[BSCI 106] - Final Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam (32 pages long!)

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Biological Sciences Program
• Course: BSCI 106
• Professor: Marcia Shofner

Document Summary

Natural selection preserves the genes that help organisms that function well in their environment, but cannot predict future environmental change so can only serve for current conditions. Evolution is an ongoing process of dynamic adjustment and not toward any fixed goal. Natural selection was not generally accepted until after scientists re-discovered genetics (1936-1950) In 1936-1947, evolution by natural selection paired with mendel"s discoveries of genetics because the accepted theory behind diversity and adaptation. Evidence for evolution: homology- structures with different uses but strikingly similar features. Species are transformed and existing structures get modified for new uses. (ex. Vertebrate limb, shared developmental patters: fossil record- general pattern of simpler organisms first, then more complex, vestigial structures- structures that would have had a use in the past but are no longer useful. Examples include goose bumps and the teeth that are still present in baleen whales. Also wings on birds that no longer fly.