Mid-Term Examination
Evolution - Integrative Biology 160
October 12, 1998

1. Explain why the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is a state of genetic inertia (10 POINTS).

2. What method would you use, assuming adequate training and a laboratory, to determine the level of genetic variability in a population? Explain the advantage of your method and briefly indicate two alternatives (15 POINTS).

3. Give an instance in which gene flow might thwart local adaptation of a population. Under what circumstances might stochastic processes have the same result (10 POINTS)?

5. A biologist discovers a frog in the Colombian rain forest and thinks it is an undescribed species. Give three lines of evidence that would be desirable in arriving at a final decision 15 POINTS).

Answer ONE (only) of the following three questions:

6. Give one long term and one short term advantage to sex (10 POINTS).

7. What is the two-fold cost of sex (10 POINTS).

8. Explain the paradox of meiosis (10 POINTS).

9. Explain why natural selection is neither necessary nor sufficient for evolution (10 POINTS).

10. Give an example of gene duplication and say why the general phenomenon is important in evolution (10 POINTS).

11. Explain the difference between absolute fitness and relative fitness (10 POINTS).

Answer ONE (only) of the following two questions:

12. Explain how EITHER a phylogenetic or ecological perspective might be important in conservation biology (10 POINTS).

13. Why do we want to avoid naming paraphyletic groups (10 POINTS)?