Bio 106 Systematics Module

Name: Ma. Ellen Tantoy Section Code: A335

Lesson 6. Speciation

Quiz:
1. Which scenario is most likely to result in allopatric speciation?
A. A flood causes the formation of a new lake.
B. A storm causes several large trees to fall down.
C. A mutation causes a new trait to develop.
D. An injury causes an organism to seek out a new food source.
2. Which scientist spent years accumulating evidence from natural populations to back up
the theory of speciation?
A. Wallace
B. Mendel
C. Franklin
D. Darwin
3. A population becomes extinct if it is unable to adapt to a new environment. Which of the
following definitions of extinction is correct?
A. Most individuals of a species are dead.
B. The genetic variation of a population is drastically reduced.
C. All individuals of a species are permanently lost.
D. A species is at risk of not having any surviving members.

4. What is the process by which two species evolve from a single-origin species due to
isolation?
A. Specialization
B. Differentiation
C. Classification

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D. Speciation

5. Which of the following options best describes when the separated population and the
original population are considered two distinct species in the case of speciation?
A. When individuals from each group specialize to eat a certain food source
B. When individuals from each group look different enough
C. When there has been one set of offspring from every individual in the new group
D. When individuals from each group can no longer reproduce to create fertile
offspring.
6. Which scientific term is given to the following definition: A group of similar organisms
that reproduce to give fertile offspring?
A. Kingdom
B. Species
C. Genus
D. Family
7. Which of the following is a correct definition of speciation?
A. An evolutionary process that leads to the formation of a new species.
B. The process by which a species goes extinct, allowing a new species a chance to
live in a new habitat.
C. When a species has a genetic defect, making it a brand new species
D. When one species has a genetic mutation, allowing it to breed with another
species.
8. Which of the following is an example of speciation?
A. A population of a frog species becomes geographically isolated from its original
population. Over time, traits are favored best suited to their new environment.
Over many generations, this population of frog is no longer be able to breed with
the original population of frog.
B. One individual frog living in a pond is moved to a new area. This frog finds a
closely related frog to mate with. They reproduce and their offspring is a new
species.

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C. A flood separates a population of a frog species. They have a new environment to

live in. They survive and reproduce in a new area. Their offspring are a new
species.
D. A group of frogs migrate to a new area to seek food. They reproduce and populate
the new area. Over many generations they keep reproducing.

9. In the formation of a new species, which of the following is NOT true?

A. A mutation causes a population to breed with a different species.
B. A population needs to become reproductively isolated
C. Reproductive isolation can occur by the formation of a mountain range
D. If an isolated population has new environmental conditions new traits can be
favored eventually leading to the inability to reproduce with the original
population.
10. Name two physical barriers for allopatric speciation to occur.
A. Mountain ranges
B. Rivers
11. This condition refers to having more than two complete sets of chromosomes.
A. Sympatric
B. Allopatric
C. Polyploidy
D. Peripatric

12. Speciation events are triggered by interruptions in gene flow. Distinguish between
allopatric speciation and sympatric speciation.
Allopatric speciation—"allo” meaning other and “patric” meaning homeland—involves
geographic separation of populations from a parent species and subsequent evolution.

Sympatric speciation— “sym” meaning same and “patric” meaning homeland—involves

speciation occurring within a parent species remaining in one location.

13. What kind of speciation does a formidable barrier like the Grand Canyon cause?
Allopatric speciation

14. Sympatric speciation occurs in populations that live in the same geographic area. How is
this possible? Your response should include polyploidy, habitat differentiation, and
sexual selection. Choose either polyploidy or habitat differentiation to explain sympatric
speciation.
Speciation within the same geographic area, also known as sympatric speciation, occurs
by a process of polyploidy, which is the heritable characteristic of having more than two
chromosomes. Polyploids are plants that have entire sets of chromosomes. The outcome

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is a diploid gamete that, when united with a haploid gamete, generates viable progeny. As
a result, the polyploid has become reproductively separated from the original population.
The polyploid plant can self-pollinate or mate with other polyploid plants.

15. Define sexual selection and then explain how sexual selection can drive sympatric
speciation.
Sexual selection is a type of natural selection in which members of one biological sex
choose mates of the opposing sex with whom to mate and compete with members of the
same sex for access to members of the opposite sex.
This mode of speciation, driven by two runaway processes in opposite directions, is aided
by an increase in female discrimination efficiency or a decrease in the cost of male
conspicuousness, indicating that sympatric speciation may occur more readily if barrier-
free or predator-free conditions exist. Even though a minor cost of female preference
cancels the runaway process of sexual selection, it does not cancel the divergent runaway
processes of sympatric speciation.

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