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Bio 117 WVU Questions with Answers (100% Correct
Answers)
which evolutionary process results in adaptation? Answer: Natural
selection is the only evolutionary process that results in adaptation
Stabilizing selection Answer: favors the intermediate phenotype, and
selects against extremes in a population
Disruptive selection Answer: favors extreme phenotypes, and selects
against intermediate phenotypes
Directional selection Answer: favors one extreme phenotype, and
selects against the other phenotypes
natural selection Answer: A process in which individuals that have
certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates
than other individuals because of those traits.
gene flow Answer: is the movement of alleles between populations
ancestoral trait Answer: trait shared by a group of organisms as a result
of descent from a common ancestor
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derived trait Answer: a trait that differs from the ancestral trait
Clade Answer: A group of species that includes an ancestral species and
all its descendants.
Synapomorphy Answer: shared derived trait
homoplastic traits Answer: similar traits generated by convergent
evolution and evolutionary reversals
polyphyletic group Answer: does not include the common ancestor
genetic drift Answer: random change in allele frequencies that occurs in
small populations
founder effect Answer: change in allele frequencies as a result of the
migration of a small subgroup of a population
bottleneck effect Answer: Genetic drift resulting from the reduction of a
population, typically by a natural disaster, such that the surviving
population is no longer genetically representative of the original
population.
sister taxa Answer: groups that share an immediate common ancestor
© 2025 All rights reserved
Bio 117 WVU Questions with Answers (100% Correct
Answers)
which evolutionary process results in adaptation? Answer: Natural
selection is the only evolutionary process that results in adaptation
Stabilizing selection Answer: favors the intermediate phenotype, and
selects against extremes in a population
Disruptive selection Answer: favors extreme phenotypes, and selects
against intermediate phenotypes
Directional selection Answer: favors one extreme phenotype, and
selects against the other phenotypes
natural selection Answer: A process in which individuals that have
certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates
than other individuals because of those traits.
gene flow Answer: is the movement of alleles between populations
ancestoral trait Answer: trait shared by a group of organisms as a result
of descent from a common ancestor
© 2025 All rights reserved
, 2
derived trait Answer: a trait that differs from the ancestral trait
Clade Answer: A group of species that includes an ancestral species and
all its descendants.
Synapomorphy Answer: shared derived trait
homoplastic traits Answer: similar traits generated by convergent
evolution and evolutionary reversals
polyphyletic group Answer: does not include the common ancestor
genetic drift Answer: random change in allele frequencies that occurs in
small populations
founder effect Answer: change in allele frequencies as a result of the
migration of a small subgroup of a population
bottleneck effect Answer: Genetic drift resulting from the reduction of a
population, typically by a natural disaster, such that the surviving
population is no longer genetically representative of the original
population.
sister taxa Answer: groups that share an immediate common ancestor
© 2025 All rights reserved
