ASM 246 EXAM ONE QUESTIONS WITH
COMPLETE REVIEWED CORRECT
ANSWERS.ALREADY GRADED A+
1. The ability of a population to expand is infinite, but the ability of the environment to support
population is always finite
(Environment constrains population growth)
2. Organisms within populations vary, and this variation affects ability of organism to survive and
reproduce
( Individuals vary in ability to survive and reproduce)
3.Variations are transmitted from parents to offspring
(Offspring resemble parents
(heritability)) - answer ✔✔-According to Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, what three
conditions are necessary for natural selection to produce adaptations?
• Complex adaptations evolve through the cumulative retention of small changes
• Before Darwin there was no scientific explanation for the fact that organisms are well adapted to their
circumstances
• His 3 postulates led to evolutionary change
• Before Darwin, however, people thought of species as unchanging categories, much the same way
that we think of geometrical figures,
o Ex. A finich could no more change its properities than a triangle could. If a triangle acquired another
side, it would not be a modified triange, but a rectangle - answer ✔✔-Why does Darwin's theory play
such a crucial role in understanding human bodies and behavior?
• Adaptations require a special kind of explanation because thy are complex in a particular, highly
improbably way.
• If the grand canyon had a different geological history and was a different color we would still call it a
canyon, BUT if an eye had a different geological history it would NOT function the right way
, • It is highly improbably that natural processes would randomly bring together bits of matter having the
detailed structure of the eye - answer ✔✔-Explain why the complexity of natural geological features like
the Grand Canyon are different from the complexity of living organisms.
• The Grants caught, measured, weighed, and banded nearly every finch on Galapagos island. They kept
track of cirtical feature of the birds environment, such as the distribution of seeds of various sizes and
the birds behavior. During their study there was a sever drought. Which meant less seeds, and less soft
seeds, only hard. They kept detailed records about the environmental conditions, which allowed them
to determine how the drought affected the finch's habitat.
• Darwins Postulates
1) The supply of food on the island was not sufficent to feed the entire population and many finished
did not surive the drought
2)beak depth varied among the birds on the island, and this a variation affected the bird's survival
(Birds with deeper beaks were able to process large, hard seeds more easily than ird with shallower
beaks)
( Shallower beaked birds were at a disadvantage it was hard for them to crack the seed)
3)Paren - answer ✔✔-Describe the research done by Peter and Rosemary Grant on the Galapagos
finches, and explain how their observations provide an example of the role of Darwin's postulates in
adaptive evolution.
• Cumulative process: selection can gie rise to great complexity starting with small random variations
• Continuous variation: essential for the evolution of complex adaptation
o Phenotypic variation in which there is a continuum of types. Height is humans is an example of
continuous variation
• by removing maize with lower grain oil content from the gene pool and breeding the maize with
higher concentrations of high oil grains the average plant had more grains with higher concentrated oil
contents. a new type of plant wasn't developed, they simply bred plants to have more of one type of
seed. - answer ✔✔-Selection removes less fit types from a population, but doesn't add any new types.
Mutations are very rare, but nonetheless selection can change populations so that in a relatively short
time, the average individual is unlike any individual in the original population. For example, in the
University of Illinois selection experiment on maize the highest oil content was about 6%, but after 80
generations the mean oil content was almost 20%. Explain how this can happen.
1) The ability of a population to expand is infinite, but the ability of an environment to support
populations is always finite
COMPLETE REVIEWED CORRECT
ANSWERS.ALREADY GRADED A+
1. The ability of a population to expand is infinite, but the ability of the environment to support
population is always finite
(Environment constrains population growth)
2. Organisms within populations vary, and this variation affects ability of organism to survive and
reproduce
( Individuals vary in ability to survive and reproduce)
3.Variations are transmitted from parents to offspring
(Offspring resemble parents
(heritability)) - answer ✔✔-According to Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, what three
conditions are necessary for natural selection to produce adaptations?
• Complex adaptations evolve through the cumulative retention of small changes
• Before Darwin there was no scientific explanation for the fact that organisms are well adapted to their
circumstances
• His 3 postulates led to evolutionary change
• Before Darwin, however, people thought of species as unchanging categories, much the same way
that we think of geometrical figures,
o Ex. A finich could no more change its properities than a triangle could. If a triangle acquired another
side, it would not be a modified triange, but a rectangle - answer ✔✔-Why does Darwin's theory play
such a crucial role in understanding human bodies and behavior?
• Adaptations require a special kind of explanation because thy are complex in a particular, highly
improbably way.
• If the grand canyon had a different geological history and was a different color we would still call it a
canyon, BUT if an eye had a different geological history it would NOT function the right way
, • It is highly improbably that natural processes would randomly bring together bits of matter having the
detailed structure of the eye - answer ✔✔-Explain why the complexity of natural geological features like
the Grand Canyon are different from the complexity of living organisms.
• The Grants caught, measured, weighed, and banded nearly every finch on Galapagos island. They kept
track of cirtical feature of the birds environment, such as the distribution of seeds of various sizes and
the birds behavior. During their study there was a sever drought. Which meant less seeds, and less soft
seeds, only hard. They kept detailed records about the environmental conditions, which allowed them
to determine how the drought affected the finch's habitat.
• Darwins Postulates
1) The supply of food on the island was not sufficent to feed the entire population and many finished
did not surive the drought
2)beak depth varied among the birds on the island, and this a variation affected the bird's survival
(Birds with deeper beaks were able to process large, hard seeds more easily than ird with shallower
beaks)
( Shallower beaked birds were at a disadvantage it was hard for them to crack the seed)
3)Paren - answer ✔✔-Describe the research done by Peter and Rosemary Grant on the Galapagos
finches, and explain how their observations provide an example of the role of Darwin's postulates in
adaptive evolution.
• Cumulative process: selection can gie rise to great complexity starting with small random variations
• Continuous variation: essential for the evolution of complex adaptation
o Phenotypic variation in which there is a continuum of types. Height is humans is an example of
continuous variation
• by removing maize with lower grain oil content from the gene pool and breeding the maize with
higher concentrations of high oil grains the average plant had more grains with higher concentrated oil
contents. a new type of plant wasn't developed, they simply bred plants to have more of one type of
seed. - answer ✔✔-Selection removes less fit types from a population, but doesn't add any new types.
Mutations are very rare, but nonetheless selection can change populations so that in a relatively short
time, the average individual is unlike any individual in the original population. For example, in the
University of Illinois selection experiment on maize the highest oil content was about 6%, but after 80
generations the mean oil content was almost 20%. Explain how this can happen.
1) The ability of a population to expand is infinite, but the ability of an environment to support
populations is always finite
