Chemistry 101 Study Guide

Day 2 – Birth Order

1. What is birth order?

2. Darwin made two observations that contributed to his theory

of birth order. What were these observations and what are
examples of each?

3. What were Darwin’s two main points in the Origin of

Species?

4. What is natural selection and why does it occur?

5. What is fitness?

6. We discussed six pieces of evidence for evolution. What is

each, and why is it evidence that evolution was and is
happening? What is an example of each?

7. We discussed four mechanisms of birth order. What are these?

How does each result in evolution of a population? Which of these
mechanisms results in adaptations?
8. What are the three conditions without which you cannot have
natural selection?

9. What are the three types of selection? Explain why each

would occur.

10. How is genetic variation maintained in a population?

11. What is the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium? When is a
population at Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium? What is the equation,
and what does each of the variables mean?
Lecture 29 – Origin of Life and Diversification
1. What two qualities does something have to have to be living?

2. What are the two scientific hypotheses for the origin of life?
Which one is most favored?

3. What are the three stages that likely led to the origin of life?
Explain the hypotheses about how each phase likely
occurred.

4. What is the biological definition of a species?

5. What is reproductive isolation?

6. Reproductive isolation can occur because of prezygotic or

postzygotic barriers. What does each of these terms mean?
What are examples of each?

7. Speciation can occur through allopatric speciation or

sympatric speciation. What does each of these terms mean
and what is an example of each?

8. Speciation can occur at different rates. These are described

by the terms punctuated equilibrium and gradualism. What
does each of these mean?

9. What is an evolutionary tree, how do you interpret an

evolutionary tree, and how do scientists build these trees?

10. What are analogous and homologous features?

Lecture 30 – Invertebrates
1. What three characteristics define an animal?

2. What are the four key distinctions between groups of

animals? Explain what each is and what groups of animals
have each characteristic.
3. We discussed nine groups of animals. What are the key
characteristics of each, and how are they related evolutionarily?
4. What are the four body structures all chordates have? Do
they all have these body structures as adults? Explain what
each of these structures is.

5. There are three main groups of chordates. What are the

characteristics of each?

Lecture 31 – Vertebrate Diversity
1. What two characteristics do

all vertebrates have?
2. We talked about 7 groups of vertebrates. What characteristics
define each? How are they related to one another? What are the 7
adaptations that separate the groups? What are the subgroups
within these groups?
3. The transition from water to land required of a number of
adaptations. What were these adaptations, and what problems did
they overcome?
4. Tiktaalik is a fossil of a transition species from the water to
land transition. It has characteristics like fish and
characteristics like tetrapods. What characteristics does it
have that fall into each of these categories?

5. What are the three groups of living mammals? What are the
characteristics of each?

Lecture 32 – Human evolution

1. What are characteristics that define all primates?

2. There are three groups of living primates. What are these?

How are they related evolutionarily?
3. What are the characteristics of each of the different groups of
primates? Which species is most closely related to humans?

4. What are the common misconceptions about human

evolution?

5. What are hominins? What are early hominin characteristics?

6. There were two trends in early hominin evolution?

7. What characteristics did Homo species have compared to

earlier Australopithecus?

8. What characteristics did Homo sapiens have compared to

their ancestors? Where did this population originate?

9. What are the Homo sapien adaptations we discussed? Why

do we think each evolved?

Lecture 33 and 34 – Behavioral adaptations

1. What is a behavior?

2. What are the differences between an innate and a learned

behavior? What are examples of each?

3. Tinbergen proposed 4 questions for studying behavior. What

are these questions? What is meant by each?

4. What is meant by proximate and ultimate causes of behavior?

5. What are “altruistic” behaviors? What is kin selection and

what is reciprocal altruism? What are examples of each?

6. What are the three conditions that need to be met for

reciprocal altruism to happen?
7. What is meant by parental investment? How does differential
parental investment result in different behaviors?

8. How is sexual dimorphism related to parental investment and

mating system?

9. What is meant by parental care? What are examples of different

types of parental care?
10. Why do animals need to communicate? What are the different
ways they can communicate, and what are examples of each?