How Is Biogeography Useful For Identifying Evolutionary Relationships

Question: Biogeography

Answer: the study of past and present distribution of organisms.

Question: homologous structure

Answer: structures that are similar in different species of common ancestry.

Question: vestigial structure

Answer: structure that is inherited from ancestors but has lost much or all of its original function.

Question: analogous structure

Answer: Body parts that share a common function, but not structure.

Question: How is biogeography useful for identifying evolutionary relationship?

Answer: It is useful because the patterns in the distribution of fossils and living species and with the information given from geology that tells us how they evolved.

Question: What have scientists learned from fossils that have been discovered since Darwin’s time?

Answer: Scientists have learned that fossils show how modern species evolved from their extinct ancestors.

Question: How do vestigial structures provide evidence for evolution?

Answer: Vestigial structures provide evidence for evolution because of their similar patterns of embryological development.

Question: What is the relationship between Hox genes and embryological development?

Answer: Their relationship is that the Hox genes help determine the part of an embryo that it becomes.

Question: What hypothesis have the Grants been testing?

Answer: The hypothesis that the Grants have been testing is about the natural selection shaping the beaks of different birds as they adapted.