Transcript History of Life / Evolution Study Guide KEY

Miss Colabelli
 Define the following terms
 Biogenesis: principle that all living things come
from other living things
 Spontaneous generation: belief that living things
arise from non-living things
 Vital force: the idea that organisms grew from the
air from an all knowing force
 Half-life: the length of time it takes for one-half of
a radioactive isotope to decay to a stable form
 Radiometric dating: method of establishing the
age of materials using half-life of isotopes
 Explain Redi’s experiment.
 Jars were set up with meat inside and allowed to
rot. The control group had jars exposed to the
environment and not covered. The experimental
group had jars covered with cloth so air can flow
through, but organisms cannot enter or leave.
 Results: The uncovered jars that were exposed to
flies had maggots growing that eventually turned
into flies. The covered jars did not have any
maggots
 Explain Spallanzani’s
experiment.
 Boiled clear, fresh broth until the
flasks filled with steam. The
control group had a flask that
remained open during
experiment time. The
experimental group had a flask
that was immediately covered
before cooling so not to allow air
or bacteria to enter
 Results: The uncovered flask
(control group) became
contaminated with
microorganisms when air entered.
The experimental group flask did
not have any growth.
 Explain Pasteur’s experiment.
 Started the experiment by boiling broth in
the curved neck flask to kill any
microorganisms inside. Left the flask to sit
for one year – the broth was still clear. After
a year, the neck of the flask was broken
 Results: After one day being exposed to the
air, the broth became contaminated with
microorganisms.
 List the chemicals Oparin believed to
have been our early atmosphere.
 Ammonia (NH3)
 Hydrogen gas (H2)
 Water vapor (H2O)
 Methane (CH4)
 In the Miller-Urey experiment, what were
the starting reactants?
 The starting reactants were water vapor, methane
gas, ammonia, and hydrogen gas. These are all
inorganic compounds.
• Who is Darwin and what is he best known for?
• British naturalist that came up with the theory of
evolution by the means of natural selection.
• What is the theory of acquired traits? Give an
example of an acquired trait and an inherited trait.
• The theory of acquired traits is a hypothesis that Jean-
Baptiste Lamarck had to explain how organisms evolve.
His theory was that organisms do change over their
lifetime. As organisms use and disuse their organs, it
will determine what will become more prominent and
passed on to their offspring. An example of an acquired
trait would be an accent in language or a scar from a cut,
or clipping wings short in flies.
• Where did the common ancestor of the finches come
from?
• Darwin believed that the common ancestor of the finches
came from the mainland of South America (most likely
Ecuador).
 Define the following terms:
 Biogeography: The study of where species and their
ancestors live.
 Adaptation: The process by which a population
becomes better suited to its environment
 Fossil: The ancient remains of an extinct organism
 Divergent evolution: The accumulation of differences
between populations that once formed from a single
population (ex: dog breeds from wolves)
 Coevolution: The process by which two or more
species becomes more adapted over time to each
other’s presence and evolve together (ex: bacteria
and antibiotics)
 Adaptive radiation: When a new population in a new
environment will undergo evolution until the
population fills many parts of the environment (ex:
finch beaks in Galapagos)
 What does the phrase “survival of the fittest” mean?
 Survival of the fittest is the continued existence of
organisms that are best adapted to the environment that
enable them to reproduce.
 What was the main idea of Darwin’s book On the
Origin of Species?
 The main idea of Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species,
is that species evolve very slowly over a long period of
time through the process of natural selection.
 What is the difference between homologous and
analogous structures? Give examples of each.
 Homologous structures: similar structure different
function ex: wing of a bird and a human arm
 Analogous structures: similar function different
structure ex: wing of bat and wing of butterfly
 What are vestigial structures? Give an example.
 A vestigial structure is an organ that no longer serves a
function in the body of an organism. Ex: human tail bone,
pelvis in whales
 What contributions did the following scientists do to influence
Darwin?
 Hutton: Geologist that explained the Earth is changing and
much older than a few thousand years old
 Lamarck: French naturalist that supported the idea that
organisms changed over time (lifetime), created the theory of
acquired traits. Darwin later explained that this was false.
 Wallace: scientist who came up with the same idea of evolution.
He wrote to Darwin and told him about the idea of evolution,
pushed Darwin to publish his book before him
 What is the difference between natural and artificial selection?
 Natural selection – When organisms that are best adapted to
their environment will live and mature. These organisms will
then choose their mate by means of fitness
 Artificial selection – when humans choose the traits and control
breeding
 Explain Darwin’s theory of descent with modification.
 The theory of descent with modification is the idea that every
species must have descended with small changes over a long
period of time by reproduction from a preexisting species
 Explain the differences between the finches on the Galapagos
Islands and why they have these adaptations.
 Finch beaks are different on each island because of the different
food that is found in their environment. They had to adapt to
survive and through natural selection, new species arouse. Darwin
believed they had a common ancestor because they had many
similar internal structures.
 Compare a homologous structure to a modern day species. How
would this show a common ancestry between the species?
 By comparing a homologous structure like a bat wing to a human
arm can show common ancestry because the bone structure is
very similar and during development the cells responsible for
creating these structures are the same in each organism. Based on
the function of the organ, the changes begin to differentiate them
between organisms. The common ancestor that each of these
organisms’ shares would have had the same development in the
structure.
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