Deck 7: Darwinian Evolution

Question 1

Which two observations led Darwin to conclude that there is competition for survival?

A) Overproduction and limited resources
B) Fossils and mutations
C) Gene and allele differences in organisms
D) Natural selection and descent with modification

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Before the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species,what was the prevailing public consensus regarding species evolution?

A) That species were permanent and unchanging
B) That species evolved through physical changes that led to success
C) That species evolved by means of natural selection
D) That species were modified over time but did not change into new species

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following is evidence for evolution?

A) Bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics over time
B) Mosquitoes becoming resistant to pesticides
C) Cells with common features and chemically similar DNA
D) All are evidence for evolution

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Before Darwin published his work,Lamarck and others had suggested mechanisms for evolution.By what means did Darwin propose species evolved over time?

A) Overproduction of young
B) Passing on acquired traits
C) Survival of the strongest
D) Natural selection

Question 5

The modern evolutionary synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s melded together Darwin's findings with ________.

A) genetics
B) sociology
C) psychology
D) chemistry

Question 6

Individuals with variations that make them best suited to their environment are,on average,more likely to ________.

A) evolve
B) change over time
C) survive and reproduce
D) be larger

Question 7

What is the name for the study of the geographic distribution of species?

A) Biogeography
B) Ecology
C) Systematics
D) Taxonomy

Question 8

What is radiometric dating?

A) The process of determining the age of a fossil from radioactive isotopes
B) The mineralization process by which living things are turned into fossils
C) The process of determining the age of a fossil based on which layer in the rock it is found
D) The process of determining the age of a fossil using radio waves

Question 9

Human embryos have a developmental stage during which they have a tail and pharyngeal pouches (those pouches develop into gills in fish).How can we explain these characteristics of human embryos?

A) Human embryos need a tail and gills to breathe during development in the placenta.
B) Human embryos spend time in the water where tails and gills are useful.
C) Human embryos share a common ancestor who had gills.
D) Both A and B are correct.

Question 10

Can you inherit physical traits that your parents acquired during their lifetime?

A) No
B) Yes
C) Only if it improves survivability
D) Only if it improves reproductive success

Question 11

If two organisms of different species share more similar DNA sequences with each other than with other species,we can conclude that ________.

A) these two species are not closely related
B) these two species are very closely related
C) these two species happen to share similar DNA by chance
D) there is no relationship between similar DNA and how closely related organisms are

Question 12

Natural selection acts on ________,and ________ evolve.

A) individuals; individuals
B) individuals; populations
C) populations; populations
D) populations; individuals

Question 13

Which of the following are considered fossils?

A) Footprints or other impressions preserved in stone
B) Mineralized bones
C) Animals frozen in ice or preserved in amber
D) All of these

Question 14

Comparing the body structures of organisms to find evidence of a shared evolutionary history is called ________.

A) outgrouping
B) relativistic physiology
C) comparative anatomy
D) analogous reconstruction

Question 15

What contribution did Charles Lyell make?

A) He found some bird specimens on the Galapagos Islands.
B) He found some fossils of extinct species.
C) He suggested that life evolves through physical changes within the life span of an organism.
D) He provided the first evidence that the Earth is much older than was previously thought.

Question 16

What prompted Darwin to publish his book decades after he began writing it?

A) He had completed the last of his experiments.
B) He had returned from his voyage around the world.
C) A colleague (Alfred Wallace) was about to publish a similar manuscript.
D) After years of searching, he finally found a publisher willing to accept it.

Question 17

A weed that exhibits resistance to an herbicide ________.

A) developed the resistance in response to the herbicide
B) mutated when exposed to the herbicide
C) inherited the gene that made it resistant to the herbicide
D) is less likely to pass on the gene to the next generation

Question 18

Comparing DNA sequences to find evidence of a shared evolutionary history is called ________.

A) genomics
B) proteomics
C) differential relatedness
D) bioinformatics

Question 19

The oldest fossils typically are found in the ________ sediments.

A) upper
B) lower
C) coarser
D) finer

Question 20

Evolution can be best defined as ________.

A) the production of new species
B) not involving humans
C) change in gene frequency in a population
D) always taking a very long time to occur

Question 21

The rapid diversification of species seen in the fossil record followed by long periods of stasis is part of the ________ model of evolution.

A) punctuated equilibrium
B) symmetric
C) spatial
D) graduated

Question 22

What does fitness mean when speaking in terms of evolution?

A) Level of overall health of the individual
B) How many offspring an individual produces
C) Level of overall health of the population
D) The size and diversity of the gene pool

Question 23

What is the leading hypothesis for what might have brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs?

A) A new disease
B) Competition from mammals
C) An asteroid impact
D) Massive volcano eruptions

Question 24

Which process of evolution does not change the total number of species?

A) Branching evolution
B) Nonbranching evolution
C) Extinction
D) All change the number of species

Question 25

The eastern meadowlark and the western meadowlark are two bird species that look very similar to each other.Why do biologists not consider them the same species?

A) Species are not determined by appearance but by their ability to interbreed naturally.
B) The two species do not live in the same habitat and thus do not interbreed in nature.
C) The two species experience the reproductive barrier of habitat isolation.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 26

In many ways,a mule is a superior animal to the horse or donkey.Mules are often stronger and can jump higher than either of their parents.Why,then,are mules considered to be a "weak hybrid"?

A) They are sterile.
B) They do not live as long as horses and donkeys.
C) Their offspring are progressively weaker than the parents.
D) They are more prone to disease than are horses and donkeys.

Question 27

Despite an abundance of habitat,why will it be difficult for the human species to recover?

A) Related humans are not able to reproduce.
B) The founder effect will slowly kill off the survivors in a small population.
C) Modern humans lack the ingenuity needed to survive without an extended social network.
D) The reduced genetic diversity will make it difficult for the population to adapt to new diseases or other environmental changes.

Question 28

What is the original source of variation that natural selection can act upon?

A) Mutation
B) Gene flow
C) Genetic drift
D) All of the above

Question 29

Which of the following mechanisms can drive evolution?

A) Mutations
B) Genetic drift
C) Natural selection
D) All of the above

Question 30

Which of the following best defines microevolution?

A) Changes in genes between populations
B) Changes in genes within a population over time
C) Changes in genes that do not change the gene pool over time
D) Changes across species but not in genes

Question 31

Which model of evolution is closest to what was originally suggested by Charles Darwin?

A) Punctuated equilibrium model
B) Graduated model
C) Neither the punctuated equilibrium model nor the graduated model
D) Both the punctuated equilibrium model and the graduated model

Question 32

What is an exception to the standard biological species concept used to define a species?

A) Species that coevolved cannot be distinguished using this concept.
B) Natural interbreeding populations cannot be distinguished using this concept.
C) Asexual species cannot be distinguished using this concept.
D) Species that do not resemble one another cannot be distinguished using this concept.

Question 33

The slow drifting of sections of the earth's crust,sometimes separating,other times colliding,is known as ________.

A) continental convergence
B) continental divergence
C) crust dynamics
D) plate tectonics

Question 34

What term describes the failure of one species' sperm to fertilize the egg of a different species?

A) Hybrid weakness
B) Gametic incompatibility
C) Mechanical incompatibility
D) Mating time differences

Question 35

Certain traits will have been lost from the gene pool forever.Some traits,such as red hair or double-jointed thumbs,may be obvious.Others,such as the ability to process cholesterol or an allergy to peanuts,will be less obvious.This loss of diversity in a reduced population is called ________.

A) gene flow
B) genetic drift
C) bottleneck effect
D) founder effect

Question 36

What is the smallest unit that can evolve?

A) The community
B) The population
C) The individual
D) The cell

Question 37

When did life first appear on the planet?

A) 3.5 billion years ago
B) 2.1 billion years ago
C) 3.5 million years ago
D) 2.1 million years ago

Question 38

What defines a population in evolution?

A) Members of the same group that share a common ancestor
B) Members of a single species
C) Interbreeding members of the same species
D) Multiple species interacting together

Question 39

What events can lead to offspring having a unique arrangement of their parents' genes?

A) Crossing over
B) Independent assortment
C) Both of these
D) Neither of these

Question 40

What defines a geological time period known as an era?

A) Location of the continents
B) The distinct life forms that were present
C) Average global temperature
D) The eras represent equal divisions of time

Question 41

How can the use of chemical control agents (antibiotics,herbicides,pesticides)lead to their decreased effectiveness?

Question 42

Which grouping immediately follows Order in the classification hierarchy?

A) Genus
B) Family
C) Phylum
D) Class

Question 43

A requirement of cladistics is that a grouping must include ________.

A) species that can interbreed
B) only living species
C) species with shared traits
D) a common ancestor and all its descendants

Question 44

All prokaryotes are in the domain ________.

A) Bacteria
B) Prokarya
C) Eukarya
D) Prokaryotes are in different domains.

Question 45

What is the fundamental difference between the processes of microevolution and macroevolution?

Question 46

What field of science has as its goal to classify all living things into a hierarchical system of relatedness that runs from most broad to most narrow?

A) Evolution
B) Phylogenetics
C) Taxonomy
D) Cladistics

Question 47

If a changing environment increases rates of evolution,why do we see an increase in extinction rates following rapid global catastrophes?

Question 48

Use the phylogenetic tree below to answer the following question(s).

According to the phylogenetic tree above,which bear is most closely related to the sun bear?

A) The sloth bear
B) The brown bear

Question 49

Which grouping includes all of the protists?

A) Domain Archaea
B) Domain Eukarya
C) Kingdom Animalia
D) Kingdom Plantae

Question 50

Use the phylogenetic tree below to answer the following question(s).

According to this phylogenetic tree,which bear is most closely related to the American black bear?

A) The sun bear
B) The Asiatic black bear
C) The polar bear
D) The brown bear

Question 51

Which classification grouping includes the greatest number of species?

A) Domain
B) Order
C) Phylum
D) Kingdom

Question 52

Class Reptilia includes all reptiles,and Class Aves includes all birds.However,a cladistics approach would place birds in the same class with reptiles.Why would a cladistician classify birds and reptiles in a single class despite the behavioral and physical differences between the two?

Question 53

Some of the "branches" of a phylogenetic tree do not extend to the end.What do these lines represent?

A) Extinct species
B) Species of unknown origin
C) Convergent species
D) Lineages that have not changed

Question 54

Explain how a complex trait,such as eyes or the ability to fly,can evolve by incremental modifications over time.

Question 55

Of those listed below,which category of classification is the most narrow?

A) Class
B) Domain
C) Family
D) Genus

Question 56

Which of the following most often should lead to allopatric speciation?

A) Habitat isolation
B) Behavioral isolation
C) Gametic incompatibility
D) Mating time differences