Biological Concepts : Evolution

Which of the following can cause evolutionary change?

A, B, and C are all correct: genetic drift in a small population; natural selection; mutation

Which of the following adaptations has been extremely important in primate evolution?

A, B, and C: binocular vision; upright posture; hand structure

Several lines of evidence, including fossils and a genetic analysis of different groups of modern humans, suggest that our species originated and spread out from where?

East Africa

The only known large population of a reptile species lives on an African mountain. No close relatives of this species are known. Suppose you could stop all mutations within the population and all immigration into or emigration out of this population. Which statement BEST describes the probable future of this population?

Evolution will probably continue as selection acts on the variability produced by sexual recombination of genes.

Which of the following would you predict would evolve in guppies taken from streams with predators that key in on prey color and put into streams lacking predators?

Guppies would become more colorful.

Which represents the correct time sequence (if not evolutionary sequence) of the evolution of modern humans?

H. habilis, H. erectus, Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons

The species that paleoanthropologists believe may be the most direct ancestor to Homo sapiens is

Homo heidelbergensis

The scientific name for Neanderthals is

Homo neanderthalensis

All surviving humans belong to the species

Homo sapiens

Cave paintings at Lascauz, France were done by which species of hominid?

Homo sapiens

Which of the following is an example of adaptive radiation?

darwin's finches

Which of the following is NOT a trait that can evolve by natural selection?

differences in the sizes of genetically identical plants exposed to different amounts of sunlight

Two species of garter snakes live in the same geographic area. One mainly lives in water and the other mainly on land so that they rarely encounter each other and do not interbreed. This is an example of what type of genetic isolation?

ecological

Directional selection

favors individuals that vary in one direction

Disruptive selection

favors individuals that vary in opposite directions from the average

The biological species concept cannot be applied to

fossil organisms

The Pennsylvania Amish have a very high frequency of an unusual allele that results in short arms and legs and extra fingers. This high frequency is thought to be the result of

founder effect

What is the significance of upright walking?

frees hands for other tasks

One method of protecting the genetic identity of a population is the inability of sperm to fertilize eggs of a different species. This is called

gametic incompatibility

What vital processes (important to the evolutionary biology of a species) occurs when a young male baboon leaves the troop that he was born in to join another troop?

gene flow

A small population is likely to evolve because of ___, but this is not likely to be true for a large population.

genetic drift

Founder populations may quickly become very different from the parent population in a similar habitat due to

genetic drift

Which of these decreases genetic variation in a population?

genetic drift

Which of these set primates apart from other mammals?

grasping hands

The greatest cause of extinctions is

habitat change

Having greater evolutionary fitness means

having more offspring

The evolutionary history of this is well documented over the last 50 million years in the fossil record.

horse

Horses and donkeys mate successfully to produce males which are always sterile. Which genetic isolating mechanism is involved here to prevent horses and donkeys from becoming a single species?

hybrid infertility

When offspring are infertile after breeding occurs between individuals of different species, the genetic identities of the two populations are protected by

hybrid infertility

Natural selection on a trait can only occur if the trait is ___

inheritable

Which of the following structures is NOT homologous to the others?

insect wing

A bacterial allele that conveys resistance to the antibiotic streptomycin

is beneficial to the cell in the presence of streptomycin

If there is no gene flow into a population, it is said to be

isolated

A population with ___ is at risk for extinction

low genetic variation

The great dame and the chihuahua are both domestic dogs (the same species), but mating between them is limited by

mechanical incompatibility

Which one of the following is not one of the five major features to emerge in the evolution of humans?

monogamy

Of the following mechanisms of evolution, which are at work in species that only reproduce asexually?

mutation

Equilibrium actually means

no change in allele frequency

Cells of diverse species differ in that they do not all

none of the above: have ribosomes; have RNA; have DNA; have ATP

Fat-insulated streamlined bodies of seals and penguins are superficially similar, although these organisms are not closely related. Such superficially similar structures are

obtained through convergent evolution

New mutations

occur at random and may be good, bad, or have no effect on the organism

The Galapagos Islands visited by Darwin are located where?

off the west coast of South America

An example of a vestigial structure is

pelvic bones of whales

Which of the following categories is the SMALLEST capable of evolution?

population

Imagine a population of monkeys in South America whose habitat has been reduced to the point where only 25 monkeys survive. This is an example of

population bottleneck

Habitat loss is dangerous to a species because it can result in

population bottlenecks

Which of these actually evolves?

populations

Stabilizing selection

preserves average phenotype

The theory of evolution would predict that human DNA is most similar to that of

primates

Which of the following is a major milestone of human evolution that is most directly related to the development of culture?

prolonged parental care

The sexual displays and contests common in the Animal Kingdom (such as male Bighorn Sheep bashing their heads together) result in

sexual selection

Charles Darwin believed that artificial selection was

similar in many ways to natural selection

Before the modern era of science, organisms were assigned to species categories on the basis of

similarities in appearance

What is: "all the populations of organisms that can potentially interbreed with one another under natural circumstances and are reproductively isolated from other populations"?

species

The most important kind of selection acting on a well adapted population in a relatively constant environment is

stabilizing

When a species lives within a constant environment for a long time the "average type" individuals may have the best chance of survival and produce the most offspring. What type of selection is occurring?

stabilizing

Which of the following types of study suggest Homo sapiens originated in Africa and spread, replacing other hominid species?

studies of mitochondrial DNA among living human populations

The flies that show a preference for either hawthorn or apple trees, and are no longer interbreeding populations because of this, illustrates what type of speciation?

sympatric

Moss "A" produces gametes in May, and moss "B" produces gametes in June. This is an example of a ___ isolating mechanism.

temporal

Two species of pines, Pinus radiata and Pinus muricota, live together in California and are capable of forming hybrids under laboratory conditions. However, they do not interbreed because one releases pollen in February and he other in April. What is the genetic isolating mechanism involved?

temporal

The theory of natural selection states that

the best adapted individuals survive and reproduce, contributing the most genes to the next generation.

What determines which traits will be passed on to the next generation in the greatest frequency?

the fit of the trait to the environment

Most of the 700 species of fruit flies found in the Hawaiian archipelago are each restricted to a single island. One hypothesis to explain this pattern is that each species diverged after a small number of flies had colonized each new island. This mechanism is called

the founder effect

Strong evidence for the close relatedness of vertebrates is

the similarity of their embryological stages

Two fossils may be assigned to different species if

they are anatomically different

The existence of species of flightless birds with wings suggests that

they are descended from flying birds

Mutations are important because

they provide new variation for evolutionary change

Most commercial pesticides are effective for only 2-3 years. This is because

those pests with advantageous mutations will survive and reproduce.

Of the following, which is the first distinctively hominid trait to appear in the fossil record?

upright walking

Boa constrictors have tiny pelvic girdles and leg bones within their bodies. Since these structures are nonfunctional, they are called

vestigial

Structures (like molar teeth in vampire bats) which are homologous to important structures in other organisms but serve no purpose in the organism being considered are

vestigial

Some fish species found in caves have reduced eyes. These eyes are BEST describes as

vestigial structures

If the weather in Richmond, Virginia, changed to very cold (snow on the ground 8 moths of each year) over the next few years, what change might occur?

If a mutation occurred which caused white fur to develop, such white squirrels would have a better chance to survive and produce more offspring with the characteristic

Which statement is consistent with the scientific evidence about the genus Homo?

It is originated in Africa

Which of the following statements was NOT one of Darwin's assumptions in proposing natural selection?

Organisms usually have two copies of each gene for each trait.

As predator and prey species coevolve, which is a likely result of the process of evolution?

Predator evolves which kills mostly individuals with some genotypes but not with other genotypes

Which of the following is NOT an example of natural selection?

Scientists breed cows that give greater amounts of milk than their ancestors

Evolution can be defines as

a change in the genetic makeup of a population over time

An organism's phenotype is determined by

a combination of its genotype and its environments

Which of the following "species" cannot be tested via the biological species concept to see if all the individual organisms are in fact a single species?

a dinosaur species

Which example is favored in terms of natural selection?

a woman who lives 25 years and has 6 children

The animals most closely related to humans are the

chimpanzees

Our species, Homo sapiens, has been in existence for approximately how many years?

100,000

The oldest fossils of Homo sapiens are about ___ years old

150,000

The oldest fossils of Homo sapiens are about ___ years old.

150,000

The publication date of Darwin's Origin of Species was

1859

Clearly bipedal hominid fossil footprints date to about ___ years ago.

3.5 million

Earliest hominids were in a group called ___

Australopithecines

According to current scientific evidence, which kind of primate is most closely related to humans?

Australopithecus

In addition to Homo, another genus within the hominid family is

Australopithecus

Hominid species migrated out of Africa

Both B and C: nearly 2 million years ago nearly 800,000 years ago

The author of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection is

Darwin

Which statement BEST describes the reproductive isolation between populations of flies found on apple and hawthorn trees?

Males raised on one type of tree prefer to mate with females who will lay eggs on that same type of tree

DNA analysis recently showed that ___ is probably a separate species from Homo sapiens

Neanderthal

If within a large population no mutations occur, no migration occur, all matings are random, and each individual has an equal chance of reproducing, which of the following will probably happen?

No evolution will occur.

A fish population averages 10 mm in size. A predator population that cannot eat fish larger than 15 mm arrives in the area. After a decade, the fish average 17 mm in size. What is likely to have happened?

The larger fish in the population survived and left more offspring to subsequent generations.

Which statement BEST describes how evolution proceeds?

There are new species continually evolving and replacing species going extinct.

The fossil record indicates that over the last 50 million years the horse has evolved in all but which of the following ways?

abundance of hair

When a species invades a new habitat and evolved rapidly into several new species to better exploit new resources (e.g. Darwin's Finches), what has occurred?

adaptive radiation

The genus Australopithecus

all of the above: gave rise to species of the genus Homo; originated in Africa; included both larger and smaller species; coexisted with species of the genus Homo during their early history

Population bottlenecks are dangerous to a population because

all of the above: the potential for evolution is decreased; inbreeding depression often results; genetic variability is lost

An insect population may evolve adaptations to

all of them: better chew the tough leaves of the plants it eats; an increased concentration of pesticide in its environment; attract members of the opposite sex; avoid being seen by bird predators

Mutations

all of these: can be helpful or harmful; must rely on natural selection or drift to spread through a population; are very rare; provide only the potential for evolution

Evidence which supports the theory of evolution is found in the studies of

all of these: embryos; biochemistry; artificial selection; fossils

Dolphins, which are mammals, and fish have fins. These structures are BEST described as

analogous structures

That whales have pelvic bones indicates

ancestral whales had legs

Overspecialized adaptations

are a result of natural selections

A biologist develops a strain of corn with lower fat content by choosing low fat variants and crossing them over a period of several generations. This is an example of

artificial selection

The many different breeds of domestic dog were produced by

artificial selection

The many different breeds of domestic dog were produces by

artificial selection

In many species of fireflies males flash to attract females. Each species has a different flashing pattern. This is an example of

bahavioral isolation

If two or more phenotypes in a population are both favored by selection, what happens?

balanced polymorphism

The elaborate courtship rituals of many bird species help to preserve genetic isolation due to

behavior isolation

Blue-footed boobies of the Galapagos will only mate after a very specific courtship display on the part of the male. He high steps to advertise his bright blue feet. What isolating mechanism discourages mating outside the species?

behavioral isolation

Specific inheritable mutations, which may allow a population to evolve, are produced

by chance

Natural selection is BEST described as

working on existing variation of traits to favor those better suited to the organisms's environment

Which of the following is NOT capable of evolving?

your professor