Evolution test

C. Choose two similar characteristics of cacti and euphorbia. Describe how each characteristic benefits the plants in their environments.

1.) Reduced leaves: cacti and euphorbia have heavily reduced leaves because of the lack of water in the desert, which makes it hard to support extra leaves and such to give water to 2.) Prickly spines water is kept inside the plant, and many animals in the area seek on water, the spikes help keep their predators away from their water source.

At one time, all the contents on Earth were joined in a supercontinent called Pangaea. Over time Pangaea split into separate continents. Which of the following statements describes a result of this split?

Ancestral organisms evolved into different species on the separated continents.

B. Usually organisms that share many physical characteristics are closely related. Explain why cacti and euphorbia evolved similar features.

Cacti and euphorbia grew in very similar climates, so while they were not related, they found similar ways of adapting to their environments.

A picture of a crab and barnacle. Which of the following observation would best support the conclusion that crabs and barnacles have a common ancestor?

Crabs and barnacles look very similar in their early developmental stages.

fossil evidence shows that ancient aquatic reptiles called ichthyosaurs looked very similar to modern dolphins. However, ichthyosaurs and dolphins are not closely related animals. Which of the following statements best explains the similar appliance of the ichthyosaurs and dolphins?

Dolphins are adapted to the same type of environment that ichthyosaurs lived in

Dutch elm disease is a fungal infection of elm trees that usually results in death. The disease has killed millions of North American elm trees that were not resistant to the fungus. Scientists have bred resistant elms by crossing North American species with Asian species that show resistance. Which of the following best describes how natural selection would promote resistant elm populations once the resistance genes from the Asian species were successfully introduced.

Elm trees with resistance genes would survive and pass on resistance to offspring, while trees without resistance would more likely be killed by the fungus.

The smooth- skinned, leaf tailed gecko lives on Madagascar, an island off the coast of Africa. The gecko hunts at night and sleeps on trees by day. The color and pattern of the geckos body resemblers leaves. Which of the following statements best explains how the gecko's unique body color and pattern evolved?

Individuals with bodies that looked the most like leaves were better able than other individuals to avoid predators and passed on the trait.

Millions of years ago, seawater flooded part of the Mississippi River Valley. Scientists have concluded that chorus frogs were affected by the flooding. The flooded areas formed geographic barriers between chorus frog populations for millions of years. Which of the following most likely occurred as a result of the seawater flooding?

Isolated populations of frogs became separate species.

The three- spines stickleback is a species of fish. It lives in the ocean and in streams that flow into the ocean. Some scientists think that the ocean population and stream population may be evolving into separate species. Which of the following statements describes how speciation of these fish would most like occur?

Ocean populations and stream populations would each adapt differently to their environments and would accumulate enough differences over time to prevent interbreeding.

Speciation can occur as a result or geographic isolation because

Populations that live in different environments may be exposed to different selection pressures.

A. Describe how scientists used molecular evidence to determine that cacti and Euphorbia are not closely related plants.

Scientists probably took DNA samples from both plants and found there to be many differences in the amino acid sequence.

A group of mammals migrates away from the general population to a new habitat. Under which of the following conditions will this group most likely develop into a separate species?

The new habitat has conditions that differ significantly from those in the old habitat.

In 1915, a disease killed almost all the oysters in a Canadian bay. The few oysters that survived reestablished the population. By 1940, the disease- causing organisms was still present in the bay, but the size of the oyster population was greater than it was before 1915. Which of the following statements describes what met likely occurred in the oysters population between 1915 and 1940.

The oysters that survived in 1915 had resistance to the disease, so the proportion of resistant oysters in the population increased by natural selection.

In a certain insect species, body color varies from very light gray to very dark gray. These insects are eaten by birds that find their prey by sight. A brush fire occurs, blackening the ground where one population of this insect species lives. Which of the following is most likely to occur over the next few years?

The percentage of very dark gray individuals will increase.

Th rock pipit and the water pipit are two types of birds found in the United Kingdom and other areas of Europe. The rock pipit and the water pipit have similar appearances and their habitat ranges overlap. Which of the following observations most likely caused scientists to classify the birds as separate species?

The rock pipit is not able to produce fertile offspring with the water pipit.

The DNA sequence of two species of sharks would

be more similar than the DNA sequence of a shark and a dolphin

The process in which two or more species become more adapted over time to each other's presence is called

coevolution

The occurrence of the same blood protein in a group of species provides evidence that these species

descended from a common ancestor

Penguins are powerful swimmers. Scientist have concluded that penguins evolved adaptation for powerful swimming early in their evolutionary history. Which of the following pieces of evidence did scientists most likely use to make this conclusion?

fossils showing the share of ancient penguins wings and feathers

The movement of ales into or out of a population due to migration is called

gene flow

natural selection could not occur without

genetic variation in species

The species of finches that Darwin observed differed in the shape of their beaks. According to Darwin, all of these species probably

had a common ancestor

Scarcity of resources and a growing population are most likely to result in

increased competition

Which of the following has no part in todays concept of natural selection?

inheritance of acquired characteristics

A biologist analyzes the DNA sequence in three different primates. The biologist finds that primates A and B have nearly identical DNA sequences. The DNA sequences in primate C are significantly different from those of primate A. From this information, the biologist may infer that

primates A and B are more closely related to each other than either is to primate C.

refer to the illustration above. The similarity of these structures is one form of evidence that the organisms

share a common ancestor

The major idea that Darwin presented in his book The Origin of Species was that

species change over time by natural selection

Refer to the illustration above. An analysis of DNA from these organisms would indicate that

their nucleotide sequences show many similarities

Anatomical structure that appear to be derived from a functional structure in an ancestor, but that currently do not serve an important function, are called

vestigial

(Basilosaurus, extinct whale) The presence of these bones in the baleen whale and extinct whale provides evidence of which of the following?

whale evolved from four- legged animals.