Review Sheet

Midterm Review:

Here are some questions, terms that should be familiar, and important concepts and pieces of information that you should know. The midterm will consist of 25-30 questions. The first portion will be lab stations where you will do things like identify bones and use traits to determine locomotion or group. The rest of the midterm will consist of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and a couple of short-answer/essay questions. The exam will cover labs 1-7 only, as you can tell from the material below, so be sure to thoroughly review the labs and the information provided in them.  Have fun over fall break, and see you all next week!

1)    Know the steps of the scientific process.

2)    What was Piltdown Man and why was it important? How was the scientific process used to dispel the hoax of the missing link?

3)    Terms for Mendelian genetics: gene, allele, genotype, phenotype, dominant, recessive

4)    What are Mendel’s two laws of inheritance?

5)    Understand how genotype and phenotype are related for dominant and recessive traits. For example, a person displaying a recessive phenotype has a homozygous recessive genotype.

6)    Be able to make crosses using Punnet squares for single- and double-trait crosses and to give the outcome for the offspring in terms of probability (i.e., offspring have a 50% chance of being tongue-rolling PTC tasters).

7)    What are the four forces of evolution?

8)    Which is the only force of evolution that creates new variation?

9)    Which force decreases variation within groups but increases variation between groups?

10) Which force increases variation within groups but decreases variation between groups?

11) When natural selection acts strongly against a trait, what is the effect over time (review what happened with those poor, furless tiger cubs in lab)?

12) What is the term for a specific type of genetic drift in which a new group is founded by a subset of a larger group?

13) Terms for taxonomy: phylogenetics, cladogram, clade, cladistics, outgroup, shared derived traits, ancestral traits

14) Be able to draw a cladogram based on information about shared derived traits, just like we did in lab.

15) What are the four tooth classes (remember, the second one is “canine”, not K-9)?

16) Know how to write out a dental formula, and remember to check if the top and bottom teeth have the same formula.

17) Be able to tell whether a molar is bilophodont, Y-5, or neither.

18) In which group of primates are you likely to see a dental comb, an unfused mandible and a metopic suture?

19) What is the ladder of progress, and did we see this pattern when we examined amino acids in the hemoglobin chain for different primate species?

20) Are humans more closely related to chimps or gorillas? Does this answer depend on the traits/data used?

21) If you are given a mutation rate (e.g., 1 amino acid change every million years) and the number of amino acid differences between two species, be able to give the amount of time since the two species split.

22) Osteology terms: axial skeleton, appendicular skeleton, anatomical position, sagittal plane, coronal plane, transverse plane, superior, inferior, proximal, distal, medial, lateral

23) Bones for which you are responsible:

Skull: frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, zygomatic arch, maxilla, and mandible

Dentition: incisors, canines, premolars, and molars

Vertebrae: 7 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral (forming the sacrum), and 4 coccygeal (forming the coccyx).

Ribs:  12 pairs

Pelvis (Os coxa): ischium, ilium, pubis

Shoulder: Clavicle, Sternum, Scapula

Arm:  Humerus, Radius, and Ulna

Hand and Wrist:  Carpals, metacarpals, and phalanges

Leg:  Femur, patella, tibia, and fibula

Foot and Ankle:   Tarsals, metatarsals, and phalanges

Be able to identify these bones or groups of bones and to discuss their positions relative to each other (e.g., the tibia is distal to the femur).  

24) Be able to distinguish the skeleton of a primate from that of a non-primate and to give three traits that helped you make your decision (the table on page 52 of your lab manual has a lot of useful information). Remember to be specific. For example, “eye orbit” is not a valid reason for calling a specimen a primate, but “enclosed eye orbit” is.

25) What are some traits that are typical of prosimians?

26) What are the different forms of primate locomotion?

27) Be able to determine a primate’s locomotion using two different methods: a) looking at traits on the skeleton such as limb length, digits, calcaneus length; b) finding the intermembranal index (you would be given the equation, a calculator, and the ranges for the different types of locomotion).

If you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to email me. Good Luck!