- A friend of yours has found out you are taking a course on human evolution. Your friend tells you that “Well,
that’s okay to talk about evolution as a theory, but that’s all it is. Evolution is a theory, not a fact. It might have
occurred, but on the other hand, it might not have occurred.” How do you correct your friend’s understanding of
fact and theory? - A friend of yours finds out that you are taking a course on human evolution and tells you, “I can’t accept
evolution because it means that all of life has been due just to chance.” You assume that your friend means all
evolutionary change is random. You explain to your friend that evolution is due to several evolutionary forces
(mutation, drift, selection) and has both random and non-random components. Describe your explanation in
more detail including brief definitions of the evolutionary forces and how they are random or non-random. - The reading assignments for Unit 10 provided you with some background on how we can get estimates of
the age of fossils, including methods such as carbon-14 dating and argon dating, among others. Why are
geologic dates important when studying evolution? Do not spend any time talking about the mechanics of
dating methods, but limit yourself to a direct answer on why we need to know the dates of fossils.
Sample Solution
