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BIOL 424 ISSUES IN NATURAL SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Assignment – Week 5
Worksheets 18, 19-A, 19-B, 19-C, 20

1 a. When populations of a single species occupy multiple habitats with differing selection pressures,
what is a frequent outcome? (1 pt)

It causes phenotypic and genetic divergence, which can then lead to speciation.

b. How could this lead to speciation? (1 pt)

If there is limited gene flow, the allele frequencies would eventually become fixated or extinct which
creates new species.

2 a. When two distinct “ecotypes” of the yellow monkeyflower that came from two different habitats
were replanted into their native habitat and into the alternative habitat, what happened? (1 pt)

The plants that were in their native habitat had the highest survival and reproduction rates when
compared to the alternate habitat.

b. Thought question: What does this suggest about natural selection? (1 pt)

It shows that natural selection won’t cause the population to diverge in a new habitat, but genetic
changes can help to alter the phenotype and that can lead to reproductive isolation.

3 a. Give 2 examples of characteristics of mammals that are not found in reptiles and would have to
evolve if evolutionary theory is true. (2 pts)

1) milk glands
2) larger and more complex brain

b. What is required genetically in order to develop and control these new characteristics? (1 pt)

There must be an enormous complex of regulatory genes.

4. Based on the modern synthesis, it is commonly thought that lots of microevolution over lots of
time results in macroevolution. However an increasing number of scientists doubt that this is
adequate to produce significant changes. What have they suggested for how macroevolution occurs?
(1 pt)
They suggest that there must be a rapid, different mechanism for large scale evolution besides
microevolution.

5. How might adaptation to new environments result in reproductive isolation? List 2 concepts. (2
pts)

1) 2 different environments may cause the groups to become different via natural selection
2) They can become separate species if the differences prevent them from interbreeding

6 a. What is the difficulty that epigenetics poses for the naturalistic theory of Neo-Darwinism? ( 1 pt)

It implies that environmental stresses that an organism detects can result in nonrandom beneficial
heritable changes.

b. If the environment initiates beneficial features that enable the organism to deal with environment
changes, what does this imply? (1 pt)

This shows that there is a genetic or epigenetic foresight that can determine what that organism needs.

c. In Darwinian theory, all new features must arise by random processes that do not know the needs
of the organism. What does epigenetic foresight imply about design? (1 pt)

If there is a process that seems to “know” what they need in order to survive and adapt, it implies that
there is a God.

7. What question is not dealt with by those who propose that evolution occurs through the process of
epigenetic decisions by cells and organisms? (1 pt)

How such a sophisticated system originated.

8 a. From the perspective of naturalistic evolution, where did the genetic information for new
variants within species come from? (1 pt)

They came from random mutations that produced altered genes.

b. What does natural selection do? (1 pt)

It removes traits that are unfit for the environment while preserving the ones that are fit for the
environment.
c. How long would this take? (1 pt)

It would take a long time because it is a slow process

9 a. From the perspective of interventionism, where does complexity in plants and animals come
from? (1 pt)

It comes from creation by God

b. When did the high point of the complexity of life on earth occur? (1 pt)

At the beginning – creation

c. How would physiological adaptions to changing conditions occur? (1 pt)

God designed the organisms with the ability to adapt physiologically to their environment through
genetic and epigenetic changes.

d. What was this system designed to do? (1 pt)

Create new species that are variations of the ones that were originally created.

10 a. How could random mutations —actually random genetic damage—have been precipitated by
the fall of mankind? (1 pt)

The random mutations were produced by environmental changes that caused cosmic radiation and
other mechanisms.

b. How could the damage of deleterious mutations be controlled to prevent life from going extinct?
(1 pt)

Natural selection will get rid of the deleterious mutations to eliminate the less fit individuals so that the
successful ones are better adapted to the environment.

11 a. From the perspective of interventionism, what two components are involved in the
microevolutionary origin of new morphological or behavior variations within each group of
organisms? (2 pts)

1) Selection of individuals that have alleles that make them better suited to the environment
2) There is a tendency towards genetic information in organisms since their origin
b. How would changes resulting in adaptation to the environment occur? (1 pt)

Environmental signals trigger epigenetic changes by turning on and off existing genes.

c. How might new species characteristics be generated? (1 pt)

If genes that are inactive become activated.

12. What does Brand propose may have occurred since the original creation of organisms? List 2
concepts. (2 pts)

1) Populations that were originally adaptable with a high level of genetic information are often divided
into highly specified species
2) They had less functional or active genetic information per species

13. According to interventionist theory presented by Brand, what has caused much of our current
taxonomic diversity? List 2 concepts. (2 pts)

1) limited evolutionary change after a global catastrophe

2) The original plants and animals have diversified and adapted to fit the specific niches created after
the catastrophe

14 a. What question is being asked by interventionist researchers about the changes that evolution
can produce? (1 pt)

They ask what the limits of evolutionary change are.

b. What does Brand propose about the process of change that brought life from the original created
state to its present adaptation to modern conditions? (1 pt)

The created genetic mechanisms are only adequate for diversifying and adapting life within the taxa
they were originally created.

15. What are Brand’s conclusions based on the evidence described in chapter 9 of FREH? List 3
concepts. (3 pts)

1) microevolution and speciation are real processes in nature

2) data is readily interpreted within the interventionist theory
3) Genesis is a factual account of earth history