Study Questions
1. How did the Galapagos Islands come into existence?
It was formed by volcanic activity.
2. Were plate tectonics involved?
Plate tectonics weren't involved
3. How old are the Galapagos Islands?
They were more than 3-5 million years
4. What kinds of animals and plants are endemic to the
islands?
Tortoise, Marine Iguanas, Cactus, Finches
Galapagos penguin, masked boobies
5. How do species become endemic?
Species become endemic when they're only found in a specific location.
6. Where did the original colonists come from and how did they
get to the Galapagos?
They came from Europe and get to Galapagos by boat
7. What kind of special adaptations do the animals and plants
have? How do adaptations evolve?
Finches are adapted to different feeding habits and it evolves on nature
8. How did these islands figure into Darwin’s ideas on evolution?
the ideas evolved around the question what is the origin of Galapagos.
Study Questions
1. What is DNA finger printing and how is it done?
It is a method to identify a certain individual/specie and it is done by collecting tissue samples from an individual and conducting the process.
2. How can we measure evolution?
by the diversity of species at the place
3. What is the difference between natural selection and
evolution?
Evolution: a change in ecosystem living system
Natural selection :the organism that is best adapted with the ecosystem will survive
4. What is genetic drift and how could it be involved in
evolution?
It's a frequency change in gene and it's involved as some individual have more gene evolving than others
5. What is resource partitioning and character displacement?
Resource portioning is sharing resources that species depend on by the those very
species
Character displacement is when two habitat are fighting for the same resource.
6. What is sexual selection?
organisms with higher rate of mating out reproduce other species.
7. How might one test if beak size is due to genetic or
environmental factors?
If it's environmental other specie of birds are likely to have the same beaks but if it's genetic same species are going to have same beak
8. If hybridization occurs during good times, what does this
suggest about the degree of genetic differences between species?
It indicates that there's no difference in genes.
9. What are reproductive isolating mechanisms and how do they
evolve?
they are mechanisms that are limiting factor to reproduce and they evolve due to the nature of the environment.
10. Must populations of fi niches be separated in order to evolve
into different species?
yes, because in order to evolve into different species they should be in different ecosystems
11. What causes an El Niño?
it was caused by strong winds being blown to the ocean
Study Questions
1. Should Kate have chosen to work on a different species than
the tortoises that are being threatened?Her thesis work might be destroyed by the politics of the
islands.
No Kate should stick with the tortoises because they are threatened animals and they have a long life span so they would be convenient to study on.
2. Should Kate get involved in the politics of saving the islands, the way Dian Fossey did in trying to save
the Mountain Gorilla?
yes, I think she should do whatever she can to save the islands
3. Should fishing, tourism, or inhabitants be allowed in the
islands?
No, because all the species will be instinct if those things are allowed
4. How should the Ecuadorian government deal with the conflicts over the islands?
The government should explain about the extinct animals and what it would lose with out them and keep the island safe
5. Extinction is a natural phenomenon. Why should we worry about
whether a few species on some remote islands in the Pacific survive or not?
Because once a specie is extinct, it means it's not there anymore which not only affects it's direct use but also the ecosystem that it was in loses something and it can be the reason for another animal to go extinct so we need to care weather extinct animals survive or not.