Quiz- Evidence for Evolution

Name: Calvin Li

Block: A Block

Honors Biology

Evidence of Evolution Quiz

1. Explain the following picture in terms evidence for evolution.

The picture shows the evolution of whales from being a land living animal to a sea living animal. We can see that the Mesonychids from 55 mya had four limbs and it is obvious that they walked on land. However after 3 my at 52 mya, we have the Ambulocetus that still had limbs, but that were a lot shorter compared to those that the Mesonychids had, they most likely lived both on land and water, they would've swam by paddling their hind limbs. Later at 46 mya, the rodhocetus had already reduced their limb size so that they couldn't walk therefore live on land anymore, and they started swimming by moving up and down like modern whales. The Basilosarus were very similar to modern whales except that modern whales dont have their rear limbs sticking out anymore even though they still have the bone inside their body.

2. Which of the following continents did marsupials begin from?

e. North America

3. Comparing a dragonfly, bird, bats - explain the type of evolution that these

organisms show.

Birds and bats' wings have the same structure, also known as homologous structures. Their wings have very similar structures because they inherited it from a common ancestor. However they are not completely the same because they "tweeked" their wings to enable different functions. On the other hand although birds bats and dragonflies all have wings and they look very similar, however the underlying structure of dragonflies' wings is completely different compared to those of birds and bats. That is because they evolved from different ancestral groups, yet they both evolved so that they have wings, that is called a convergent evolution.

4. Explain how the Common Descent Lab shows DNA evidence and ancestry as

evidence for evolution. Include examples of Primates.

In the common descent lab we took the hemoglobin strand of DNA of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and their common ancestor and compared the similarities. We found out that humans and chimpanzees have the most in common and have the least in common with their common ancestor, that is because humans are the most evolved species out of the whole family. DNA evidence and ancestry serves as evidences for evolution because they allow us to compare the similarity(common sequences) of two different species, thus determining how closely related they are.

5. Explain homology using some examples from your readings.

Homology relates to similar structures in different species because of their common ancestry. However, gradually, the structure develops differently in different species because they have to have different functions. Examples would be that the structure of a human's is the same as the wings of birds, they both consist of 2 big bones linking to a bunch of small bones. And also humans' hands have the same structure as the front limbs of sea creatures like whales.

Evolution- Titaalik

We spent most of the class discussing and going over the book "Your Inner Fish" and talked about how humans and all other creatures share a common ancestor. And Neil Shubin decided to look for the intermediate creature between fish and reptiles.

We went to the museum and look at a real life model of the tiktaalik and we observed its differences and similarities with fish and in the end of the class took a quiz on this topic.

Unit Test 1

Today we had our first unit test on chapter 1, that covers everything that we have learnt so far.  That test was reasonably challenging since the free response had quite a lot of writing, however the multiple choice was decently handled I believed. I am looking forward to getting my test grades back!

All Chemistry

Today in class we did a review on all chemistry, about all the topics that were covered previously, including water, basic chemistry, macromolecules and isomers. The quiz was rather easy considering I got 1s on both parts. Also we have to complete our lab reports for next class since that is the most important assignment so far.

Macromolecules and Lab

Today in class, we went through the slides of macromolecules and isomers. We went through basic knowledge such as structural polymers, geometric polymers and how different isomers are formed. For basic structures and functions of macromolecules, we went through dehydration, hydrolysis, DNA, RNA and other basic informations.
For the second part of the class, we finished a lab, and the objective is to identify what is in 16 different substances, whether its protein, starch, glucose and lipid or any combinations of these substances. We use different tests to test the existence of these substances including biuret, benedicts, sudan III and iodine.

House Case

In the beginning of the class, we went through basic concepts of the cell membrane:

We learnt why water and how water goes through a cell, through the protein channels, since the lipid fat layers will repel water away.

For the second half of the class, we did a house case diagnosis on a high school senior runner with symptoms of vomit, headache, cramps etc. Me, Anthony and Blake volunteered to be the three "main doctors" and we had to put the clients' symptoms, tests that we think we should perform, and our hypothesized diagnosis on the board. After our class has asked for the meal history, vitals, medical history and performing some tests on the high school senior. I came up with the conclusion that he is over hydrated, or diagnosed Hypertremia due to different factors, such as his urine having too little amount of Na in it. A detailed lab report will soon be uploaded for this house case, and I will go over the details of the diagnosis. 

After learning about diffusion and osmosis, today inclass we went onto the topic of rate of diffusion, as explained below:

Rate of Diffusion

Since the average kinectic enerygy of different types of molecules (different masses) which are at thermal equilibrium is the same, then their average velocities are different. Their average diffusion rate is expected to depend upon that average velocity, which gives a relative diffusion rate

where the constant K depends upon geometric factors including the area across which the diffusion is occuring. The relative diffusion rate for two different molecular species is then given by
Reference : http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/kinetic/diffus.html
We did a lab that was done the first time ever at Webb Schools of california, it was a lab to check the rate of diffusion of something and determine what is the best shape for a cell to acquire maximum performance on rate of diffusion. We were given three cubes of 3% agar-phenolphthalein in different sizes and also some NaOH solute, since phenolphthalein reacts with NaOH and when it does it turns pink, we can determine how fast did the rate of diffusion happened by using three cubes of different sizes and lengths to determine the best shape. So first, we put the blocks into the NaOH solution,

Then after 3 minutes we took the cubes out of the beakers and cut them in halves then measured them:

After the measurements, we realized that the smaller the cube is the faster the rate of diffusion and thus explaining why cell division happens. Because cells needs their nucleus to be in a reaction in order to react therefore having a smaller volume allows other chemicals to penetrate in the cell easier.