Evolution and the Fossil Record: Chapter Objectives

After completing this chapter, students should:

1. Understand that evolution encompasses changes in populations (groups of individuals that live together and belong to the same species).
2. Know what an adaptation is.
3. Be able to explain the lines of evidence that convinced Darwin that organic evolution produced the species inhabiting the modern world.
4. Be able to explain how natural selection works.
5. Understand the mechanisms of genetic mutation and sexual recombination.
6. Know what speciation is and the conditions under which it occurs.
7. Be able to define extinction and pseudoextinction and explain the conditions that lead to each.
8. Be able to explain evolutionary radiation and the conditions under which it occurs.
9. Understand the role of adaptive breakthroughs in evolutionary radiation.
10. Know what mass extinction is and understand the role it has played in evolution.
11. Appreciate the immensity of the mass extinction going on at the present time primarily as a result of human activities.
12. Be able to explain the concept of evolutionary convergence.
13. Understand the two main types of evolutionary trends and be able to provide examples of each.
14. Understand why evolution is irreversible.