The first exam will be Thursday, March 19. If you will be absent that day, e-mail me by the end of the day on Monday, March 16, so that we can schedule your makeup exam.
You may not use your notes or textbook during the exam. You will not need a calculator.
The exam will consist of about 15 questions. Each of your answers should consist of one or two sentences. You will get points off for writing long, rambling answers that say the same thing over and over.
Some of the questions will present an evolutionary hypothesis, and I'll ask you to briefly describe how to test that hypothesis. Here's an example:
Based on their similar size, short tails, and cute noses, you think that guinea pigs and rabbits are more closely related to each other than they are to rats and mice. How would you test this hypothesis? What result would be consistent with your hypothesis?
Some of the questions will present some data and ask you to interpret it. Here is an example:
You are collecting fossil brachiopods from a sandstone cliff. Rocks from the bottom half of the cliff contain 27 different species of brachiopods. Halfway up the cliff is a thin horizontal layer of coarser sediment; above that layer, the sandstone contains only 3 species of brachiopods. What are two possible interpretations for these observations?
And some of the questions will ask you to provide an example of an evolutionary pattern or process, like this:
What is an example of a major group of organisms that went completely extinct during one of the great mass extinction events?
While almost all the questions will be about material covered in the lectures, I may ask a question or two about the literature research you're doing, the proper citation format, etc.:
You've decided to write your term paper about ammonites. What's the first two things you would do to find scientific literature on the subject?
I've put up a practice exam. I'll go over the answers to it in class on Tuesday, March 17.
Here is a list of basic concepts that I've covered in lecture. For each concept, you should think about the kind of data that provides evidence for that concept, and an example of the concept.
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This page was last revised March 6, 2009. Its URL is http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/495studyguide1.html