All flashcards
Flashcard 1: Identify the most advantageous coloration in a snowy habitat: white fur or dark fur.
Answer: white fur. Blends with snow for protection from predators.
Flashcard 2: Identify the trait most likely favored when food is hard-shelled seeds: strong beak or long tongue.
Answer: Strong beak. Strong beaks can crack hard shells to access food inside.
Flashcard 3: Which option is a biotic environmental condition: temperature or predators?
Answer: Predators. Living factors like predators are biotic; non-living like temperature are abiotic.
Flashcard 4: Which option is an abiotic environmental condition: parasites or rainfall?
Answer: Rainfall. Non-living factors like rainfall are abiotic; living factors are biotic.
Flashcard 5: Identify the environmental change most likely to favor thicker fur: colder winters or fewer predators.
Answer: Colder winters. Thicker fur provides better insulation against cold temperatures.
Flashcard 6: Identify the trait most likely favored in a desert with scarce water: waxy leaves or large thin leaves.
Answer: Waxy leaves. Waxy coating reduces water loss through evaporation in dry conditions.
Flashcard 7: Which trait is most advantageous in a dark cave environment: functional eyes or enhanced touch?
Answer: Enhanced touch. Touch helps navigation when vision is useless in complete darkness.
Flashcard 8: Identify the trait most likely favored where predators hunt by sight: camouflage or bright coloration.
Answer: Camouflage. Blending with surroundings helps prey avoid visual predators.
Flashcard 9: Which trait is most advantageous in a snowy habitat: white fur or dark fur?
Answer: White fur. White fur provides camouflage against snow from predators and prey.
Flashcard 10: What does it mean that selection is environment-dependent?
Answer: A trait can be beneficial in one environment and harmful in another. Environmental context determines whether a trait helps or harms survival.
Flashcard 11: What is an advantageous trait in a specific environment?
Answer: A trait that increases survival and reproduction in that environment. Helps organisms survive and produce more offspring in specific conditions.
Flashcard 12: Which term describes a factor in the environment that affects survival or reproduction?
Answer: Selective pressure. Environmental factors that influence which organisms survive and reproduce.
Flashcard 13: What is fitness in evolutionary biology?
Answer: Reproductive success relative to others in the population. Measures how many viable offspring an organism produces compared to others.
Flashcard 14: Identify the outcome most likely after pesticides are applied repeatedly: more susceptible insects or more resistant insects.
Answer: More resistant insects. Pesticides kill susceptible insects, leaving resistant ones to reproduce.
Flashcard 15: Which type of selection can favor two extremes when habitats or resources are split?
Answer: Disruptive selection. Different niches favor opposite extremes over intermediate forms.
Flashcard 16: Which type of selection favors one extreme trait after an environmental shift?
Answer: Directional selection. Environmental change makes one extreme more successful than others.
Flashcard 17: Which type of selection favors intermediate traits in a stable environment?
Answer: Stabilizing selection. Extremes are disadvantageous when environment remains constant.
Flashcard 18: What is a trade-off in traits shaped by environmental conditions?
Answer: A benefit in one function comes with a cost in another. Energy or resources spent on one trait can't be used for another.
Flashcard 19: What is the difference between acclimation and adaptation?
Answer: Acclimation is within-life change; adaptation is genetic over generations. Individual adjustment vs. population-level genetic change over time.
Flashcard 20: What is adaptation in the context of populations over generations?
Answer: A heritable trait that becomes common because it improves fitness. Genetic changes spread through populations when they increase survival.
Flashcard 21: Which type of selection favors both extremes and selects against the average?
Answer: disruptive selection. Creates two distinct groups by eliminating middle values.
Flashcard 22: Which type of selection favors average individuals and reduces extremes?
Answer: stabilizing selection. Maintains population around optimal middle value.
Flashcard 23: Which type of selection favors individuals at one extreme of a trait range?
Answer: directional selection. Shifts population toward one end of trait spectrum.
Flashcard 24: Which option best describes an adaptation: a learned behavior or an inherited trait?
Answer: an inherited trait. Adaptations evolve over generations through genes.
Flashcard 25: Identify the term for a trait that helps an organism survive in its environment over time.
Answer: adaptation. Evolved features that increase survival chances.
Flashcard 26: Which trait is most advantageous in a dark cave environment: strong eyesight or strong smell?
Answer: strong smell. Vision is useless without light; smell works in darkness.
Flashcard 27: Identify the term for traits that help organisms blend into their surroundings.
Answer: camouflage. Matching surroundings helps avoid predators.
Flashcard 28: Which option is most likely advantageous in a hot, dry climate: waxy leaves or broad thin leaves?
Answer: waxy leaves. Reduces water loss through evaporation.
Flashcard 29: What is the relationship between a trait being heritable and natural selection?
Answer: Only heritable traits can increase in frequency by selection. Selection can only pass on traits encoded in genes.
Flashcard 30: Which option is an abiotic environmental condition: temperature or predators?
Answer: temperature. Non-living factors like heat, cold, or moisture.