Variation and evolution
6 lessons in Inheritance, variation and evolution.
31 exam questions · 61 marks
6.13
Variation
The causes of variation (genes, the environment, or both), continuous and discontinuous variation and how to show them on graphs, and how mutations create new genetic variants.
AQA
Edexcel
OCR
6 questions
6.14
Evolution by natural selection
The theory of evolution by natural selection: variation, competition, survival of the best adapted, reproduction and inheritance of alleles over many generations, with the peppered moth as an example, and how new species form.
AQA
Edexcel
OCR
5 questions
6.15
Darwin, Wallace and speciation
Darwin's observations and his theory of evolution by natural selection, why it was slow to be accepted, Lamarck's rejected idea, Alfred Russel Wallace's contribution, and how geographical isolation leads to new species (speciation).
Separate only
AQA
Edexcel
OCR
5 questions
6.16
Evidence for evolution: fossils and resistant bacteria
How fossils form (in places where decay cannot happen, by mineral replacement, or as traces), why the fossil record is incomplete, and how antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA show evolution happening now.
AQA
Edexcel
OCR
5 questions
6.17
Extinction
AQA: what extinction is and its causes, including new predators, new diseases, more successful competitors, catastrophic events and changes to the environment over time, with examples.
AQA
5 questions
6.18
Human evolution: fossils and stone tools
Edexcel: fossil evidence for human evolution (Ardi, Lucy and Leakey's Turkana Boy), how stone tools developed and are dated, and (Biology only) the pentadactyl limb as evidence for evolution.
Edexcel
5 questions