Bio 2 Ch.22 Dynamic Study Module

How did Hutton and Lyell's ideas influence Charles Darwin's thinking?

Darwin reasoned that the Earth must be very old and that slow, subtle processes could produce substantial biological changes

A population of zooplankton is exposed to a small number of predatory fish that feed on the larger-sized (adult) zooplankton. Which of the following predictions would most likely occur based on the principles of natural selection?

adult zooplankton will start to reach sexual maturity when they are still relatively small

All known organisms transcribe genetic information to protein molecules via the same genetic code. This finding strongly supports the hypothesis that?

all organisms are descended from a single common ancestor

The breeding of plants and animals for particular traits by humans is called?

artificial selection

Even though rodents known as sugar gliders and flying squirrels are members of distinctly different groups of organisms and live on different continents, they possess similar characteristics. This is an example of?

convergent evolution

Darwin originally defined evolution as?

descent with modification

An important challenge to traditional (pre-1860) ideas about species was the observation that seemingly dissimilar organisms such as hummingbirds, humans, and whales have similar skeletal structures. This most directly suggested to biologists that?

dissimilar organisms might have evolved from a distant, common ancestor

Animals that possess homologous structures probably?

evolved from the same ancestor

How does our understanding of genetics today refute Lamarck's principle of the inheritance of acquired characteristics?

experiments in genetics show that traits acquired during an individual's lifetime are not inherited in the way proposed by Lamarck

On an evolutionary tree, _____?

homologous characteristics form a nested pattern

Adaptations are defined as?

inherited characteristics of organisms that enhance their survival and reproduction in specific environments

Which of the following is not an observation or inference that Darwin made while developing his theory of evolution?

interactions between individuals and their environments cause individuals to evolve

Darwin's explanation of how adaptations arise centered on?

natural selection

In Darwin's view of descent with modification, ____?

natural selection can improve the match between an organism and its environment

The upper forelimbs of humans and bats have fairly similar skeletal structures, whereas the corresponding bones in whales have very different shapes and proportions. However, genetic data suggest that all three kinds of organisms diverged from a common ancestor at about the same time. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for these data?

natural selection in an aquatic environment resulted in significant changes to whale forelimb anatomy

Which of the following is not an observation or inference on which natural selection is based?

poorly adapted individuals never produce offspring

A(n) ______ is the smallest unit that can evolve

population

The bacteria Staphylococcus aureus has developed resistance to some antibiotic drugs. How did this resistance come about?

some members of the bacteria populations possessed some sort of genetic variation for antibiotic resistance that was selected for when the bacteria was exposed to the drugs

What does each branch point on an evolutionary tree represent?

the common ancestor of the lineages beginning there and to the right of it

Homologies that appear to have marginal, if any, importance to an organism are called?

vestigial structures

Which of the following is correct regarding natural selection?

~natural selection is a process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than do individuals without those traits ~over time, natural selection can increase the correspondence between organisms and their environments ~if an environment changes, or if individuals move to a new environment, natural selection may result in adaptation to these new conditions, sometimes giving rise to new species ~individuals do not evolve; populations do

During periods of rapid environmental change, what may happen to a species that was well-suited to the former environment?

~the species may go extinct ~individuals with particular traits that provide an advantage in the new environment will have higher reproductive success ~the population may change so much in adapting to the new environment that it is considered a new species ~traits that were favorable in the original environment may be detrimental in the new environment