1. What does a significant difference mean in science?
2. Explain the purpose of the chi-square test in testing a population for evolution.
3. What is inbreeding?
4. Explain the negative consequences of inbreeding in a population.
5. Are there any potential benefits to inbreeding in a population?
6. How would inbreeding increase homozygosity of deleterious alleles in a population.
7. Describe the four types of selection in populations (Hint: directional selection, .....)
8. You conducted a survey of birds on an island and discovered that population of finches had individuals with one of two phenotypes, large beaks and small beaks, but very few intermediate beaks. What type of selection may be operating on this population?
9. Explain frequency-dependent selection.
10. Provide an example where heterozygous individuals have higher fitness that homozygous individuals. What type of selection would this population be experiencing?
11. Define sexual selection.
12. Compare and contrast sexual selection to natural selection.
13. What is male and female choice?
14. Explain why females may choose birds with elaborate feathers that may not directly help them survive on a day-to-day bases.
15. Define genetic drift.
16. Explain why genetic drift is a problem in small populations.
17. What is a metapopulation?
18. What are source/sink populations?
19. Explain why founders forming a new population undergo a genetic bottleneck.
20. Explain how lateral gene transfer can cause evolution.
21. Explain the importance of gene duplication for evolution.
22. Describe a known example of sympatric speciation, how did it happen?
23. Explain how you may get an entirely new species in one generation.
24. Explain how sexual selection may have been a factor in sympatric speciation of Lake Victorian Cichlids.
25. Mass extinctions occur when more than 50% of the current species go extinct in a relatively short time. What are the evolutionary consequences of mass extinctions?
26. Explain what is meant by adaptive radiation and provide an example.
27. Evolution can be relatively fast or relatively slow, explain what may cause rapid rates of evolution versus slower rates of evolution.
28. Explain how punctuated equilibrium is different from gradualism.
29. Explain the difference between macro and microevolution.