Things to know for final

What does the technique of grouping organisms into clades, or the field of cladistics, refer to?  How does a clade differ from a phylogeny?

Darwin's lines of evidence (5) for his theory of evolution are:

What is a homologous structure?  Give an example

What is the difference between the genotype and phenotype of an organism? Natural selection operates on which of these?

Suggest at least 3 different causes for mass extinctions in earth history.  What is a mass extinction?  When are the 5 major mass extinctions?  What kinds of data would we employ to distinguish between different ME causes? How would you argue “for” or “against” the present day as part of the next great mass extinction in Earth history?

Is today’s climate cooler or warmer than it’s been for most of the Phanerozoic? If you think the world is cooler now than it’s been for most of the Phanerozoic, isn’t global warming from the greenhouse effect a good thing?  explain

When was the last high stand of sea level?  Why is global sea level so low today?

What does the concept of “pre-adaptation’ refer to?  Give an example.

What’s wrong with the statement, “birds developed wings so they could fly”

The two theories which discuss the rate at which speciation occurs are punctuated equilibrium and phyletic gradualism.  Explain how these differ in their interpretation about how new species arise, and how these modes of evolution are related to the patterns we see in evolution: anagenesis and cladogenesis.

What is the difference between natural selection and evolution?

Of Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle, two landfalls on the voyage stand out as particularly important to Darwin’s later thinking. These stops were in Andes and the Galapagos Islands. Explain why these two places were so important.

Definitions:

species adaptive radiation                   monophyletic homology

convergent evolution              polyphyletic

population                                anagenesis

cladogenesis                            mass extinction                                      genetic drift natural selection

In order for evolution to occur you need genetic variation and natural selection.  What are the ways that you produce genetic variation?

What is the relationship between mass extinction and adaptive radiation?

If given a block diagram, can you establish the sequence of events from oldest to youngest? Sample problem:

Can you correlate stratigraphic columns using isochrons of (1) marker beds, and (2) index fossils. Can you also complete a lithostratigraphic correlation? Sample problem:

Geologic map interpretation: can you look at a geologic map and recognize anticlines and synclines, and normal and reverse faults?

 What are at least two lines of evidence for how we know that the Archean atmosphere on Earth was lacking free oxygen?

What are at least two conditions present in modern day “black smokers” that make them suitable analogues for the Archean environments where life might have formed?

Many of the organisms that inhabit “extreme environments” such as black smokers metabolize by “chemosynthesis.” What does this mean?

What are the geologic time periods that we call:

1. the age of trilobites

2. the age of fishes

3. the age of amphibians

4. the age of reptiles

5. the age of mammals

Why are these terms technically not correct?

What is the significance of the Ediacaran fauna? The Tommmotian fauna? The Burgess Shale fauna?

What are the geologic periods, era, eons and their absolute ages? (p.12 of your text)