Evolutionary Analysis (5th Edition)
5th Edition
ISBN: 9780321616678
Author: Jon C. Herron, Scott Freeman
Publisher: PEARSON
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Chapter 3, Problem 5Q
A common creationist criticism of the finch study is, “But it’s just a little change in beak shape. Nothing really new has evolved.” Or put a different way, “It's just microevolution and not macroevolution.” The finch team continues to spend a great deal of effort on their project — traveling thousands of miles to the remote Galápagos every year, just to try to band an entire population of birds and all their nestlings and measure their bills. How would you respond to the creationists’ criticisms? Do you think the ongoing 30–year–effort of the finch bill project has been worthwhile? Is it useful to try to document microevolution, and does it tell us anything about how macroevolution might work?
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Many creationists will allow that microevolution (for example,changing gene frequencies in a population) has occurred, and will even acknowledge that species adapt to different environments. However, they deny that macroevolution (they define it as the evolution of new “kinds”) is supported by evidence. Explain how they are mistaken. How might you help a creationist friend better grasp how modern scientists consider micro- versus macroevolution?
Give a Darwinian explanation of how cheetahs evolved to become faster. Your explanation is how natural selection works using Cheetahs as an example. Be sure to include and explain the ideas of differential reproductive success and descent with modification. (You do not need to mention the formation of new species.)
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Group of answer choices
Penguins live on land and feed in the water; therefore they have no need to fly.
The Antarctic home of penguins is flat and barren; therefore there is no place to fly.
Ancestral penguins did not use their wings for long periods of time; therefore today’s penguins have only tiny, nonfunctional wings.
Ancestral penguins without large wings were better able to swim and feed in the water; therefore they passed their genes for shorter wings structure onto their offspring.
Chapter 3 Solutions
Evolutionary Analysis (5th Edition)
Ch. 3 - In everyday English, the word adaptation means an...Ch. 3 - a. Describe Darwins four postulates in your own...Ch. 3 - Think about how the finch bill data demonstrate...Ch. 3 - According to the text, it is correct to claim that...Ch. 3 - A common creationist criticism of the finch study...Ch. 3 - Suppose that you are starting a long-term study of...Ch. 3 - At the end of an article on how mutations in...Ch. 3 - Describe three major objections to Darwins theory...Ch. 3 - Many working scientists are relatively...Ch. 3 - a. Describe Behes argument of irreducible...
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