Evolution Review Sheets
Describe what is happening in figures 1-3. Is the population of mice different in figure 3 than in figure 1?
Explain why.
Describe what is happening in figures 1-3.
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Is the population of mice different in figure 3 than in figure 1? Explain why.
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Living things that are well adapted to their environment survive and reproduce. Those that are not well adapted
don’t survive and reproduce. An adaptation is any characteristic that increases fitness, which is defined as the
ability to survive and reproduce. What characteristic of the mice is an adaptation that increased their fitness?
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The table below gives descriptions of four female mice that live in a beach area which is mostly tan sand with
scattered plants. According to the definition given for fitness, which mouse would biologists consider the
fittest? Explain why this mouse would be the fittest.
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Color of fur Black Tan Tan and Cream
Black
Age at death 2 months 8 months 4 months 2 months
# pups produced by each female 0 11 3 0
Running speed 8 cm/sec. 6 cm/sec. 7 cm/sec. 5 cm/sec.
If a mouse's fur color is generally similar to its mother’s color, what color fur would be most common among
the pups?
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A characteristic which is influenced by genes and passed from parents to offspring is called heritable. Over
many generations heritable adaptive characteristics become more common in a population. This process is
called evolution by natural selection. Evolution by natural selection takes place over many, many
generations.
Evolution by natural selection leads to adaptation within a population. The term evolution by natural selection
does not refer to individuals changing, only to changes in the frequency of adaptive characteristics in the
population as a whole. For example, for the mice that lived in the beach area with tan sand, none of the mice
had a change in the color of their fur; however, due to natural selection, tan fur was more common for the pups
than for the mother mice.
In summary, a heritable characteristic that helps an animal or plant to have more offspring which survive to
reproduce will tend to become more common in a population as a result of evolution by natural selection.
Questions
1. Explain why a characteristic which helps an animal to live longer will generally tend to become more
common in the population as a result of evolution by natural selection.
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Vocabulary Review: Define the following terms
1. stabilizing selection____________________________________________________
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2. directional selection ___________________________________________________
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3. disruptive selection ___________________________________________________
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Multiple Choice: Circle the correct answer for each of the questions below.
4. Starlings produce an average of five eggs in each clutch. If there are more than five, the parents cannot
adequately feed the young. If there are fewer than five, predators may destroy the entire clutch. This is
an example of
a. Disruptive selection. b. stabilizing selection.
c. directional selection. d. none of the above.
5. The occurrence of large or small beak sizes among seed crackers in the absence of medium sized
beaks is an example of
a. Directional selection. b. stabilizing selection.
c. disruptive selection. d. none of the above.
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Short Answer: Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
6. What types of individuals in a population are represented by the two ends of a bell curve?
7. If a cow develops a preference for eating white four o’clock flowers and ignoring pink and red four
o’clock flowers, what type of selection is being demonstrated? Sketch a graph of the curve with labeled
axis to demonstrate the selection.
8. Label the three types of selection illustrated by the graphs below.
Interpreting Data: Use the following information to answer the questions below.
9. A population of birds, with various size beaks, eats seeds. Small seeds can be eaten by birds with small
beaks. Larger, thicker seeds can only be eaten by birds with larger, thicker beaks. Suppose there is a
shortage of small seeds but that there are still many large seeds.
a. Draw a new curve on the graph below to show how the distribution of beak sizes might change as a result
of selection in this new environment.
Use the graph above to answer the following questions:
b. Which birds in this population have the highest fitness?
c. Explain how natural selection could lead to the change you predicted.