Day 11: Evolution and DNA Lab

Here are my answers to the Quiz

Block: B

Honors Biology

Evidence of Evolution Quiz

1. Explain the following picture in terms evidence for evolution.
This is an example of the fossil record and how species can show the transition and developments in evolution. This is usually a gradual change and many species evolving from each other that have been discovered in fossils can show this. If there is a missing link, however in the fossil line up has what seems to be a rapid change. The dog- like creature in this picture is shown how slowly he evolved into a whale from many different forms.

2. Which of the following continents did marsupials begin from?

The answer is E) North America.

3. Comparing a dragonfly, bird, bats - explain the type of evolution that these organisms show.
These organisms display convergent evolution. Convergent evolution is when two organisms developed similar traits and analogous structures and had a very distant ancestor with each other. They all are analogous-related species meaning that the internal structure of their bones are different but they developed the same ability in the function of those bones. This is apparent in bats and birds because their wing bones are quite different but they still have a process in flight. There are the different bone structures in number 2 and number 3 cleearly.

4. Explain how the Common Descent Lab shows DNA evidence and ancestry as

evidence for evolution. Include examples of Primates.

The Common Descent Lab showed specific DNA evidence because we ordered the sequences of the DNA exactly like it is in a gorilla, chimpanzee and a human and compared them. Our DNA sequences matches very closely to the chimp's DNA sequence showing that we are more closely related. For example we have 15 DNA sequence matches with a chimpanzee and 10 with a gorilla. Which means we are further related to a gorilla than a chimp. The gorilla is closer to the common ancestor because it has more matches in the DNA sequence to the ancestor's DNA.

5. Explain homology using some examples from your readings.

Homology is when the internal structure of the bones in different species are similar showing that we all evolved from a common ancestor. Some examples of this is the Tiktaalik fossil that Shubin found. Examining the arm of this fossil, we can see that the arm has the same pattern of bones that we do 1 bone to 2 bones to lots of tiny bones in the hand. They may have been different in functioning, but the internal structure is the same.