cannot walk on land well. Conversely, land turtles can walk well but cannot swim as well as sea turtles (a whale doesn’t fly).
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What is the importance of natural selection and evolution being limited by the fact that adaptations often come at the cost of compromises to other aspects of an individual’s phenotype?
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One of the reasons why this process does not produce perfect organisms is as follows: This process is affected by chance, natural selection, and the environment interact. Chance events can affect the subsequent history of a population that this process improves upon and chance events can be caused by non-adaptive evolution occurrences. The environment at a particular location may change unpredictable from year to year, which limits this process’s ability to match an organism to its current environment (it’s not like this process decides to send a meteorite killing one part of the planet and a protective bubble over a group of species).
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What is the importance that chance, natural selection, and the environmental interactions have on the evolutionary process?
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Individuals have this type of budget that they use to allocate funds of this source to different parts of their body and for different purposes. This occurs because natural selection picks for or against the individuals that use their funds appropriately to the environmental conditions. Thus, natural selection does not necessarily select for immortality, but instead selects for the individuals with the best possible chance to survive in an environment and produce offspring (In other words, relative fitness is determined by actually reproducing and not living forever).
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What is the importance of an individual’s energy budget, as it relates to natural selection?
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This definition of species is based on the morphological (or other kind of) features that can be observed or measure (shape, color, etc.). It is the most commonly used method for determining species.
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What is the morphological species concept?
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Importantly, when these show up later in life, they have no real substantial effect on an individual’s ability to reproduce because they would have happened after that individual already reproduced new offspring. Conversely, if this show up early in life they have a drastic effect on the development of a child, its ability to survive and reproduce.
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What is the reason why there is less intense selection against late appearing mutations, like when Huntington’s disease appearing in people who are in their mid 40’s, than against early mutations?
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This way of defining a species has a lot of problems. Firstly, it is based on a subjective quality. As a result, researchers may disagree on which structural features distinguish a species. Additionally, some species are quite variable in appearance (i.e. their phenotype), but they are related genetically. Conversely, some different species look identical but are genetically distinct. When this happens the species are known as cryptic species.
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What are the problems of morphological species concept?
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According to this theory, the individuals that are in a population that is under less predatory pressure will age more slowly than the individuals who are in a population that is under more intense predatory pressure. As evidenced by observations of individuals growing in less predatory environments devoting more time to body maintenance. Thus they live longer than the individuals that devote more time and energy into avoiding predators.
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What is the mutation accumulation theory’s proposal about which individuals will live longer (individuals that live in populations, which experience less predatory pressure, or individuals that live in a population that experiences more predatory pressure)?
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This species concept aims to define species as a population or group of populations whose members have potential to interbreed and produce viable, fertile, offspring. It is the most widely accepted definition of species and it is useful for understanding the process of speciation.
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What is the biological species concept?
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In this species concept, gene flow may involve migration of individuals or just genes. A gene can spread all the way around a species. In other words, this species concept is not limited to direct interbreeding between members of different populations.
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What is it that does not limit biological species concept, and what is the reason why it is not limited this way?
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This species concept has its limitations. Firstly, it may be hard to verify because it may not be supported by enough gene flow. Secondly, it cannot be applied to asexual organisms. Thirdly, and finally, it cannot be applied to fossil organisms.
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What are the limitations of biological species concept?
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Theoretically, in this type of species, a gene, for example, can spread in a circle into all of the neighboring species.
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What is it that can occur within a ring species?
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This model of speciation occurs when two populations differentiate in geographically separate areas. It is more common in animals and less common in plants.
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What is allopatric speciation?
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This model of speciation occurs when two populations differentiate in the same geographical area. It is more common in plants and less common in animals.
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What is sympatric speciation?
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This model of speciation has three steps. Firstly, there must be geographical separation of the two parental populations. Secondly, there must be genetic divergence of the two populations. And thirdly, there must be reproductive isolation of the two populations.
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What are the three required steps of allopatric speciation?
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If this model of speciation occurs one thing importantly can happen if one population is very small. Importantly, if one population is very small then that small population is more than likely to become a separate species because its small population causes it to become a different species quickly (think about the difference between statistics of small numbers in comparison to large numbers).
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What is it that will happen to small population that undergoes allopatric speciation?
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An example of this model of speciation occurring is when forests are located in high mountains, but different species of plants inhabit the low lands. The organisms that inhabited the forests will begin to become different species than the organisms that inhabit the low lands.
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What is an example of how allopatric speciation comes about (how can populations be geographically separated)?
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In this model of speciation, if a population is separated geographically, there is a high chance that two new species will form.
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What is the likelihood that geographically separated populations will diver genetically?
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If this type of speciation occurs and the two populations come into contact with each other again, it can result in the following outcome: the two populations cannot interbreed, which means that there is no gene flow occurring, and thus, speciation has occurred.
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What is the possible outcome that must happen between two populations that are undergoing allopatric speciation, which results in the two populations becoming separate species?
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If this type of speciation occurs and the two populations come into contact with each other again, it can result in the following outcome: the two populations interbreed and produce viable hybrids. As a result of producing viable hybrids, the two populations merge and it is known that speciation has not occurred.
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What is the importance of the two populations that are undergoing allopatric speciation actually producing viable hybrids?
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If this type of speciation occurs and the two populations come into contact with each other again, it can result in the following outcome: the two populations interbreed, but they only produce hybrids that have reduced viability. Importantly, if this happens, natural selection will select against the weak and feeble hybrids. By extrapolating that logic to a more fundamental principle, we can say that natural selection will select against the individuals that waste so much energy into making poor offspring. Therefore, natural selection will select for the individuals that put energy into making fertile and strong offspring (relative fitness). This means that natural selection will select individuals that are only mating with their own species because these individuals will produce the best offspring. Thus, natural selection will push the two populations further away from each other and towards the direction where the two populations eventually become two species.
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What is most likely to occur if two populations undergoing allopatric speciation interbreed with one another, but by doing so, they only produce hybrids with reduced viability (fitness)? Please explain your answer in detail.
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This is the process by which one species splits into two or more species.
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What is speciation?
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This is the process by which allopatric speciation produces many species very rapidly.
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What is adaptive radiation (definition take from lecture slides)?
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These are the barriers that hinder mating or the fertilization of the ova. Examples of it are courtship rituals, anatomically correct genitalia (lock-and-key), and etc.
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What are prezygotic barriers and what are examples of prezygotic barriers?
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These are barriers that prevent the zygotic hybrid from successfully developing into a viable and fertile adult. Examples of it are weak eggs that do not hatch (developmental problems), genetic problems of hybrids (harmful alleles), phenotype problems (fused limbs), and etc.
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What are postzygotic barriers and what are examples of postzygotic barriers?
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This type of reproductive barrier is more likely to evolve than its counterpart because there will be strong selective pressure against individuals who waste so much energy producing offspring with reduced viability (fitness).
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What is the reason why prezygotic barriers will be the reproductive barriers that are more likely to evolve than their counterpart, postzygotic barriers?
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These are periods of evolutionary change in which groups of organisms form many new species whose adaptations allow them to fill different ecological roles, or niches, in their communities.
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What are adaptive radiations (definition taken from the book)?
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For this speciation to occur, not only do the geological barriers have to be passable, or else the original population will not become isolated into two smaller populations, but the barriers must also pose a legitimate problem to overcome, preventing enough individuals from passing, or else gene flow will continue between the two smaller populations, which will prevent speciation from occurring.
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What are the characteristics of the geological barriers that best facilitate allopatric speciation (please explain your answer)?
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This type of speciation occurs when a population becomes two or more different species in the same geographical location.
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What is sympatric speciation?
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The cause of this type of speciation is when gene flow between the members of a population is reduced by such factors as polyploidy, habitat differentiation, and sexual selection (not that these factors can also promote allopatric speciation).
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What is the cause of sympatric speciation, and what are the general ways that the cause of sympatric speciation occurs?
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This type of speciation is more common in plants than in animals.
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What is sympatric speciation more common in, plants or animals?
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This type of speciation mostly happens in plants because it can result from polyploidy. And polyploidy occurs frequently in plants.
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What is the reason why sympatric speciation occurs most often in plants?
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This is a form of natural selection in which individuals with certain inherited characteristics are more likely than other individuals to obtain mates.
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What is sexual selection?
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As a result of sexual selection, this can occur; the emergence of marked differences between the two sexes in secondary sexual characteristics, which are not associated with reproduction or survival.
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What is sexual dimorphism?
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This form of sexual selection occurs when individuals of one sex compete directly with themselves for mating privileges with the opposite sex. For example, male lions fight other male lions for the control of a pride of female lions so that are the only ones who can mate with the female lions.
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What is intrasexual selection?
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This form of sexual selection is also known as “mate choice.” It occurs when individuals of one sex (usually the females) are choosy in selecting their mates from the other sex.
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What is intersexual selection?
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An experiment like the following example would be a good way to test and identify which features are used for this type of selection. You change the colors of male lions’ mane in order to see which color mane is most preferred by female lions.
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What is an example of an experiment that could be conducted to test if a given feature evolved in response to sexual selection?
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An example of an individual’s characteristic that is used for both of these types of selections are the antlers on a male deer.
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What is an example of an individual’s characteristic that is used for both sexual selection and natural selection?
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There is a double standard in this type of selection because there are differences in parental investment to the offspring and differences in each parent’s contribution to the offspring.
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What is the reason why there is a double standard in sexual selection (i.e. what is the reason why males look for certain traits in females and females look for different traits in males)?
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Because of this type of selection, males and females want to make different contributions to the production of offspring. As a result of males and females wanting to do different things to contribute to offspring development, they will begin to have sexual dimorphism. The point is, the differences between what the males and females want to do when contributing to the production of offspring impacts their sexual dimorphism.
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What are the differences in what the males and females of a species want to do during the process of producing offspring (sexual selection) and what are the consequences of their two different desires when trying to produce offspring (think sexual dimorphism)?
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This is the sex that contributes less to the rearing of offspring and as a result, it competes with other members of its own sex for access to members of the opposite sex, because it wants to put energy into mating with the most members of the opposite sex as possible and not worrying about the survival of the offspring. If we extrapolate this logic, this sex would want traits that would make them most able to compete with other members of its own sex, and therefore, sexual dimorphism would occur.
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What are the male sex’s motives when desiring to reproduce with females and what is the impact of the male’s decision to pursue its motives this way?
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This sex contributes more energy into the development of the offspring, and that explains why it is more choosey about which partner it wants to mate with. Since this sex is more choosey, it will look for certain traits of the opposite sex that are good. Thus, this sex’s choosiness contributes to this type of selection and this form of dimorphism.
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What are the female sex’s motives when desiring to reproduce with a male partner, and what is the impact of the females’ sexual selection on dimorphism?
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The following is a list of the characteristics that this type of sex looks for in a mate: healthiest one, which can be displayed by size, behavior, better territory, courtship rituals, etc. (an indication of the best genes), the one with the best territory (immediate resources), the ability to contribute to raising offspring.
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What are the things that the “choosey” sex looks for in a mate (what the females look for in males)?
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This theory is importance because it serves as a nice example for the “selfish gene” perspective. The perspective states that organisms may sacrifice their lives if it aids replication of their genes and that a gene that facilitates such behavior will tend to spread in the population (why?, relative fitness).
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What is a theory that uses altruistic behavior as an example of its premise?
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Men who pick this form of sexual selection have the following disadvantages: their offspring would be left to fend for themselves, which would mean that the offspring would have low survival rates. Offspring with low survival rates have low or even no relative fitness.
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What are the disadvantages for men who pick the sexual strategy of seeking many mates with minimal commitment?
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Men who pick this sexual selection strategy have the following advantages. One, they would increase their offspring’s chances of survival, which intern, would increase the father’s own relative fitness to the next generation of offspring (the third generation). Two, they would increase their own relative fitness by knowing the paternity of their offspring, instead of putting wasted energy into assuring the survival of someone else’s offspring (someone else’s genes). Three, men could be more “choosey” in their partner by picking the best partner for bearing children, having good genes, and producing healthy offspring, which would increase the offspring’s chances of survival and relative fitness. And four, finally, a partner for life could mean that both the father and the offspring have increased help, which would mean that both the father, mother, and offspring would have better chances of survival and higher relative fitness.
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What are the four advantages for men who pick the sexual strategy of having a long term and committed partners with which to produce offspring?
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The overwhelming advantages of this human selection strategy could have the following implications. Since natural selection puts high pressure on the need for producing offspring with high relative fitness, this human sexual strategy could have been selected for, but its opposite, the other strategy could have been selected against, which could then explain how cultural norms could have developed.
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What are the implications, from an evolutionary lens, of natural selection selecting for the human sexual selection strategy of having long term relationships with partners, in order to raise offspring, while selecting against short term commitments?
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Women who pick this sexual selection strategy have the following advantages: they could gain immediate benefits like food, money, protection for the environment (like a warm bed in a tent), etc. Additionally, by picking mates based on looks, they could increase their son’s attractiveness, which would mean that more women would be attracted to the son. With more mates to choose from, the son could pick the best mate possible (based on genes, health, ability to bear children, etc.), which would then, intern, increase the mother’s chances of having third generation offspring (i.e. her relative fitness).
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What are the advantages for women who pick the sexual selection strategy of having short and uncommitted relationships with men, in order to produce offspring?
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Women who pick this sexual selection strategy could run into the following disadvantages (a little bit more speculation here): the women could get pregnant and have to bear and raise offspring all by herself, she could mate with a man who has bad genes, which would then lower the chances of survival for her offspring and that would lower her relative fitness.
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What are the disadvantages for women who pick the sexual selection strategy of having short and uncommitted relationships with men, in order to produce offspring?
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Women who pick this sexual selection strategy have the following advantages: being “choosey” when picking a mate may increase the gene selection for her offspring, it may increase the chances of survival for her offspring because of long term resources and help, which intern, would increase the mother’s relative fitness level.
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What are the advantages for women who pick the sexual selection strategy of having long term and committed relationships with men, in order to produce offspring?
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This form of sexual selection (from a societal view point) benefits men the most because it allows more men to have chance to mate. In other words, it allows more men to have the access to mates and the opportunity to mate.
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What sex does monogamy benefits the most in society, and what are the reasons why monogyny benefits this sex the most?
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This form of sexual selection (from a societal view point) benefits women the most because it allows more women to have access to more resources like food and protection, which would increase the chances of her survival, her offspring’s survival, and thus both of their fitness levels.
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What is the sex that benefits most of polygamy, and what is the reason why this sex benefits the most?
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This form of sexual selection (from a societal view) disadvantages men the most because it limits their chances of mating, frustrating and angering them. The angry and frustrated men could revolt, which would then destabilize the society (or even the social foundation of a small clan of humans).
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What is the sex that is the most disadvantaged by polygamy and what is the reason why this sex is disadvantaged the most? Finally, what is the significance of this sex being disadvantaged the most by polygamy practices?
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This is a group of individuals of the same species that are organized in a cooperative manner.
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What is a society?
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This is when some species come together, but they show no cooperative, which is not true social behavior. For example, bears come together to feed on salmon upstream; herds come together for matting purposes, migrations, etc.
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What is an aggregate of species?
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Advantages of this type of behavior include improved defenses against predators (safety in numbers), increased competitive ability (against other groups of the same species or groups of other species, like holding a territory), and this type of behavior often increases the feeding effectiveness (like wolf packs hunting together or herds grazing together).
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What are the selective advantages the social behavior, cooperation?
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This is a theory that tries to explain why individuals come together and form groups in a cooperative manner by proposing that competition between groups increased selection pressure for cooperative behavior of individuals within groups.
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What is the group selection theory?
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This theory only works if indeed individuals within a group actually increase their individual fitness levels.
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What is the underlying premise of the group selection theory that must be true in order for the theory to work (for this selection to occur)?
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An individual cooperates in this type of behavior is mostly “selfish” because that individual benefits (i.e. increases its fitness) by being a member of a social group (e.g., it can obtain more food or be less vulnerable). An individual would be “selfish” because natural selection favors individuals who increase their fitness levels even at the cost of other animals of the same species or another species.
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What is the main reason why individuals form groups; what is the main influence, natural selection or altruistic behavior?
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This type of behavior decreases individual fitness while increasing the fitness of other individuals in the population. For example, squirrels giving warning signals to neighboring squirrels about the presence of a predator.
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What is altruistic behavior?
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This is the total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes by producing its own offspring and by providing aid that enables other close relatives, who share many of these genes, to produce.
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What is inclusive fitness?
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This theory proposes the idea that the genes and not the organism are really in charge. That is, organisms are “manipulated” by genes in order to promulgate their replication. This perspective is demonstrated by inclusive fitness. For inclusive fitness, organisms may sacrifice their lives if it aids replication of their genes (a gene that facilitates such behavior will tend to spread in the population). Thus, certain genes live on while even at the cost of the organism’s life, and in fact, it is not the organism’s relative fitness that matters, but the genes’ relative fitness.
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What is the importance of Richard Dawkins’s theory of the “selfish” gene as it relates to inclusive fitness?
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In Hamilton’s rule, this coefficient variable stands for how many genes the altruist (the one doing the altruistic deed) shares with the individual who is receiving the altruistic act.
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What is the “r” variable standing for in Hamilton’s rule?
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In Hamilton’s rule, this variable stands for the benefit to the individual on the “receiving end” of the altruistic act (in terms of potential offspring if this individual survives).
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What is the “B” variable standing for in Hamilton’s rule?
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In Hamilton’s rule, this variable stands for the cost to the altruist. It is defined as the likelihood of death and the subsequent lack of reproduction (=likelihood of death X potential offspring if alive).
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What is the “C” variable standing for in Hamilton’s rule?
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This type of behavior is more apparent in siblings than in other non-related individuals.
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What are the types of individuals that frequently displays altruistic behavior?
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This type of behavior can exist in society of related and unrelated individuals because it can evolve when a TIT-for-TAT strategy is used. In this strategy, an individual continues this type of behavior toward another individual only as long as the other individual returns the “favor.”
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What is the strategy that has evolved, which enables reciprocal altruistic behavior to exist in groups of individuals?
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This type of behavior shuns “cheaters” who accept favors but do not return them. Otherwise, the whole social system would collapse, because “cheaters” would be the only ones who would receive help and survive, which would come at the expense of the lives of those who helped them. Eventually, a population of only “cheaters” would exist, but that population could not sustain itself because no “cheater” would help another out.
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What are the reasons why “cheaters” are shunned by reciprocal altruistic behavior?
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This type of behavior primarily exists in long-lived species that live in stable social groups because in a stable group, you know who has been returning favors and who does not return favors.
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What are the reasons why reciprocal altruism primarily exists in long-live species that live instable social groups?
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This area of the brain is used to analyze social situations. From an evolutionary psychology, this ability is importance because it is used to detect “cheaters” in human social groups.
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What is the function that the prefrontal cortex is especially adapt at performing and what is this function’s importance?
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This is the changes that occur over time in allele frequencies in a population.
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What is microevolution?
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This is the evolutionary processes at and above the species level.
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What is macroevolution?
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This evolutionary term addresses the following phenomena: natural selection acting on populations, formation of subspecies, evolution of polymorphism within species, and evolution of reproductive isolating mechanisms within species.
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What are the phenomena that are addressed by microevolution?
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This evolutionary term addresses the following phenomena: adaptive radiation (rapid formation of many species from one ancestral species), tempo of speciation/evolution, historical patterns of the evolution of life on earth, origins of evolutionary novelties, mass extinction events, and biogeography (study of the geographical distribution of species).
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What are the phenomena that are addressed by macroevolution?
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This term refers to a type of evolutionary process, which takes place when a species continues to exist without any significant evolutionary change, but this period of stasis, is then suddenly interrupted by a period of rapid evolutionary change, resulting in speciation.
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What is punctuated equilibria?
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This term refers to a type of evolutionary process, which occurs when a species slowly accumulates small changes over a long period of time, resulting in speciation.
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What is the gradual pattern of speciation?
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In this model of the evolutionary process, periods of evolutionary stasis can occur because of a consistent environment that does not change (predators and climate), when the environment doesn’t change in a way that could lead to allopatric speciation, and when there is a lack of genetic diversity in the allele frequencies, which is needed for natural selection to act upon.
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What are the conditions that lead to evolutionary stasis in the punctuated equilibrium pattern of evolutionary change?
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In this model of the evolutionary process, periods of rapid evolutionary change can occur because of drastic and rapid environmental changes like a catastrophe, disruption in the environment that leads to allopatric speciation, and new invasive species.
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What are the conditions that lead to rapid evolutionary change, in the punctuated equilibrium pattern of evolution?
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This is the evolution of many species from one ancestral species, which often occurs relatively rapidly.
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What is adaptive radiation?
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This commonly occurs when a new adaptive zone arises, a new geographical area is colonized, or after a mass extinction event.
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What are the common conditions that facilitative adaptive radiation?
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For this to occur, there usually must be the presence of unoccupied niches because the rapid occupation of competitive exclusion. This term, competitive exclusion, means that it is hard for a species to fill a niche if that niche is already filled by another species. For example, mammals did not dominate the world with many different species until the dinosaurs died out.
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What is the common feature that is important for the successful adaptive radiation of a species’s lineage?
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These zones are major new niches. For example, the first individuals that could fly.
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What are major adaptive zones?
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This is a random (i.e. non-selective) event that basically wipes out everything, producing many empty niches. Importantly, as a result, it allows surviving taxa to radiate into available niches.
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What are mass extinction events, and what is the importance of these mass extinction events?
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This era is the oldest era in the Phanerozoic Eon.
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What is the Paleozoic Era?
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This era takes up the middle portion of the Phanerozoic Eon.
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What is the Mesozoic Era?
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This is the era that is the most recent era in the Phanerozoic Eon. We are currently living in this era.
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What is the Cenozoic Era?
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In Paleozoic Era, this major mass extinction occurred and it destroyed 96% of all marine species. It was the largest mass extinction that has occurred.
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What is the importance of the Permian extinction that occurred at the end of the Paleozoic Era?
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At the end of the Mesozoic Era, this famous late mass extinction occurred.
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What is the era that is marked by the occurrence of the Cretaceous extinction?
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When this mass extinction occurred, it happened very slowly because it took place as a result of the slow build up of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, which eventually caused subsequent major climate warming while decreasing the oxygen levels.
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What are the characteristics of the Permian extinction?
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When this mass extinction occurred, it happened very suddenly and without notice because it was caused by a meteorite impact. Meteorite impacts have been implicated in many major and minor extinction events.
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What are the characteristics of the late Cretaceous extinction?
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Some biologists say that this event is occurring right now because of human impact and its pace, which is relatively quick in geological standards.
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What are the people who are saying that a mass extinction is occurring right now?
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This geological event affects evolution in the following ways: it can cause evolution to occur because of allopatric speciation—fragmentation of species leading to divergence, it can cause evolutionary changes do to changes in climate, random chance, and most importantly different selective pressures being placed in species—coalescence of species brings new selective pressures, (i.e. new invasive species, old species leaving or dying out, competition for new or old niches in the ecosystem, introduction of new pathogens, parasites).
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What are the effects that continental drift has on evolution?
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This term explains why some taxa are found throughout the world. It states that some taxa do not disperse but stay put and are then dispersed by continental motion. That is, the species do not move, the continents move, and as a result of the continents moving, the species are found on different continents.
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What is vicariance biogeography?
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This is a system of classifying individuals based on their evolutionary relationships (i.e. who is related to whom).
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What is systematics?
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This system of classification is mainly used to show the true evolutionary (i.e. phylogenetic) relationships between organisms because they want to understand the process of evolution in organisms.
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What is the purpose of systematics?
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These trees are branching patterns that reflect the evolutionary relationships of organisms.
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What are phylogenetic trees?
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This is the relationship between two resulting lineages of two taxas that came about from the same branching node.
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What are sister taxa?
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On a phylogenetic tree, this is a branch point that gave rise to two or more lineages.
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What is a node on a phylogenetic tree?
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This is where a branch point gave rise to more than two lineages.
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What is polytomy, on a phylogenetic tree?
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These types of taxa are importantly more closely related to each other than to other taxa represented in a phylogenetic tree (i.e., they share a common ancestor compared to the other taxa).
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What is the important characteristic of sister taxa?
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This group of biologists hates polytomies because when they see one, it means that they do not have enough data to show the relationship between the evolutions of the organisms (i.e. to show which one of these organisms is more closely related to this or that other one).
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What is the reason why systematists hate polytomies?
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This group of scientists classify organisms using the following methods: they look for similarities and under the assumption that close relatives should be more similar to each other than distant relatives they group organisms with similarities closely together.
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What are the methods of systematics?
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This group of scientists' nemesis is convergence evolution. They try to vanquish this nemesis by distinguishing between similarities resulting from common ancestry and those resulting from convergence.
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What is the nemesis of systematics?
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This is when natural selection produces similar features (i.e., adaptations) in species with similar ways of life and in similar environments).
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What is convergence?
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This is the idea that a similarity results from common ancestry (i.e. homologous features can be traced back to a common ancestral precursor). It is determined by analysis of structure, development, developmental genetics, etc.
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What is the concept of homology?
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This is a similarity that results from evolutionary convergence (i.e. analogous features have independent evolutionary origins).
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What is homoplasy?
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These are features of organisms (structural, physiological, beaviors, molecular, etc.) used by systematists to construct phyogenies.
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What are characters?
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These structures are useful to study because they show the evolutionary steps that were taken in order to produce this organism, but its opposite, does not show any evolutionary patterns.
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What is the reason why homologous characters are useful, but its opposite, homoplastic characters should be ignored?
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This relationship between organisms’ characters should be ignored because it does not tell systematics anything about the evolutionary history of an organism. It does not have a use because it results from convergence.
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What is the reason why homplastic (analogous) characteristics should be ignored?
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This is another name for phylogenetic systematics. It groups organisms into monphletic groups (i.e, all members share a common ancestor), called clades.
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What is cladistics?
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These are monophyletic groups (i.e. groups of organisms where all of the members share a common ancestor).
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What are clades?
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These are groups of organisms that are defined by their shared and derived characters (i.e. synapomorphies).
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What are the characteristics that define a clade?
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Its opposite is an ancestral character (i.e. plesiomorphy).
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What is the opposite of a derived character?
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This type of characters is usually ignored when trying to determine a phylogenetic relationship because they are often found scattered irregularly among terminal taxa of a tree. That is, since they are so general and broad, they do not appropriately show the evolutionary relationships (its path, direction, branches, and speciation) between organisms.
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What is the reason why ancestral characters are often ignored when trying to determine a phylogenetic relationship?
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This defines where which state of the variable character is ancestral and which is derived.
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What is the polarity of a variable character?
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How may an order establishing conservatorship, possession, or access be modified?
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Exclusive power to make certain decisions are given to one JMC the primary JMC. JMC does not require equal or nearly equal physical possession of child. The court order must establish the child’s residence, or designate which JMC has the exclusive right to determine; include provisions to minimize the disruption of child’s schooling, daily routine and association with friends; and set out rights and duties to be exercised solely by one JMC and those decisions to be exercised jointly. One party can be order to pay child support.
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These are groups of organisms that are distantly related but probably not members of the group under study.
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What are outgroups?
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These relationships on phylogenetic trees can be tested by other kinds of data sets related to the different characters. For example, a systemist can look at gross anatomy, the evolution of the reproductive system, the development of the character, anything that has some historical pattern, etc.
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What are the ways that hypothesized phylogenetic relationships of groups, on phylogenetic trees, can be tests?
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It is a group that includes an ancestral species and all of its decedents.
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What is a monophyletic group?
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It is a group that includes an ancestral species and some but not all of its decedents.
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What is a paraphyletic group?
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It is a group that includes species with different ancestors.
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What is a polyphyletic group?
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This way of grouping organisms is wrong because it obscures true evolutionary relationships and it can bias interpretation of biology of organisms included in or excluded from a taxon (e.g. many features of dinosaurs reconstructed as lizard-like (“reptilian”) rather than avian because dinosaurs are considered “reptiles” but birds are not)
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What is wrong with paraphyletic groups?
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Life exists in one of the three following classifications of life, Bacteria, Archea, and Eukarya. Each of these groups represents this type of classification of living organisms.
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What are the three domains of life?
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This domain of life lacks a nuclei.
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What is the cellular structure that prokaryotes lack?
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This domain of life has nucleated cells, which is not found in Prokaryotic cells.
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What is the cellular structure that is found in Eukaryotes, but it is not found in Prokaryotes?
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This domain of life forms a paraphyletic group.
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What is the type of group that is used to group Prokaryotes?
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These organisms have the following characteristics: small size, lacks a nucleus, lack membrane-bound organelles, lack cytoskeleton, have cell wall, divide by binary fission rather than mitosis and meiosis.
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What are the characteristics of Prokaryotes?
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This Eon started with the origin of the Earth.
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What is the Archaean Eon?
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This Eon began with the first life on Earth. It is when Biologists see lots of fossils in the rocks.
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What is the Proterozoic Eon?
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This is the present Eon that is going on right now.
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What is the Phanerozoic Eon?
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The following Eras occurred in order within this Eon: Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.
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What is the order of the Eras within the Phanerozoic Eon?
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The fossil records of stromatolites, which still exist today, support the origin of this domain of life.
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What is the evidence that is still around to day, which supports the fact that prokaryotes have been around for 3.6 billion years?
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These are mostly Archean extremophiles that live in extremely hot conditions.
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What are Thermophiles?
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These are most Archean extremophiles that live in extremely salty environments.
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What are Halophiles?
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These are mostly Archean extremophiles that live in extremely anerobic conditions. They use CO2 to oxidize H2, releasing methane as a waste product.
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What are Methanogens?
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These are prokaryotes that use light as their energy source and CO2 as their carbon source.
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What are photoautotrops?
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These are prokaryotes that use in organic compounds as their energy source and CO2 as their carbon source.
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What are Chemoautotrophs?
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These are prokaryotes that use light as their energy source and organic compounds as their carbon source.
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What are Photoheterotrophs?
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These are prokaryotes that use organic compounds as their energy source and organic compounds for their carbon source.
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What are Chemoheterotrophs?
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These are colonies that cover surfaces. It has an architectural structure that allows for the movement of gases, wastes, nutrients, and etc.
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What are biofilms?
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These are resistant cells that are made from a bacterium copying its chromosome and surrounding it with a thick, tough, coat When they are made, it is eventually released by its parent cell, and lies dormant until conditions improve. They can survive harsh conditions and for long periods of time
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What are endospores?
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These organisms can divide quickly by binary fission and they have a very short generation time.
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What are the reproduction characteristics of prokaryotes?
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These organisms can transfer DNA either through the process of transformation, transduction, or conjugation.
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What are the three ways that Bacteria can transfer DNA?
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This occurs when bacteria pick up DNA from the environment.
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What is transformation?
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This occurs when bacteriophages inadvertently transfer genes from one host cell to another host cell.
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What is transduction?
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This occurs when a DNA is transferred between two joined bacteria.
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What is conjugation?
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Having this means that the organisms can quickly adapt to new selective pressures.
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What is the important factor that comes along with having a short generation time?
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These organisms benefit from this evolutionary structure like minimizing the chances of dehydration, protection against immune systems, and etc.
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What are the evolutionary functions of prokaryotes having a cell wall?
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Organisms that have this evolutionary structure cannot perform any form of phagocytosis, including endocytosis.
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What are the evolutionary drawbacks from prokaryotes having a cell wall?
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These organisms need a high surface area to volume ratio in order to optimally absorb outside nutrients and maintain internal functions.
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What is the ratio of surface area to volume needed for optimum cellular absorption of nutrients and maintaining internal functions?
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Organisms needing to have this type of surface area to volume ratio required them to remain evolutionarily small instead of growing to epic proportions.
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What is the impact of cellular organisms need a high surface area to volume ratio?
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These organisms perform the following jobs: major photoautotrops needed to capture sunlight energy, main decomposers, which are important in cycling of energy and various chemicals, critical for biogeochemical cycling (fix atmospheric N2, extract minerals from orcks, etc.), and finally, they work in the guts of species in order to produce nutrients and vitamins for host organisms.
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What are the biological important jobs that are carried out by prokaryotes?
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These organisms can be used in bioremidation (they are used to remove pollutants from the environment). Also they are used to make food, plastic, and metal extraction, and they are used in biotechnology in order to make genetic engineering.
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What are the applied uses of prokaryotes?
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This domain of life has the following synapomorphies: a nucleus, cytoskeleton, mitochondria, and chimeric genome.
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What are some synapomorphies of Eukarya?
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These organisms started to exist on Earth around 2.1-2.2 billion years ago.
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What is the date around which eukarytoes started to show up on Earth?
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These are organic molecules produced only by living cells and they importantly place eukaryotes as existing on Earth much earlier than earlier stated dates.
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What are biomarkers and what is their importance?
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This theory is a theory about how eukaryotes acquired membrane bound organelles. It states that eukaryotes ingested other membrane bound organelles like free-floating mitochondria or chloroplasts (or another perspective states that the free-floating organelles entered as parasites). Once ingested, the eukaryotes formed a symbiotic relationship with the newly ingested organelles. This theory is supported by the fact that the membrane bound organelles inside of the eukaryotes have double membrane layers, one of which is their original layer. The same theory is used to explain why eukaryotes have so much DNA.
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What is the Endosymbiont theory?
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These ingested organelles (what is their name?), offer their hosts aerobic respiration, photosynthesis, and their host cell offers them a nice, safe, and stable environment (e.g. protection from dehydration or other cells ingesting it).
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What are the benefits that the endosymbionts offer to the host cell and what are the benefits that the host cell offers to the endosymbionts?
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This is a theory that states that endosymbiosis has occureed more than once in some eukaryotic lineages. For example, engulfed cyanobacteria formed first plastids in ancestral eukaryotes. Descendant photoautotrophic algal cells in turn were engulfed by other eukaryotes and the algal plastids were retained and provided photosynthetic capabilities.
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What is secondary endosymbiosis?
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These are genomes that consist of genes from different sources.
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What are chimeric genomes?
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Eukaryotes have this type of genome.
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What is the domain of life that has chimeric genomes?
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This group of organisms’ genomes is composed of genes from Archaea and Bacteria domains. Archea genes provide genes for this groups genetic machinery while Bacteria genes provide this group with metabolic machinery.
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What are the two domains that compose Eukaryotes chimeric genome, and what is their function?
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This type of genome exists because of non-reproductive transfer between organisms like transduction, transformation, and conjugation.
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What is the method that facilitates chimeric genomes?
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This type of gene transfer occurs when parents pass along their genetic information to their offspring.
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What is vertical gene transfer?
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This type of gene transfer occurs when two different organisms transfer genes between them. For example, transduction, transformation, and conjugation.
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What is horizontal gene transfer?
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This type of genetic change can instantly occur when genes are horizontal transferred.
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What is the type of genetic transfer that can generate instantaneous evolutionary change?
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Horizontal gene transfer is essential to this discipline of applied biological sciences. (Speculate why too)
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What is the type of genetic transfer that is essential to genetic engineering today?
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These organisms most likely acquired this type of genome from the two probably causes. One, they may have endosymbiosed mitochondria and plastids. Then, those endosymbionts’ genes may have eventually been incorporated into these organisms’ genomes. Two, the process of non-reproductive gene transfer may have lead to a chimeric genome.
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What are the two most provable explanations for the how eukaryotes acquired a chimeric genome.
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This group of microorganisms can no longer be classified as a monophyletic group. Instead, they are a paraphyletic group.
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What is the systemic name of the protists group?
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These organisms are both unicellular and multicultural. Also, they can form colonies.
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What cellular structure of life for protists (i.e. unicellular, multicellular, etc.)?
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Speculate
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What is the role that horizontal gene transfer could have had in the evolution of protist’s diversity?
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These organisms use either of the following modes of travel: cilia, flagella, or pseudopodia.
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What are the structures that protist’s use to move around?
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These groups of organisms have the following altruistic behavior: they can form bioflims, they can aggregate together during harsh times and sporulate to protect the species, and they can make endospores.
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What altruistic traits are found in microorganisms?
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These organisms have the following two trends in their evolution: one, lineages evolved complicated systems of sexual reproduction, and two, several have independently evolved multicellularity.
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What are the two main trends of eukaryotic evolution?
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This is the process of combining genes from different individuals.
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What is the definition of sex?
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These organisms’ sex is separate from reproduction because they only perform horizontal gene transfer.
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What are the characteristics of prokaryotic sex?
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This happens when genetic material is transferred from one organism to another, and this other term happens when parent(s) make offspring.
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What is the difference between sex and reproduction?
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This is defined as the regular alternation between syngamy and meiosis.
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What is sexual reproduction?
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This is the union of gametes (i.e. fertilization) that creates a diploid generation.
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What is syngamy?
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This is the reduction from diploid to haploid number of chromosomes, producing a haploid generation (either the diploid or the haploid generation can be “functioning” organisms).
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What is meiosis?
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These two processes are independent of each other.
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What is the relationship between sex and reproduction?
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These organisms’ main sexual pattern is called gametic meiosis.
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What is the main pattern of sexual reproduction for animals?
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These organisms’ main sexual pattern is called sporic meiosis.
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What is the main pattern of sexual reproduction for plants?
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These organisms’ main sexual pattern is called zygotic meiosis.
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What is the main sexual pattern of fungi?
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This type of sexual reproduction has the following advantages: 100% of your genome gets passed to the next generation,it is faster, it takes less time, and it takes less energy.
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What are the advantages of asexual reproduction?
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This type of sexual reproduction has the following advantages: there will be more genetic diversity in the individual's offspring and it can be especially advantageous in fluctuating environments.
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What are the advantages of sexual reproduction?
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