Reference no: EM132582461

Provide lots of detail and examples.

1. Suppose that the act of eating hard seeds caused birds to develop bigger beaks. Would this lead to an evolutionary increase in beak size after a drought. Use this example to Explain the principles of Darwinian evolution.

2. Explain the importance of transitional fossils. Describe any two methods used to date fossils.

3. What are the conditions needed for convergent evolution? In your response discuss the contribution of tectonic plate movements.

4. Distinguish between Ancestral versus Derived traits. Does the possession of the same character state by all members of a clade mean that the ancestor of that class necessarily possessed that character state?

5. Construct an argument for the origins of Cells on primordial earth.

6. (a) Explain why metabolism may prove to be a better way than morphology to characterize prokaryotes. (b) Describe atleast two human bacterial pathogens. Why do you think these infections may not be fatal?

7. Three methods have been used to try to eradicate malaria. One is to eliminate the mosquito vectors of the parasite, a second is to kill the parasites after they have entered the human body and the third is to develop a vaccine against the parasite to provide protection from the disease. Which do you suppose is the most promising in the long run? Why?

8. Explain why tracheophytes may have a selective advantage over bryophytes during evolution of land plants? Imagine a hypothetical moss and fern trees, each 10m tall. Which would face greater barriers to sexual reproduction? Why?

9. You have been hired as a research assistant to investigate the origins of the angiosperms, specifically the boundary between a gymnosperm and an angiosperm. Which characteristics would you use to clearly define a new fossil as a gymnosperm? An angiosperm?

10. Describe atleast four ways in which seeds help to ensure the survival of a plant's offspring?