BIO 111 Final

In a population exhibiting logistic growth, the rate of population growth is greatest when N is:

0.5 K

Prokaryotes are classified into _______ domains.

2

Which of the following scenarios would best facilitate adaptive radiation?

A population of birds becomes stranded on an island archipelago

Babies in the US quickly and easily develop a fear of snakes. Yet they don't easily develop a fear of guns. Why?

Evolution can be slow in producing populations that are adapted to their environments.

In a situation in which males guard eggs and care for the young without help from the female, which of the following statements would most likely be correct?

Females are more brightly colored than males and court males more aggressively.

In Belding's ground squirrels, why are females much more likely than males to engage in altruistic behavior by sounding alarm calls?

Females tend to remain in the area where they were born, so the females that call are warning their own kin.

Which of the following statements about habitat loss is correct?

Fragmented habitats can support only small populations of the species living in them.

What can be concluded about comparing differences in molecular biology between different species?

Genetic similarities and differences demonstrate species relatedness.

Which of the following statements about Charles Darwin is incorrect?

He was enthusiastic about unleashing his theory of natural selection on the world as soon as he thought of it.

Why do human taste preferences exist?

Human feeding choices influence energy intake and, consequently, fitness.

On average, which leaves more offspring that survive to become adults and reproduce: a pair of elephants or a pair of rabbits?

If both populations are stable, the pair of elephants and the pair of rabbits will leave the same number of offspring that survive to become adults and reproduce.

Which of the following statements about the hazard factor of a population is incorrect

It is a measure of how quickly the individuals in a population age.

Which of the following statements about an organism's niche is incorrect?

It may be occupied by two species, as long as they are not competitors.

Which statement best describes expectations for the world's human population by the year 2015?

It will exceed 7.5 billion if the current rate of increase continues

In the plant kingdom, all of the species are descended from a single common ancestor. In terms of phylogeny, what type of free of life is this?

Monophyletic

Which one of the following statements best describes the difference between artificial and natural selection?

Natural selection acts without the input of humans; artificial selection requires human input.

What kind of molecule is thought to have been the first genetic material?

RNA

According to the biological species concept, species are natural populations of organisms that have the potential to interbreed and are _______________ isolated from other such populations.

Reproductively

Why is it hotter at the Equator than at the poles?

The angle at which sunlight hits the earth leads to a given amount of solar energy being spread over a smaller area at the equator than at the poles.

Which of the following statements about maximum sustainable yield is incorrect?

The maximum sustainable yield for a population is a useful management guideline for harvesting plant products such as timber, but is not helpful for managing animal populations.

Why do beaches on the west coast of the US have colder water than the beaches on the east coast?

The ocean currents in the northern hemisphere rotate in a clockwise direction, so water off the coast of CA has just come from the cold north, while water off the coast of NY has just come from the warm south.

Which of the following statements about marsupial mammals is correct?

a. They fill many niches in Australia that are occupied by placental mammals in other parts of the world. d. They are more closely related to each other than they are to placental mammals. ???? (two answers on document?? )

7. The 10% rule of energy-conversion efficiency:

a. explains why big, fierce animals are so rare. b. Explains why the biomass of herbivores must exceed that of carnivores. c. Limits the length of food chains. d. Suggests tat 90% of what an organism eats is used in cellular respiration or is lost as feces. (d??)

Coevolution:

a. is responsible for all the beautiful flowers in this world. b. Is responsible for nectar production by plants. c. Reveals that both biotic and abiotic resources can serve as selective forces. d. Can only produce an insect with a tongue as long as its body.

The idea of punctuated equilibrium challenges which component of Darwin's theory of evolution?

a. steady change b. gradualism

Earth's largest terrestrial ecosystems, the biomes, are defined primarily by:

a. the average rainfall. b. The average temperature. c. The seasonal variability in temperature. d. The seasonal variability in rainfall. (i feel like b makes sense?)

Biodiversity is considered important because of:

a. the direct economic benefits to humans, such as medicines and food. b. The symbolic value that elements of the natural world can provide. c. The aesthetic value it holds. d. Its potential for helping humans understand the processes that gave rise to the diversity we see.

7. Which of the following statements about mutations is incorrect? a. Mutations are almost always random with respect to the needs of the organism. b. A mutation is any change in an organism's DNA. c. Most mutations are harmful or neutral to the organism in which they occur. d. The origin of genetic variation is mutation. e. All of these statements are correct.

all of the above

Artificial selection was used on corn to produce a single strain of corn with increased growth rates and greater resistance to fungus. Although farmers have continued to select for these traits, the productivity of this strain is no longer increasing, This suggests that:

all or most of the natural variation for these traits has been eliminated.

An ecosystem consists of _____ in a given area.

all the living organisms and non-living materials

In animals, it is believed that the most common mode of speciation is:

allopatric

In a set of experiments performed in the early 1950s, Urey and Miller subjected an experimental system composed of H2, CH4(methane), and NH3(ammonia) to electrical sparks. A few days later they found ______________ in their system.

amino acids

Which of the following groups would be placed nearest the fungi in an evolutionary tree based on DNA sequences?

animals

A fossil is defined most broadly as:

any preserved remnant or trace of an organism from the past.

Which of the following domains share the most recent common ancestor?

archea and eukarya

Polygynous species:

are usually sexually dimorphic, with males larger and more highly ornamented.

Why is it so much easier for an infant to learn a complex language than for a college student to learn biology?

b. Language is a feature with great evolutionary relevance for humans. c. Learning biology was not a behavior with evolutionary relevance for humans. (two answers???)

How many species do biologists estimate to be currently existing on earth?

between 5 million and 100 million

The average time to death from starvation in a fruit fly is about 20 hours. Selecting for increased starvation resistance in fruit flies:

can produce populations in which the average time to death from starvation is 160 hours.

Natural selection

cannot weed out from a population any alleles that do not reduce an individual's relative reproductive success, even if these alleles increase an individual's risk of dying.

The "ghost of competition past" refers to the fact that:

competition often leads to character displacement, which remains ever after direct competition is reduced.

Gestational diabetes is thought to be the consequence of

conflict between the mother and the fetus with respect to how much food the fetus should be given; the mother is equally related to the fetus and to any future offspring, while the fetus is not equally related to itself and any subsequent siblings.

6. "Top" carnivores:

consume primarily carnivores.

9. All of the following conditions are necessary for reciprocal altruism to evolve in a species except: a. the ability to recognize different individuals. b. the ability to punish cheaters who do not reciprocate. c. repeated interactions with the same individuals. d. at least one of the sexes must not disperse s that some individuals always live near their kin.

d

All protists are alike in that all are:

eukaryotic

Convergent evolution can occur when two species:

evolve under similar selective forces.

The classification rank that includes genera but not orders is:

family

In mammals, as well as many other species, males generally compete for females. The best explanation for this phenomenon is:

females have a higher parental investment.

Rabid animals:

froth at the mouth so as to increase the likelihood that the rabies-causing virus is passed onto another host.

Altruistic behavior in animals may be a result of kin selection, a theory maintaining that:

genes promote the survival of copies of themselves when behaviors by animals possessing those genes assist other animals that share those genes.

Which of the following is a major trade-off in life histories?

growth for reproduction

Which of the following is currently the leading cause of extinction?

habitat loss

Madagascar is unusually important to conservation because it:

has a higher percentage of endemic plants and animals than any comparably sized area on earth.

Life extension:

has been achieved using laboratory selection for delayed reproduction

Phylogenic trees should be viewed as:

hypotheses regarding evolutionary relationships of groups of organisms.

A primary difference between the age pyramids of industrialized and developing countries is that:

in developing countries, much larger proportions of the population are in the youngest age group.

Dr. David Reznick has studied life history evolution in guppies that live in streams in Trinidad. Guppies are found in two different types of habitat: sites where predation is high, and sites where predation is low. Which of the following life history characteristics would you expect to evolve in a guppy population living in a high predation site?

increased egg number

Maze-running behavior in rats:

is a heritable trait.

An umbrella species:

is a species whose preservation results in the preservation of many other species as well.

Polyploidy

is an increased number of sets of chromosomes.

Evolution:

is responsible for the increased occurrence of anti-biotic resistant bacteria.

Which of the following attributes of a species might render it especially susceptible to extinction?

it has a narrow dispersal range.

The death rate of organisms in a population exhibiting a type III survivorship curve is:

lower after the organisms survive beyond the earliest age groups

Adaptions shaped by natural selection:

may be out of date, having been shaped in the past under conditions that differed from those in the present.

In a species such as pigeons, in which males are almost indistinguishable in appearance from females, the most likely mating system us:

monogamy.

To establish that evolution by natural selection is operating in a population, one must demonstrate variability for a trait, heritability of that trait, differential reproductive success based on that trait, and:

nothing else.

While on the voyage of the HMS Beagle, Darwin:

nurtured his love of studying nature, exploring plant and animal diversity, and collecting fossils.

In a commensal relationship:

one species benefits while the other neither benefits nor is harmed.

Evolution occurs

only via natural selection, genetic drift, migration, or mutation.

From an evolutionary perspective, behavior can best be viewed as:

part of the phenotype.

What bird, once the most abundant in North America, was hunted to extinction by shooting and trapping during the 1800s?

passenger pigeon.

Chemical defenses are more common among plants than animals because:

plants cannot move to escape predators and so must develop other deterrents.

Keystone species:

play an unusually important role in determining the species composition in a habitat.

Relative to birds, more mammalian species are:

polygamous

Nitrogen enters the food chain:

primarily through soil-dwelling bacteria that "fix" nitrogen by attaching it to other atoms.

The chief difference between primary and secondary succession is that:

primary successions begins with no life or soil, whereas secondary succession begins with both.

Mate guarding is a reproductive tactic that functions to:

reduce paternity uncertainty.

Evolutionary adaption:

refers to both the process by which populations become better matched to their environment and to the features of an organism that make it more fit than other individuals.

A population pyramid:

represents the number of individuals in various age groups in a population.

5. Populations of Larus gulls around the North Pole show an unusual pattern of reproductive isolation: each population is able to interbreed with its neighboring populations, but populations separated by larger geographical distances are not able to interbreed. Larus gulls are an example of a(n) _________________ species.

ring

Genetic drift has the strongest effects in populations that are

small

When a group of individuals colonizes a new habitat, the event is likely to be an evolutionary event, because:

small founding populations are rarely genetically representative of the initial population.

Vampire bats:

sometimes regurgitate blood into the mouth of an unrelated bat that is close to starving.

Biodiversity hotspots are defined by which two criteria?

species endemism and degree of threat

Georges Cuvier's discovery of fossils of Irish elk and giant ground sloths

supports scientific evidence for extinction.

"Survival of the fittest" may be a misleading phrase to describe the process of evolution by natural selection, because:

survival matters less to natural selection than does reproductive success.

In a population in which a trait is exposed to stabilizing selection over time:

the average value for the trait stays approximately the same, and the variation for the trait decreases.

Even though there is a carbon cycle, carbon dioxide levels around the world seem to be rising. Which of the following best explains why this is so?

the burning of fossil fuels releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The number of individuals that can be supported in a given habitat is:

the carrying capacity.

When an island has the equilibrium number of species:

the composition of species on the island ay change, but the number of species present remains the same.

By fumigating several islands in the Florida Keys with monthly bromide, E. O. Wilson and Daniel Simberloff demonstrated that:

the equilibrium number of insect species was a function of island size and distance from the mainland.

In a population, as N approaches K, the logistic growth equation predicts that:

the growth rate will approach zero.

The mass extinction that occurred on earth 65 million years ago was immediately followed by:

the rapid divergence and radiation of modern mammals

Ecology is defined as the study of:

the relationships between all living organisms and their environments.

If you find a species of fish in which males are much more brightly colored and larger than females, what might you infer about their mating system?

they are polygamous

Exotic species can disrupt ecosystems because:

they frequently have no predators in their new habitat and grow unchecked.

The difference between microevaluation and macroevaluation is that:

they take place on different time scales.

Ozone depletion is cause for concern because:

without the protection against solar radiation provided by ozone, rates of skin cancer are likely to increase.