Human Evolutionary Biology- Quiz 1 Study Guide

Human Evolutionary Biology- Quiz 1 Study Guide

Lecture 2: Science

• What is Science?

Science is a process that involves understanding a particular phenomenon by making observations, generalizations, and verifying findings.

• Three major components of scientific thinking.
  1. Empiricism
  2. Rationalism
  3. Skepticism
• Types of non-empirical evidence and their definitions.
  1. Hearsay Evidence: Information heard from another person. It is not good scientific data unless verified.
  2. Revelatory Evidence: Information revealed to a person by a deity. It is non-empirical because it cannot be verified.
  3. Emotional Evidence: Information derived from a person’s subjective feelings. It is non-empirical because it is only experienced.
• Different types of biases (confirmation, self-serving, hindsight)
  1. Confirmation: Seeking evidence supporting one’s beliefs and avoiding contradictory evidence.
  2. Self-serving: Attributing one’s successes to one’s skills or efforts and failures to external forces.
  3. Hindsight: Viewing past events as being more predictable than they truly were.
• What is the major goal of science?

The major goal of science is generating reliable knowledge regarding the observable world.

• Explain the basic steps of the scientific method

The scientific method follows the following basic steps:

1. Observations: Making observations regarding a certain phenomenon.
2. Question: Formulating a question based on the observations made.

• Hypothesis: Developing a hypothesis, a provisional explanation of the observed phenomenon.

1. Prediction: Making predictions of the developed hypothesis. The predictions should provide clear and objective criteria for acceptance or rejection.
2. Testing: Experimenting to determine whether the test supports the hypothesis or not. If the test does not support the hypothesis, the hypothesis is revised, or a new one is formulated. If the test supports the hypothesis, additional predictions are made and tested.

• What is a scientific hypothesis?

This is a provisional explanation of a phenomenon.

• The major aspects of a good hypothesis

A good hypothesis should be falsifiable, logical, consistent with prior knowledge, and simple.

• Examples of falsifiable hypotheses

1. High temperatures lower sexual reproduction in tomatoes.
2. Cold temperatures lead to reduced ice cream sales.

• What is Occam’s razor?

Occam’s razor states that one should not extend beyond what is necessary or the number of entities required to explain something.

• What is a scientific theory?

A scientific theory comprises a set of hypotheses that scientists have tested in many ways over many years and have not rejected.

Lecture 3: Introduction to Evolution

• Major hypotheses of evolutionary theory (extinction, common descent, speciation, descent with modification, natural selection) (be able to define each!)

1. Extinction: This hypothesis proposes that all members of a species can die without any of them leaving behind any living descendants.
2. Common Descent: This hypothesis postulates that groups of similar animals or plants share characteristics because they have a common ancestor.
3. Speciation: This hypothesis suggests that new species can be derived from existing species.
4. Descent with Modification: This hypothesis proposes that with time, the features of a species can change.
5. Natural Selection: This hypothesis postulates that species change over time because generations that can only produce other successive generations are those that have attributes that enable them to successfully compete for limited resources.

• What is Darwin’s major contribution to the evolutionary theory?

Darwin’s major contribution to evolutionary theory is the explanation of exactly how modifications can occur in species over time. Darwin reasoned that if the differences among individuals affect their ability to obtain resources, then individuals with favorable characteristics are likelier to live to reproduce.

Lecture 4: Inheritance and Genetics

• What is heredity?

Heredity is the transmission of traits from parents to their offspring.

• What are Mendel’s 3 principles of inheritance? (be able to define each!)
  1. The Principle of Segregation: There must be discrete unchanging particles of inheritance. The genetic material carrying traits from parents must remain distinct and separate and should not blend or merge.
  2. The Principle of Dominance: Some alleles are dominant while others are recessive.
  3. The Principle of Independent Assortment: Genes coding for different traits are inherited independently.
• What is an allele?

An allele is an alternative form of a gene.

• Homozygous vs Heterozygous

Homozygous: Individuals with two copies of the same allele at a locus.

Heterozygous: Individuals with two different alleles at a locus.

• Dominant vs Recessive

Dominant: A trait expressed even if only one dominant allele is present.

Recessive: A trait expressed only when the two recessive alleles are present.

• Practice drawing Punnet squares crossing:
• Two homozygotes

 

			gg (Homozygous recessive)
	GG (Homozygous dominant)

 

	g	g
G	Gg	Gg
G	Gg	Gg

 

• Two heterozygotes

			Yy (Heterozygous)
	Yy (Heterozygous)

 

	Y	y
Y	YY	Yy
y	yY	yy

 

Gg (Heterozygous)

• One homozygote and one heterozygote

	GG (Homozygous dominant)

 

	G	g
G	GG	Gg
G	GG	Gg

 

• What is the structure of DNA?

DNA contains two strands wrapped around each other in a ladder/helix, with each rung of the helix containing complimentary base pairs (adenine pairing with thymine and guanine with cytosine).

• What components make up an individual nucleotide?

A sugar, a phosphate, and a nitrogenous base

Lecture 5: Forces of Evolution

• Define evolution in genetic terms.

Evolution is the change in allele frequency within a population from generation to generation.

• What are the four forces of evolution? (Be able to define each!)

1. Mutation: This is a change in the DNA sequence. Radiation, chemicals, virus actions, and replication errors induce these changes.
2. Natural Selection: Changes in allele frequencies from one generation to another that occur through the differential reproductive success of individuals with different qualities.
3. Gene Flow: Changes in allele frequencies brought about by the migration of individuals of two or more separate populations within a species whose members do not usually interbreed.
4. Genetic Drift: Changes in allele frequencies from one generation to the next due to random sampling.

• Which force of evolution needs to be reduced or terminated in order for speciation to occur?

Gene flow

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

---

I need you to review my Quiz 1 study guide and answer every question using my class lecture slides ONLY please review all of my class lecture slides and then answer all the questions. My professor broke the questions up into parts so you will know what lecture slide to use to answer the questions.

WHEN YOU ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS USING MY CLASS LECTURES PLEASE LABLE IT LECTURE 2: SCIENCE, LECTURE 3, LECTURE 4, ETC. LIKE HOW MY PROFESSOR DID. SO I KNOW WHICH SECTION THE QUESTION AND ANSWERS ARE COMING FROM. ANSWER THE QUESTIONS EXACTLY HOW MY PROFESSOR HAS IT SET UP IN THE PDF.