Questions
1. Prior to Darwin, Western tradition held that species originated through Special Creation some six thousand years ago. In addition to Darwin’s personal observations supporting natural selection and his evidence for the geographic clustering of apparently related organisms, other lines of evidence that support an evolutionary model for origins, and explain why conflict with Special Creation (5 pts).2. Darwin’s postulates about the nature of natural selection are given on p. 77 of your text. Concisely summarize how modern research on Galapagos finch populations has produced evidence for each of the four postulates occurring in a natural population (5 pts).
3. Both Lamarck and Darwin would probably argue that the long, sticky tongue of the anteater evolved as an adaptation for more efficient food gathering. Describe in detail how you suspect that Lamarck’s and Darwin’s explanations of the mechanism which account for this anteater adaptation would differ (5 pts).
4. Draw a simple phylogeny showing the relatedness among the following vertebrates:
Baboon Sparrow Fruit Bat Herring
Map the following three onto your phylogeny:
Ability to fly Presence of Gills Lactation (milk production)
Only one of the traits is a synapomorphy. Which trait is it and what two characteristics make the trait a synapomorphy? (5 pts)
5. Find an example from some media source (the internet, newspaper, etc.) that depicts a misrepresentation or distortion of modern evolutionary theory. Then write a summary that explains and corrects the misconception. Please ATTACH a copy of your source (5 pts).
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