Professional Documents
Culture Documents
AP Bio Unit 6
AP Bio Unit 6
The Darwinian revolution challenged traditional views of a young earth inhabited by unchanging
species:
Descent with modification by natural selection explains the adaptations of organisms and the
unity and diversity of life:
artificial selection- humans have modified other species over many generations by selecting
and breeding individuals that possess a desirable trait
Darwin's observations:
1. Members of a population often vary in traits
2. Traits are inherited from parents to offspring
3. A species are capable of producing more offspring than their environment can support
4. Owing to a lack of food or other sources, many of these offspring do not survive
Pgs 460-466
Homology- related species can have characteristics with an underlying similarity even though
they may have different functions
- Homologous structures- represent variations of structural theme that was present in
their common ancestor
- Vestigial structures- remnants of features that served important functions in the
organism’s ancestors
Pgs 468-478
Mutation and sexual reproduction produce the genetic variation that makes evolution possible:
Discrete characters- determined by a single gene locus with different alleles that produce
distinct phenotypes
Average heterozygosity- the average percentage of loci that are heterozygous, determines
gene variability
- Determined by surveying the protein products of genes using gel electrophoresis, can
not detect silent mutations