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Geographic Isolation of
Species
Biologist Ernst Mayr
defined a species as “an actually or potentially
interbreeding
population that does not
interbreed with other such populations when there
is
opportunity to do so.”A key event in
the
origin of many species is the
separation
of a population with its
gene pool (all of the genes in a population at any
one time)
from other populations of the
same species, thereby preventing population
interbreeding With its gene pool
isolated, a separate population can follow its own
evolutionary course. In the formation
of many species, the initial isolation of a
population seems to have been a
geographic barrier This mode of evolving new
species is called allopatric
speciation.
Many factors can isolate a
population geographically.A mountain range may
emerge and gradually split a population
of organisms that can inhabit only lowland
lakes, certain fish populations might
become isolated in this way. Similarity, a
creeping glacier may gradually divide a
population, or a land bridge such as the
Isthmus of Panama may form and separate
the marine life in the ocean waters on
either side.
How formidable
must a geographic barrier be to keep populations
apart? It
depends on the ability of the
organisms to move across and coyotes
can easily cross mountains and rivers.
The passage of wind-blown tree pollen is
also not hindered by such barriers, and
the seeds of many plants may be earned
back and forth on animals In contrast,
small rodents may find a deep canyon or a
wide river an effective barrier. For
example, the Grand Canyon, in the southwestern
United Slates, separate the range of
the while-tailed antelope squirrel from that of
the closely related Harris’ antelope
squirrel. Smaller, with a shorter tail
that is
white underneath, the white-
tailed antelope squirrel inhabits deserts north of
the
canyon and west of the Colorado
River in southern California Hams' antelope
squirrel has a more limited range in
deserts south of the Grand Canyon.
Geographic isolation creates
opportunities for new species to develop, but it
does
not necessarily lead to new
species because speciation occurs only when the
gene
pool undergoes enough changes to
establish reproductive barriers between the
isolated population and its parent
likelihood of allopatric
speciation
increases when a population is small as well as
isolated, making it more
likely than a
large population to have its gene pool changed
substantially. For
example,in less than
two million years, small populations of stray
animals and
plants from the South
American mainland that managed to colonize the
Galapagos
Islands gave rise to all the
species that now inhabit the islands.
When oceanic islands are far enough
apart to permit populations to evolve in
isolation, but close enough to allow
occasional dispersions to occur, they are
effectively outdoor laboratories of
Galapagos island chain is one of
the
world s greatest showcases of evolution Each
island was born from underwater
volcanoes and was gradually covered by
organisms derived from strays that rode
the ocean currents and winds from other
islands and continents. Organisms can
also be carried to islands by other
organisms, such as sea birds that travel long
distances with seeds clinging to their
feathers.
The species on the Galapagos
Islands today, most of which occur nowhere else,
descended from organisms that floated,
flew, or were blown over the sea from the
South American mainland For instance,
the Galapagos island chain has a total of
thirteen species of closely related
birds called Galapagos finches These birds have
many similarities but differ in their
feeding habits and
their beak type,
which is correlated with what they eat Accumulated
evidence
indicates that all thirteen
finch species evolved from a single small
population of
ancestral birds that
colonized one of the tely isolated on the island
after migrating from the mainland, the
founder population may have undergone
significant changes in its gene pool
and become a new species. Later, a few
individuals of this new species may
have been blown by storms to a neighboring
island. Isolated on this second island,
the second founder population could have
evolved into a second new species,
which could later recolonize the island from
which its founding population each
Galapagos island has multiple
species
of finches, with as many as ten on some islands.
paragraph 1
Biologist Ernst
Mayr defined a species as “an actually or
potentially interbreeding
population
that does not interbreed with other such
populations when there is
opportunity
to do so.” A key event in the origin of many
species is the separation
of a
population with its gene pool (all of the genes in
a population at any one time)
from
other populations of the same species, thereby
preventing population
interbreeding
With its gene pool isolated, a separate population
can follow its own
evolutionary course.
In the formation of many species, the initial
isolation of a
population seems to have
been a geographic barrier This mode of evolving
new
species is called allopatric
speciation.
word “key” in the passage
is closest in meaning to
l
able nt
word “initial” in the passage
is closest in meaning to
ing to paragraph 1. allopatric
speciation is possible when
A. a
population contains all the different genes
present in a species at a particular
time
B. a population becomes
isolated due to the presence of a geographic
barrier
C. genetic mixing begins to
occur in previously separate populations of a
species
D. a species is successful in
crossing a geographic barrier
paragraph
1&2
Biologist Ernst Mayr defined a
species as “an actually or potentially
interbreeding
population that does not
interbreed with other such populations when there
is
opportunity to do so.”A key event in
the origin of many species is the separation
of a population with its gene pool (all
of the genes in a population at any one time)
from other populations of the same
species, thereby preventing population
interbreeding With its gene pool
isolated, a separate population can follow its own
evolutionary course. In the formation
of many species, the initial isolation of a
population seems to have been a
geographic barrier This mode of evolving new
species is called allopatric
speciation.
Many factors can isolate a
population geographically. A mountain range may
emerge and gradually split a population
of organisms that can inhabit only lowland
lakes, certain fish populations might
become isolated in this way. Similarity, a
creeping glacier may gradually divide
a population, or a land bridge such as
the Isthmus of Panama may form and
separate the marine life in the ocean
waters on either side.
is paragraph 2
related to paragraph 1?
A. Paragraph 2
points out a number of ways in which the
phenomenon of
geographic isolation
mentioned in paragraph 1 can occur
B.
Paragraph 2 identifies discoveries that led to the
conclusion presented in
paragraph 1
that geographic isolation has played a rote in the
origin of many
species
C.
Paragraph 2 provides evidence supporting the
statement in paragraph 1 that a
population can follow its own
evolutionary course once its gene pool becomes
isolated
D. Paragraph 2
explains why the
term “allopatric” was
adopted to describe the
method of
speciation described in paragraph 1
paragraph 3
How formidable
must a geographic barrier be to keep populations
apart? It
depends on the ability of the
organisms to move across barriers. Birds and
coyotes
can easily cross mountains and
rivers. The passage of wind-blown tree pollen is
also not hindered by such barriers, and
the seeds of many plants may be earned
back and forth on animals In contrast,
small rodents may find a deep canyon or a
wide river an effective barrier. For
example, the Grand Canyon, in the southwestern
United Slates, separate the range of
the while-tailed antelope squirrel from that of
the closely related Harris’ antelope
squirrel. Smaller, with a shorter tail that is
white underneath, the white-tailed
antelope squirrel inhabits deserts north of the
canyon and west of the Colorado River
in southern California Hams' antelope
squirrel has a more limited range in
deserts south of the Grand Canyon.
paragraph 3, the author contrasts a variety of
organisms to illustrate which of
the
following points?
A. Geographic
barriers are less likely to keep apart populations
of plants than
populations of animals.
B. Geographic barriers are more likely
to keep apart populations of large organisms
than populations of small organisms
C. Some members of a species are able
to cross geographic barriers, while other
members of the same species are not.
D. The effectiveness of geographic
barriers in keeping organisms apart depends on
an organism’s ability
to
move across barriers.
aph 3 supports
the idea that white-tailed antelope squirrels and
Hams'
antelope squirrels have which of
the following in common?
A. They are
the two smallest rodents now found in the
southwestern United States.
B. They
have white coloring underneath their tails
C. They cannot cross the Grand Canyon
D. They cannot survive in desert
conditions
paragraph 4
Geographic isolation creates
opportunities for new species to develop, but it
does
not necessarily lead to new
species because speciation occurs only when the
gene
pool undergoes enough changes to
establish reproductive barriers between the
isolated population and its parent
population. The likelihood of allopatric
speciation increases when a population
is small as well as isolated, making it more
likely than a large population to have
its gene pool changed substantially. For
example, in less than two million
years, small populations of stray animals and
plants from the South American mainland
that managed to colonize the Galapagos
Islands gave rise to all the species
that now inhabit the islands.
word
“undergoes” in the passage is closest in meaning
to
ences ts
of
the sentences below best expresses the essential
information in the
highlighted sentence
in the passage? Incorrect choices change the
meaning in
important ways or leave out
essential information
A. Geographic
isolation is sometimes but not always the reason
for the creation of
reproductive
barriers between a parent population and the
populations descended
from it
B. Genetic changes in a geographical
isolated population do not necessarily make
the population look different enough
from its parent population to be considered a
new species
C. Geographical
isolation allows the separated populations to
evolve
independently of each other and
so can lead to the formation of new species
D. Geographic isolation can lead to new
species only if the gene pool of the
isolated population changes enough to
prevent it from reproducing with the
parent population
ing to
paragraph 4, why does the size of a population
affect the likelihood
of allopatric
speciation?
A. Because smaller
populations are more likely than larger ones to
become
geographically isolated
B. Because the gene pool of a small
isolated population is more likely to undergo
substantial change than is the gene
pool of a larger population
C. Because
a isolated population can become a new species
with substantially less
change to its
gene pool than would be required by a larger
population
D. Because smaller
populations are more likely to be made up of stray
animals or
plants than larger
populations are
word “managed” in the
passage is closest in meaning to
able forced d ed
paragraph
5
When oceanic islands are far enough
apart to permit populations to evolve in
isolation, but
close enough
to allow occasional dispersions to occur, they are
effectively outdoor
laboratories of
evolution. The Galapagos island chain is one of
the world s greatest
showcases of
evolution Each island was born from underwater
volcanoes and was
gradually covered by
organisms derived from strays that rode the ocean
currents
and winds from other islands
and continents. Organisms can also be carried to
islands by other organisms, such as sea
birds that travel long distances with seeds
clinging to their feathers.
aph 5 supports the idea that the
Galapagos island chain was able to
become “one of the world's greatest
showcases of evolution” primarily because
of
A. the richness of the
volcanic soil of each of the islands in the chain
B. the distance of the individual
islands from each other and from the mainland
C. the relativity long time it took for
the islands to become covered by organisms
D. the outdoor laboratories that
scientists have built on the islands to study
evolution
paragraph 6
The species on the Galapagos Islands
today, most of which occur nowhere else,
descended from organisms that floated,
flew, or were blown over the sea from the
South American mainland For instance,
the Galapagos island chain has a total of
thirteen species of closely related
birds called Galapagos finches These birds have
many similarities but differ in their
feeding habits and their beak type, which is
correlated with what they eat
Accumulated evidence indicates that all thirteen
finch
species evolved from a single
small population of ancestral birds that colonized
one of the islands. Completely isolated
on the island after migrating from the
mainland, the founder population may
have undergone significant changes in its
gene pool and become a new species.
Later, a few individuals of this new species
may have been blown by storms to a
neighboring island. Isolated on this second
island, the second founder population
could have evolved into a second new
species, which could later recolonize
the island from which its founding population
emigrated. Today each Galapagos island
has multiple species of finches, with as
many as ten on some islands.
ing to paragraph 6. what is true about
the thirteen species of Galapagos
finches?
A. All thirteen
species are now found on most of the Galapagos
Islands
B. All thirteen species are
descended from the same population of ancestral
birds
C. All thirteen species evolved
on the island that was originally colonized by
finches
from the mainland.
D. All thirteen species occur only in
small, completely isolated populations.
at the four squares
[
■
] that indicate where the
following sentence could be
added to
the passage.
This process of speciation
and colonization could have been repeated over and
over again, gradually involving all the
islands in the chain.
The species on
the Galapagos Islands today, most of which occur
nowhere else,
descended from organisms
that floated, flew, or were blown over the sea
from the
South American mainland For
instance, the Galapagos island chain has a total
of
thirteen species of closely related
birds called Galapagos finches These birds have
many similarities but differ in their
feeding habits and their beak type, which is
correlated with what they eat
Accumulated evidence indicates that all thirteen
finch
species evolved from a single
small population of ancestral birds that colonized
one of the tely isolated on the island
after migrating from the
mainland, the
founder population may have undergone significant
changes in its
gene pool and become a
new species. [
■
] Later, a
few individuals of this new
species may
have been blown by storms to a neighboring island.
[
■
]Isolated on this
second island, the second founder
population could have evolved into a second
new species, which could later
recolonize the island from which its founding
population
emigrated.[
■
]Today each
Galapagos island has multiple species of
finches, with as many as ten on some
islands.[
■
]
ions
:
An
introductory sentence for a brief summary of the
passage is
provided te the summary by
selecting the THREE answer choices that
express the most important ideas in the
passage. Some sentences do not belong in
the summary because they express ideas
that are not presented in the passage or
are minor ideas in the passage.
The geographic isolation of a
population can result in the rise of a new
species.
Answer Choices
ion
can result when a geographic barrier forms and
splits a population or
when a few
organisms somehow get carried across an existing
geographic barrier
and form a new
population
tion is more likely when an
isolated population is small because significant
genetic changes are more likely to
occur in a small population than in a large one
e of the geographic isolation of the
Galapagos Islands, the species that
now
inhabit them have gene pools that have not changed
very much since the
islands were first
populated.
populations are more easily
isolated by geographic barriers than are
populations of most other organisms
because fish cannot move across areas where
there is no water.
Galapagos Islands are well situated for speciation
because they provide
opportunities for
population isolation while also making occasional
dispersions
between islands possible.
ce indicates that the first organisms
to reach the Galapagos Islands were
probably a small population of finches
that,in less than two million years of
isolation,evolved into thirteen
species.
Explaining
Dinosaur Extinction
Dinosaurs rapidly became extinct about
65 million years ago as part of a mass
extinction known as the K-T event,
because it is associated with a geological
signature known as the K-T boundary,
usually a thin band of sedimentation found
in various parts of the world (K is the
traditional abbreviation for the Cretaceous,
derived from the German name
Kreidezeit). Many explanations have been
proposed for why dinosaurs became
extinct. For example, some have blamed
dinosaur extinction on the development
of flowering plants, which were
supposedly more difficult to digest and
could have caused constipation or
indig
estion
—
except that flowering
plants first evolved in the Early Cretaceous,
about 60 million years before the
dinosaurs died out. In fact, several scientists
have
suggested that the duckbill
dinosaurs and homed dinosaurs, with their complex
battery of grinding teeth, evolved to
exploit this new resource of rapidly growing
flowering plants Others have blamed
extinction on competition from the mammals,
which allegedly ate all the dinosaur
eggs
—
except that mammals and
dinosaurs
appeared at the same time in
the Late Triassic, about 190 million years ago,
and
there is no reason to believe that
mammals suddenly acquired a taste for dinosaur
eggs after 120 million years of
coexistence Some explanations (such as the one
stating that dinosaurs all died of
diseases) fail because there is no way to
scientifically test them, and they
cannot move beyond the realm of speculation and
guesswork.
This focus on
explaining dinosaur extinction misses an important
point the
extinction at the end of the
Cretaceous was a global event that killed off
organisms
up and down the food chain.
It wiped out many kinds of plankton in the ocean
and
many marine organisms that lived on
the plankton at the base of the food chain.
These included a variety of clams and
snails, and especially the ammonites, a group
of shelled squidlike creatures that
dominated the Mesozoic seas and had survived
many previous mass extinctions. The K-T
event marked the end of the marine
reptiles, such as the mosasaurs and the
plesiosaurs, which were the largest
creatures that had ever lived in the
seas and which ruled the seas long before
whales evolved. On land, there was also
a crisis among the land plants, in addition
to the disappearance of dinosaurs. So
any event that can explain the destruction of
the base of the food chain (plankton in
the ocean, plants on land) can better
explain what happened to organisms at
the top of the food chain, such as the
dinosaurs. By contrast, any explanation
that focuses strictly on the dinosaurs
completely misses the point The
Cretaceous extinctions were a global
phenomenon, and dinosaurs were just a
part of a bigger picture.
According to
one theory, the Age of Dinosaurs ended suddenly 65
million years
ago when a giant rock
from space plummeted to Earth. Estimated to be ten
to
fifteen kilometers in diameter, this
bolide (either a comet or an asteroid) was
traveling at cosmic speeds of 20-70
kilometers per second, or 45,000-156,000 miles
per hour. Such a huge mass traveling at
such tremendous speeds carries an
enormous amount of energy. When the
bolide struck this energy was released and
generated a huge shock wave that
leveled everything for thousands of kilometers
around the impact and caused most of
the landscape to burst into flames. The
bolide struck an area of the Yucatan
Peninsula of Mexico known as Chicxulub,
excavating a crater 15-20 kilometers
deep and at least 170 kilometers in diameter.
The impact displaced huge volumes of
seawater, causing much flood damage in
the Caribbean. Meanwhile, the bolide
itself excavated 100 cubic kilometers of rock
and debris from the site, which rose to
an altitude of 100 kilometers. Most of it fell
back immediately, but some of it
remained as dust in the atmosphere for months.
This material, along with the smoke
from the fires,
shrouded Earth,
creating a form of nuclear winter. According to
computerized
climate models, global
temperatures fell to near the freezing point,
photosynthesis
halted, and most plants
on land and in the sea died. With the bottom of
the food
chain destroyed, dinosaurs
could not survive.
paragraph 1
Dinosaurs rapidly became extinct about
65 million years ago as part of a mass
extinction known as the K-T event,
because it is associated with a geological
signature known as the K-T boundary,
usually a thin band of sedimentation found
in various parts of the world (K is the
traditional abbreviation for the Cretaceous,
derived from the German name
Kreidezeit). Many explanations have been
proposed for why dinosaurs became
extinct. For example, some have blamed
dinosaur extinction on the development
of flowering plants, which were
supposedly more difficult to digest and
could have caused constipation or
indig
estion
—
except that flowering
plants first evolved in the Early Cretaceous,
about 60 million years before the
dinosaurs died out. In fact, several scientists
have
suggested that the duckbill
dinosaurs and homed dinosaurs, with their complex
battery of grinding teeth, evolved to
exploit this new resource of rapidly growing
flowering plants Others have blamed
extinction on competition from the mammals,
which allegedly ate all the dinosaur
eggs
—
except that mammals and
dinosaurs
appeared at the same time in
the Late Triassic, about 190 million years ago,
and
there is no reason to believe that
mammals suddenly acquired a taste for dinosaur
eggs after 120 million years of
coexistence Some explanations (such as the one
stating that dinosaurs all died of
diseases) fail because there is no way to
scientifically test them, and they
cannot move beyond the realm of speculation and
guesswork.
1. In paragraph
1, why does the author include a discussion of
when flowering
plants evolved?
A. To help explain why some scientists
believe that the development of flowering
plants led to dinosaur extinction
B. To cast doubt on the theory that the
development of flowering plants caused
dinosaurs to become extinct
C. To suggest that dinosaurs were able
to survive for as long as they did because of
the availability of flowering plants
D. To emphasize that duckbill dinosaurs
and horned dinosaurs were the first
dinosaurs to become extinct
2. The word “allegedly” in the passage
is closest in meaning to
A.
inevitably
B. gradually
C.
Supposedly
D. Increasingly
3. According to paragraph 1 the
extinction of the dinosaurs is unlikely to have
been
the result of competition from
mammals because
A. mammals would not
have been capable of eating dinosaur eggs
B. mammals did not appear in any
significant numbers until after the Late Triassic
C. mammals and dinosaurs did not, in
fact, compete for any of the same resources
D. mammals and dinosaurs lived together
for roughly 120 million years before the
extinction
paragraph 2
This focus on explaining dinosaur
extinction misses an important point the
extinction at the end of the Cretaceous
was a global event that killed off organisms
up and down the food chain. It wiped
out many kinds of plankton in the ocean and
many marine organisms that lived on the
plankton at the base of the food chain.
These included a variety of clams and
snails, and especially the ammonites, a group
of shelled squidlike creatures that
dominated the Mesozoic seas and had survived
many previous mass extinctions. The K-T
event marked the end of the marine
reptiles, such as the mosasaurs and the
plesiosaurs, which were the largest
creatures that had ever lived in the
seas and which ruled the seas long before
whales evolved. On land, there was also
a crisis among the land plants, in addition
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