Topics to be covered:
The student will analyze and evaluate:
Evidence of common ancestry among groups by fossil records, biogeography, and homologies
Scientific explanations concerning data of sudden appearance, stasis, and sequential nature of groups in fossil records
How natural selection produces change in populations
How elements of natural selection, inherited variation, potential of populations to produce more offspring that can survive, and a finite supply of environmental resources, result in differential reproductive success
The relationship of natural selection to adaptation and to the development of diversity
The effects of genetic drift, gene flow, mutation, and recombination
Scientific explanations concerning the complexity of the cell