STUDY GUIDE FOR EXAM I - Spring 2009

REVIEW SESSION WILL BE GIVEN ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11
AT 5:00PM IN SA 126 (right after class). COME PREPARED WITH QUESTIONS!

NOTE: This guide is not a substitute for coming to class, taking notes and reading your text. It is merely a general checklist that should help guide you through your readings. Just because I may have missed a detail or two on this study guide doesn't mean it's unimportant. If we covered it in class or if it's in the assigned readings, it's fair game. The best study guide of all is the combination of your notes and text readings. The self-test questions at the end of each chapter are an excellent indicator of how well you're understanding the material. Good luck!

Biodiversity
Know the meaning/significance of: biodiversity, taxonomy, systematics, holotype, paratype, conspecific, species, population
What is the significance of inbreeding and outbreeding, with respect to genetic diversity and genetic "health" of a species?
Understand the nature of the anthropocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric points of view in conservation. Be able to recognize examples of each.
Know the meaning/significance/examples of: indicator species, keystone species, endangered species, threatened species.

The History of Evolutionary Thought
Know the contributions of each of the following to modern evolutionary theory, and know a little bit about each person: Plato, Aristotle, Francesco Redi, Lazarro Spallanzani, Anton von Leewenhoek, Louis Pasteur, Jean Baptist Lamarck, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russell Wallace.
What was Darwin doing when he devised his famous theory of evolution by natural selection?
Know the meaning/significance of: HMS Beagle, the Galapagos Islands, uniformitarianism, artificial selection, the contributions to Darwin's theory of George Cuvier, Thomas Malthus, etc.
Know Darwin's four tenets of evolution by natural selection, how to apply them, and how to recognize examples in nature of the "tenets in action."
What is meant by adaptive, maladaptive, and neutral traits?
In science, what is meant by the terms hypotheis, theory, and law? What is the scientific method, and how is it performed (what are the main steps?)

Evolutionary Processes
Know the meaning/significance of: homology, analogy, primitive vs. derived character, (plesiomorphy vs. apomorphy, and symplesiomorphy vs. synapomorphy), "Just So Stories", genotype, phenotype, paedomorphy, allometric growth, DNA (and the four "letters" of the DNA alphabet)
Be able to recognize examples of morphological, ontogenetic, and molecular homology between species.
Know the meaning/significance (in terms of ontogenetic homology) of: zygote, blastula, gastrula, protostome, deuterostome, convergent evolution.
Know the meaning of heterochrony. How can this result in changes in species? What is the link between heterochrony, allometric growth, and paedomorphy? Study the links about calico cat color and zebra striping (near the end of lecture 3).
Know the five criteria that must be met if a population is NOT to evolve.
Know the meaning/significance of: microevolution, macroevolution, random genetic drift, mutation, assortative mating (positive and negative), pre- and post-zygotic forms of reproductive isolation, sexual selection.

Microevolution
Understand in good detail the concept of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and the five factors that can cause a population to evolve.
Know the meaning/significance of: gene, allele, polymorphism, homozygous, heterozygous, positive and negative assortative mating, the tenets of evolution by natural selection, sexual selection (be sure you can distinguish this from non-random (assortative) mating), genetic drift, Founder Effect, Bottleneck effect
Know the meaning/significance of: mutation, wild type, the Classical, Balance, and Neutral Models of evolution, exaptation

Macroevolution
Understand the difference between microevolution and macroevolution/speciation.
Know the meaning/significance of: allopatric, parapatric, peripatric speciation, anagenesis, cladogenesis, punctuated equilibrium, gradualism, monophyletic taxon. (Use the links to the UC Berkeley site, "Evolution 101," to understand these and other terms and processes. The sites are excellent!)
Know the mechanisms by which species can be reproductively isolated, and be able to recognize the various types of pre-zygotic and post-zygotic isolating mechanisms.

Be sure you're familiar with the Macroevolution workshop, as this will help you on the exam.