Course: BIS 105 Environmental Biology

Unit 3 Learning Module

Review

Review Questions

1. What does the expression “standing on the shoulders of giants” say about Darwin and his Theory of Evolution? Support your interpretation with at least three specific examples.

2. Explain the importance of Lyell’s Principles of Geology to Darwin’s work.

3. Discuss the influence of animal breeding on Darwin’s thinking.

4. Clarify the relationship between Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.

5. Summarize in your own words the two basic ideas which make up Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

6. Compare and contrast Lamarck’s and Darwin’s ideas using the evolution of the human brain as an example.

7. Why is it incorrect to say that evolution means organisms adapt to environmental change?

8. Why is it not correct to say that evolution means “we came from monkeys?”

9. Why is it wrong to say that the Theory of Evolution is “just a theory”?

10. How did Darwin use the fossil record to support descent from common ancestors and natural selection?

11. Summarize how the fossil record for ancestors and relatives of the horse supports the relationship between evolution and changing environments.

12. Compare and contrast homologous and analogous structures as evidence for evolution.

13. Give two examples of evidence from embryology which support common ancestry.

14. Use an example to show how vestigial structures support evolution by natural selection.

15. List the molecular similarities found in all species of organisms, which support common ancestry.

16. List the ways in which we have directly observed evidence for evolution and/or natural selection.

17. Describe the importance of artificial selection to human life.

18. What is genetic pollution and why does it matter?

19. Compare cloning to natural selection.

20. Give examples of useful products of genetic engineering.

21. Explain Michael Pollan’s ideas about our relationship with our domesticated crops, animals, and pets, and give your opinion about them, using examples from your own experience.

22. Use the concept of natural selection to explain the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics and insects to pesticides.

23. Explain why an individual bacterium cannot on its own change from sensitive to resistant to antibiotics.

24. Choose two actions you think would be most likely to control the increase in antibiotic resistance, and support your choices with examples from your own experience.

25. In what way do viral epidemics demonstrate evolution?