Evolution Test Review

survive and reproduce

Each zebra has slightly different stripes that allow it to blend into the herd and confuse predators. Blending into the herd helps the zebras do which of the following?

It makes it easier for them to blend into the trees.

Budgies, or parakeets, are one of the most popular pets in the world. Captive budgies come in a variety of colors, including white and blue. Wild budgies live in Australia and are only green and yellow. How might the color of their feathers help the wild budgies to survive?

Elephants and woolly mammoths had a common ancestor.

Elephants are the largest land animals alive today. They are the only mammals to have four knees. Evidence of extinct woolly mammoths shows that they shared the trait of having four knees, but they were not African or Asian elephants. How could the mammoths and elephants share this characteristic?

Evolution

Evolution the process of an entire species changing over many generations; it is not a change in one individual organism.

They show that some animals evolved from other animals.

Fossils of the Dorudon, an aquatic mammal that lived over 40 million years ago, show a whale-like animal that had small, underdeveloped hind limbs. Which best explains how fossils like the Dorudon support the theory that plant and animal life has evolved over time?

A species that has no variation might eventually become extinct.

In plants and animals, sexual reproduction causes variation within a species. This variation is vital to their survival. How does genetic variation affect a species' survival?

The male will be less likely to attract predators and more likely to reproduce.

Male crickets chirp to attract a mate. Chirping is dangerous because it can attract predators of the crickets like birds or bats. Sometimes, other male crickets will wait quietly and intercept the female on her way to a chirping male. How is the cricket that intercepts the female cricket at an advantage?

a moth blending with a tree

Natural selection is the process by which organisms with favorable traits will survive and reproduce, increasing those favorable traits in a population. Which of the following is the best example of a favorable trait which helps with survival that was developed by natural selection?

The slower tuna were not able to out swim predators.

Scientists studying a breed of tuna noticed that some of the tuna could swim faster than others. After 10 years, the number of these "fast swimming" tuna outnumbered the slower tuna. What could account for this change in population?

They will be unable to eat and will die out.

The different finches found in the Galapagos Islands developed very different beaks, depending on the type of food available on each of the islands. Finches that eat seeds have large crushing beaks made to crack the shells of seeds. Other finches have developed beaks for drilling holes in wood, eating cactus, or even drinking the blood of other birds. If a storm hits and causes the death of nearly all of the cacti on the islands, which of the following will be the most likely outcome for the Cactus ground finch?

It evolved from other ancient species of horses.

The modern horse, Equus ferus caballus, is so wide-spread that it can be found on nearly every continent on Earth. However, the modern horse does not appear in the fossil record until about 3 million years ago. Which of the following best explains why?

adaptation

a trait that is useful for an organism's survival