REVIEW QUESTIONS - BIL 107

Final Examination

Note: These terms and concepts pertain to material covered in lecture since the last midterm.

1. Define altruism, selfishness, and spite as those terms were used in lecture.

2. What is kin selection? What is inclusive fitness? What is the relevance of those concepts to

evolutionary biology?

3. Distinguish between individual fitness and inclusive fitness

4. Helpers at the nest. Who helps? Who is the beneficiary of the helping behavior? How could such behavior evolve?

5. What is the "paradox of the lethal model?" What evidence is there to rebut the criticism that

mimicry is not involved in the resemblance of deadly coral snakes and their harmless look- alikes?

6. Know the meaning of the terms mutualism, competition, parasitism, predation, commensalism, and neutralism. Indicate who benefits, who as adversely affected, and who is neither benefitted nor harmed in those associations.

7. Distinguish between Batesian, Müllerian, Aggressive and Mertensian mimicry. Who benefits and who is harmed in these mimicry associations?

8. "Red on yellow, kill a fellow; red on black, venom lack." To what does this catch phrase refer? Where would this rule of thumb work, and where would it fail?

9. What is photolyase? What is its relevance to the issue of declining amphibian populations?

10. What is co-evolution? Give examples of coevolution.

11. How does the American Foul Brood example support the proposition that differences in behavior among individuals and groups of individuals have an underlying genetic basis?

12. How can we understand the evolution of the sterile worker cast in honeybees? How can we

understand the willingness of worker honeybee to commit suicide in defense of the colony?

13. How does the issue of predator/prey ratios bear on the question of dinosaur endothermy?

14. How does bone histology contribute to the debate concerning dinosaur endothermy?

15. What is the evidence for (or against) the idea that dinosaurs had brains of the "correct"

size for reptiles of their enormous size?

16. What is acid rain? What is the relevance of acid rain to the issue of declining amphibian population?

17. What is reciprocal altruism? In what kinds of organisms would it be expected to evolve?

18. Why is "Scientific Creationism" a contradiction in terms?

19. Who is scientific advisor to MAYAMON?

20. What is the name of the DAPTF newsletter?

21. What is adaptive radiation?

22. What is UV-B radiation? What is its relevance for the issue of declining amphibian populations?

23. What benefits accrue to acacia plants for "hosting" the mutualistic ants that live on them?

24. What benefits accrue to the ants for their association with the acacias?

25. What is flicker-fusion? What is its relevance to the study of mimicry?

26. What are aposematic colors? What is their presumed function in nature?

27. In terms of island biogeographic theory, what is meant by the expression "dynamic equilibrium?"

28. What happens to the rates of extinction and the rates of immigration as an island fills up with species?

29. According to MacArthur and Wilson, what are the factors that are most important in affecting

immigration and extinction rates on islands?