AP Bio - Evolution Quiz

Given a population that contains genetic variation, what is the correct sequence of the following events, under the influence of natural selection? 1. Well-adapted individuals leave more offspring than do poorly adapted individuals. 2. A change occurs in the environment. 3. Genetic frequencies within the population change. 4. Poorly adapted individuals have decreased survivorship.

2-->4-->1-->3

What is thought to be the correct sequence of these Events, from earliest to most recent, in the evolution of life on Earth?

4,1,3,2,5

Which of the following is true about mass extinctions?

A and B are true

A biologist studied a population of squirrels for 15 years. During that time, the population was never fewer than 30 squirrels and never more than 45. Her data showed that over half of the squirrels born did not survive to reproduce, because of competition for food and predation. In a single generation, 90% of the squirrels that were born lived to reproduce, and the population increased to 80. Which inference(s) about this population might be true?

A,B, and C

Which of the following pieces of evidence supports the common origin of life on Earth?

All organisms use the same genetic code

Over the course of the next 200 years, gulls in this new population evolved mating displays that differ from those of the parent population. When a second group of the original Azores archipelago gulls are introduced to the this new island, the two kinds of gulls find each other's mating behavior objectionable, and do not interbreed. What type of isolation mechanism keeps the two species of gulls from interbreeding?

Behavioral isolation

Which of the following is true about interbreeding?

It leads to the gradual loss of the heterozygous genotype.

Which is consistent with the punctuated equilibrium's theory of speciation?

Long periods of minor change are interrupted by short bursts of significant change

Which statement is best supported by fossil records?

Many organisms that lived in the past are now extinct.

DDT was once considered a ʺsilver bulletʺ that would permanently eradicate insect pests. Today, instead, DDT is largely useless against many insects. Which of these would have been required for this pest eradication effort to be successful in the long run?

None of the individual insects should have possessed genomes that made them resistant to DDT

Which statement best describes the evolution of pesticide resistance in a population of insects?

Offspring of insects that are genetically resistant to the pesticide become more abundant as the suceptible insects die off.

In a Lake Victoria, fishes called pike-cichlids are visual predators of algae eating fish. If a population of algae eaters experiences predation pressure from pike-cichlids, which of the following should least likely be observed in the algae-eater population over the course of many generations?

Selection for larger female algae-eaters, bearing broods composed of more, and larger, young

Which is FALSE about conditions on the Earth 3.8 billion years ago.

The atmosphere contained more O2 than is present today.

What is the most probable reason for the increase in percentage of variety A in the population of the species shown in the graph below?

Variety A is more fit to survive than variety B

Which statement about natural selection is most correct?

Well adapted individuals leave more offspring, and thus contribute more to the next generations gene pool, than do poorly adapted indiviuals.

A species of seagulls exists as different populations on separate islands of the Axores archipelago. Each population contains 100 individuals. Every generation, 5 individuals from each population disperse to other islands. In the following months, 5 seagulls migrate into each population from other islands in the archipelago. Which of the following is true?

allele flow is sufficient to negate the effects of genetic drift in this species.

In the seagull problem above, what type of evolutionary event has occured?

allopatric speciation

Limited resources contribute to evolutionary change by increasing:

competition between members of the species

A population of Madagascar

directional selection

A population of white moths lived in a forest near a coal burning factory. Over time, factory emissions have settled on the trees in the area, making them darker in color This could result in

directional selection

Two closely related species of birds live in the same tree. Species A feeds on ants and termites, while species B feeds on caterpillars. The two species coexist successfully because:

each occupies a different ecological niche

During a storm, two males and two females are blown 300 miles due West, to an isolated island uninhabited by seagulls. They reproduce and found a new population. They cannot disperse back to the original habitat, nor can any new seagulls cross to the new island. By chance, all four original colonists were white-colored gulls. The difference in color between the new population and the old populations is to

founder effect

One reason for the existence of these pink land iguanas today is that their ancestors:

had variations not present in other iguanas that allowed them to live in a particular environment more successfully than the other iguanas.

Tropical paper

kin selection

Which are actual evidence supporting the endosymbiotic theory for the origin of eukaryotes?

mitochondria and chloroplasts have their own DNA

During drought years on the Galapagos, small, easily eaten seeds become rare, leaving mostly large, hard-cased seeds that only birds with large beaks can eat. If a drought persists for several years, what should one expect to result from natural selection?

more small beaked birds dying than larger beaked birds. the offspring produced in subsequent generations have larger beaks.

Indian paintbrush flowers

selection frequency

In the future, the current population of about ten pink land iguanas will probably:

soon become extinct, because they have little gentic diversity.

Humans exhibit which of the following with respect to height?

stabilizing selection

The common ancestors of birds and mammals were very early reptiles, which almost certainly possessed three chambered hearts. Birds and mammals, however are alike in having 4 chambered hearts. This is best described as:

structural homologies

Two species of frogs belonging to the same genus occasionally mate, but the offspring fail to develop and hatch. What is the mechanism for keeping the two frog species separate?

the postzygotic barrier called hybrid inviability

Potatoes were the main crop in Ireland in the 1800s. Almost the entire population of Ireland was dependent on a single variety of potato, the "lumper." These potatoes were reproduced by a method of asexual reproduction known as vegetative propagation. In the middle of the 1800s, a disease caused by a fungus killed almost the entire lumper crop within two years. As a result, millions of people in Ireland died of starvation. The most likely reason the potato disease was able to destroy the potato crop in such a short time is that the

the potato population lacked genetic diversity