Evolution and Speciation
Define evolution. Why is it inaccurate for creationists to tout evolution as âjust a theoryâ? (Think about what theory actually means in scientific terms vs. the use of the word âtheoryâ in casual conversations).
Explain what the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium shows and describe the conditions necessary for the equilibrium to be maintained.
Explain what factors cause populations to diverge from the Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium and how each factor causes the change.
Describe how species evolve via natural selection. (Be sure to discuss the key aspects of natural selection: variation, heredity differential survival and reproductive success in your answer).
What does speciation mean and how can it occur?
What does adaptation mean? Why is natural selection the only agent of evolutionary change that leads to adaptation? (Think about how natural selection works).
Is natural selection all powerful? Can it create any variation that you or I could think of? Why or why not?
Differentiate between natural and sexual selection.
What is reproductive isolation?
Describe prezygotic and postzygotic mechanisms of reproductive isolation and explain how they can contribute to speciation.
Distinguish between allopatric and sympatric speciation and explain how each leads to new species.
What is adaptive radiation?
Be able to read and interpret phylogenetic trees: be able to determine which species are most closely related to each other, what nodes represent, where common ancestors would be located, etc.
What are paraphyletic, polyphyletic and monophyletic groups within a phylogeny?
