AP Bio Evolution Mega-Review (2025–26): From Natural Selection to Speciation to Phylogeny

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Unit 7 (Evolution) is the biggest unit on the AP Biology exam — and it consistently produces some of the trickiest multiple-choice and FRQ questions each year. This updated 2025 version walks you through every major topic: natural selection, Hardy–Weinberg, evidence for evolution, speciation, phylogeny, and the origin of life.

You’ll learn how to interpret real AP-style data, decode Hardy-Weinberg problems, and make sense of reproductive isolation, clades, shared derived traits, and molecular clocks. If you want a 4 or 5, this is the evolution unit review you need.

🌿 What You’ll Learn in This Unit 7 Review
• Natural, artificial & sexual selection
• Directional, stabilizing, disruptive selection
• Adaptive melanism case study — rock pocket mouse logic applied to AP Bio
• Evolutionary fitness — what “fitness” really means
• Population genetics & Hardy–Weinberg — allele frequencies, p/q math, exam traps
• Microevolution mechanisms — genetic drift, population bottlenecks, founder effect, gene flow
• Sickle cell disease — heterozygote advantage as an AP Bio classic
• Evidence for evolution — homologies, vestigial traits, convergent evolution, pseudogenes
• Speciation — prezygotic/postzygotic barriers, allopatric vs. sympatric, adaptive radiation
• Phylogeny — reading trees, clades, shared derived traits, outgroups, molecular clocks
• Origin of life — Miller–Urey, formation of abiotic monomers, the RNA world hypothesis, the traits of LUCA (the last universal common ancestor of all life).

⏱️ Video Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Evolution and Genetics for AP Biology
01:04 Natural, Artificial, & Sexual Selection (Types of Selection)
05:45 Directional, Stabilizing, Disruptive Selection EXPLAINED
06:49 Natural selection case study: adaptive melanism in the rock pocket mouse
07:52 Defining Biological Fitness & Survival
08:37 Natural selection case study: the peppered moth
11:32 Population Genetics: Allele Frequencies, Gene Pools, & Microevolution
13:13 Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium: Equations and 5 Conditions
16:36 Genetic Drift, Bottlenecks, Founder Effect, & Gene Flow (Microevolution)
19:48 Population genetics case study: sickle cell disease & heterozygote advantage
21:49 Evidence for evolution overview
21:55 Homologous Structures (Anatomical Evidence for Evolution)
23:30 Vestigial traits
24:13 Analogous Structures & Convergent Evolution EXPLAINED
25:51 Molecular Homologies & Pseudogenes (DNA Evidence)
28:36 Traits shared by all living things: proof that life had a single origin
29:15 Traits shared by all eukaryotes: proof that eukarya had a single origin.
30:08 Evidence for Evolution from Embryology
33:23 Biogeography: Evidence for Evolution
35:23 Fossil Evidence: Relative vs. Absolute Dating Methods
39:23 Evidence of ongoing evolution: resistance genes
41:16 Speciation Overview & The Biological Species Concept (BSC)
42:25 Prezygotic & postzygotic isolating mechanisms
45:04 Allopatric vs. Sympatric Speciation: KEY DIFFERENCES
45:24 How does Allopatric speciation Occur
46:33 Sympatric Speciation: What AP Bio Students Need to Know
48:36 Adaptive radiation and Speciation
49:46 Genetic Variation in Populations: Phospholipids, Hemoglobin, Chlorophyll
55:30 Phylogenetic Trees 101: Clades, Nodes, and Shared Derived Traits
01:02:30 What's the best evidence for constructing phylogenetic trees
01:03:13 Molecular Clocks: Using DNA to Date Evolution
01:04:28 Origin of life: Key Questions for AP Bio Students
01:05:33 What were the key steps that occurred during the origin of life
01:07:37 The Miller-Urey Experiment: Monomers and the Origin of Life
01:10:46 RNA World Hypothesis: Why RNA Preceded DNA
01:13:32 The characteristics of LUCA (the last universal common ancestor)

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