GeoSci 110 Final Exam

Which of the following is most likely to be a density-dependent check on population growth rate?

viral disease

"The Seashell on the Mountaintop" argues that Steno's most significant contribution to the understanding of natural science was ________.

Aspects of the Earth's history might be reconstructed by studying the geometric relationships of rocks.

Which of the following best describes the distinction between living and non-living things in the Aristotelian view of nature?

Animals, vegetables, and minerals all possess a "life force", but differ in the degree of development.

The two domains that contain all prokaryotic life are the __________. (check one or more boxes to complete the statement)

Archaea, Bacteria

Logistic growth occurs when the ______ and the _____ converge (i.e., become equal) as the population approaches its _________.

birth rate, death rate, carrying capacity

During the decay of a radioactive nucleus, ___________ is released and the original nucleus is transformed into a ______________.

energy, stable daughter nucleus

__________ used comparative anatomy to study mastodons and mammoths and showed that _________ was a real phenomenon.

Cuvier, extinction

Differences in the genomes of two populations can be used to __________________.

estimate the timing of reproductive isolation and established patterns of relationship

Retroviruses use ___________ to ___________ their RNA code into their host's DNA.

reverse transcription, insert

For what concept/discovery is Galileo Galilei known?

satellites (moons) of Jupiter

For what concept/discovery is Bishop Ussher known?

Biblical chronological age of the Earth

Morphogenetic mutants are formed when _________ are silenced or incorrectly activated during _________.

Hox genes, development

Approximately what percent of the human genome codes for proteins?

2

What is the approximate global completeness of the fossil record of marine animals that live in shallow seas and that have hard parts. Assume completeness is measured as the proportion (percent) of all species that have ever lived that are known as fossils.

2%

How did Mendel workout key principles underlying the genetics of his pea plants, given that all he could observe was the plant traits, such as whether they were tall or short stemmed?

By observing the proportions of each phenotype in many individuals over multiple generations.

The __________ is the first period of the Phanerozoic.

Cambrian

Which organism is most likely to be preserved in the fossil record?

Clam, which has two mineralized shells

The diagram below is a geologic cross section from Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology. Using the relative aging techniques we have covered in class, identify the temporal order of the rock bodies labeled with BOLD CAPITAL letters A-E from OLDEST to YOUNGEST (FIRST TO LAST).

D, C, B, E, A

The Central Dogma of molecular biology states that _______ is transcribed into __________ which is then transported and translated into _________.

DNA, mRNA, protein

Which of the following can result in reproductive isolation that leads to the formation of new species?

Differences between individuals in their habitat preferences., differences between individuals in their mate selection preferences., differences between individuals in their dietary preferences., and differences between individuals in their environment.

What caused Linnaeus to abandon the notion that species are "fixed in nature?"

Different species can be crossed to make new hybrid morphologies, plants can be easily hybridized to make new varieties, and some species have individuals with variations that grade into one another.

If a population starts out on the slope of an adaptive landscape with only one fitness peak that is static over time, what is the expected response of the population, assuming that natural selection can act and assuming this condition persists forever?

Directional selection followed by stabilizing selection.

Why might domestic dogs exhibit more pronounced morphological variation than domestic cats?

Dogs have been subjected to stronger artificial selection during domestic breeding.

Linnaeus is credited for developing a hierarchical classification scheme for living things. Which of the following is correctly ordered from MOST to LEAST inclusive?

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, species

Which of the following best describes Darwin's conception of the results of evolution by natural selection?

Evolution results in a branching network of relationships that reflect common ancestry.

Genes consist of continuous strings of DNA that code for proteins. This statement is:

False, only exons code for proteins

Steno was the first person to recognize that, in many places, the Earth is composed of layers superimposed on each other at an angle to the horizon. This statement is ___. Select all that apply!

False. Leonardo da Vinci's earliest known drawing, from 1473, accurately identifies these same types of rock layers, five hundred years before Leonardo, Syrian Shiite Muslims recognized that sediments deposited in the ocean could get moved to form layers in mountains, and the Islamic scholar Avicenna observed layers of sedimentary rock in the mountains of Uzbekistan and similarly concluded they were stacked layer by layer over time.

The fact that seashells were found in the rocks of mountain tops was an obscure fact that few people knew about in Steno's day. This statement is:

False. Miners, quarry workers, farmers, shepherds and travelers all encountered seashells in the rocks of mountains.

A morphological trait with a given distribution of values in a population (e.g., body height) undergoes drift when the fitness gradient _____________.

Favors the entire distribution equally

What did Steno do to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that some "fossils" were the remains of once living organisms?

He dissected a shark and compared the teeth to "glossopetrae."

How did Steno end up receiving and dissecting a giant shark head?

He was a member of Fredinando's scientific court and he was a skilled anatomist and was good with a scalpel.

Steno's work on snowflake and crystal growth later formed the basis of crystallography. How did his understanding of mineral growth help explain fossil occurrences?

His principles established the relative sequence of timing in the hardening of an object (fossil) and its surrounding body (rock), and between an individual object's various parts.

Individuals from two different beetle populations mate and the fertilized egg survives to produce a functional offspring that also reproduces successfully. This is an example of ___________.

Hybridization

Which of the following is true about the earth's moon?

It formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, it is unusually large for a planet's satellite, and it is believed to have formed during an impact with a Mars-sized body.

Which of the following is NOT an important aspect of comparative anatomy?

It helps explain the causes of variability in species.

At the time of Linnaeus, what was the most controversial aspect of his hierarchical classification scheme for life?

It included humans as part of the animal world.

Natural selection was not the first explanation for changes in life on earth. The scala naturae also provided a framework for explaining changes in organisms over time. What was the nature of this framework?

It provided a hypothetical linear order for a natural progression in life toward an optimum.

_____________ used ___________ to estimate an age of ~6000 years for the earth.

James Ussher, biblical chronology

Why is the effective rate (i.e., the rate observed in sampled individuals) of synonymous mutation higher than it is for non-synonymous mutation in the same population?

Natural selection is able to operate on non-synonymous mutations.

The observation that water transports most sediments before they are deposited and formed into strata was most import to which of Steno's principles?

Original horizontality

What type of uniformitarianism is most applicable over long periods of time?

Physical laws remain constant over time.

Animals begin life as a single cell. How do animals end up with so many different cell types as adults?

Pre- and post-transcription regulatory mechanisms determine which genes get expressed.

How do we know that carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere of a planet?

Satellites directly observe heat trapping by measuring radiation emitted by Earth into space

Darwin's voyage aboard the Beagle had a big impact on the development of his theory. Which of the following observations made during that voyage most strongly affected the nature of his theory?

Species found only on islands are often most similar to those found on nearby mainlands.

Stasis (i.e., no change) in the morphology of lineages over time is a common pattern that is observed in the fossil record. What might the prevalence of stasis in the fossil record indicate?

Stabilizing selection is a common form of natural selection.

Bishop James Ussher studied texts to reconstruct the timing of the Abrahamic religions' account of creation. Using this biblical scholar approach, what is the Earth's apparent creation date?

Sunday, October 23rd, 4004 BCE

Following the successful dispersal of an individual to an island, what process or processes may result in the origin of a new species?

drift, disruptive selection, and local adaptation

A captive liger recently mated with a lion and the product was a healthy baby "liliger." Lions and tigers seem to be distinct species in the wild, so what is the implication of the "liliger" for species concepts?

The boundaries between species are often fuzzy.

The oldest (first) time interval in the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, posted on Canvas, is the "Hadean", named after "Hades," the Greek god of the dead and "underworld." Why is this time interval ambiguous in terms of its beginning age and not part of the formal timescale?

The earliest Earth-forming processes were violent and there is no direct record of this time on Earth

Which of the following is an example of a vestigial structure?

The hip bones of a dolphin.

What was (were) Steno's contribution(s) to the discipline of geology?

The notion that Earth has a dynamic, multi-event history, sedimentary rocks were formed from deposits of sediments strewn on Earth's surface and then stacked into layers over time, some fossils were the remains of once living organisms, and the law of superposition.

This class is called Evolution and Extinction. However, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries these two phenomena were considered by many scientists to be mutually exclusive. Why?

The possibility of evolutionary change was thought to deny the reality of extinction.

What evidence did Steno use to conclude that the fossils found in rocks on mountain tops could not have been washed there by Noah's flood?

The relationships between strata document a series of multiple distinct events in Earth history.

What makes the code within DNA unique and readily (i.e., easily) readable?

The sugar phosphate backbone has a "direction" defined by chemistry and the two strands of DNA are held together by weak hydrogen bonds.

What technological advance and outcome was key to proving, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the Earth is not the center of our solar system?

The telescope and the discovery of Jupiter's moons.

Although Darwin gets most of the credit, he wasn't the only person to come up with the theory of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution. This statement is: ________.

True. Alfred Russel Wallace and Darwin coauthored the first paper on natural selection

Humans, fungi, and fruit flies all have similar rates of point mutation. This statement is:

True

In ribonucleic acid (RNA), the base "A" is naturally paired with ________ and "C" is naturally paired with ________

U, G

Variation is common in nature. Which of the following best describes Darwin's interpretation of varieties of animals and plants?

Varieties may be on their way to becoming new species.

Earth receives about ~47% less energy from the sun than Venus, but Venus' surface temperature is much hotter than expected under Earth-like conditions. What factor most readily explains this discrepancy?

Venus has a thicker, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.

Homologous characters ______________.

all of the above

In the ____________ mode of speciation, the establishment of a geographic barrier to ________ is the first step.

allopatric, reproduction

In order to make proteins, _________ are assembled in a specific order within the __________.

amino acids, ribosome

Consider a Mendelian trait for coloration with two alleles: red is dominant, white is recessive. If two individuals, both heterozygous at this locus, produce 100 offspring, what is the expected ratio of red to white (red : white) individuals among those offspring?

approximately 75 : 25

Evolution can be defined as __________.

change in DNA over time, change in gene/allele frequencies over time, change in fitness over time, and change in morphology over time

What type of selection is most likely to give rise to two morphologically distinct, coexisting species if it is sustained for a long enough period of time?

disruptive selection

The Galapagos Islands are home to Darwin's finches. In the 1970s, two researchers (the Grants) measured the beak size of finches on one island before and after a drought. Larger birds with larger beaks were favored and bird size increased from year to year. This is an example of what process(es)?

evolution, descent with modification, natural selection, and directional selection

Distinguishing between cryptic species (distinct species that are very morphologically similar to one another) can be difficult. Among living beetles, how might one differentiate between cryptic species?

examine the reproductive organs of males, look for chemical differences in pheromones used to attract mates, and sequence their genomes

A scientific theory ____________.

explains a wide range of facts that may have at first been treated separately, generates hypotheses that can be tested by observation, and has been subject to rigorous independent tests and has withstood them

Transcription factors are proteins that regulate the ___________ of genes by controlling ____________.

expression, transcription

The size of an organism's genome is a good predictor of the morphological complexity of an organism. This statement is:

false

All of the endemic species in the Hawaiian Islands arrived from surrounding mainlands within the last 6 million years. This statement is ________.

false, many species evolved in the Hawaiian archipelago

Human embryonic stems cells _________________.

have the potential to become any cell type in the body and have not yet received the developmental signals that specify cell fate

William Thompson (aka, Lord Kelvin) used the laws of thermodynamics to estimate the age of the earth. His calculations were based on the assumption that the current heat in the earth and the sun is residual heat left over from the formation of the solar system. What was the major flaw in Kelvin's calculations for Earth's age?

he did not know about the energy generated by radioactive decay

What is required in order for natural selection to occur? Check all that apply.

heritable variation, differential reproductive success,

For what concept/discovery is James Hutton known?

importance of angular unconformities

There is "extra" iron (Fe) in the universe because __________

iron is the end product of normal stellar nucleosynthesis

The oldest object (that we know about) that formed on Earth is a _______ that is ______ years old.

mineral grain, 4.4 billion

Prior to the Renaissance, religion helped improve the pace of scientific discovery by ___________, until the Scientific Revolution ____________.

motivating the study of nature, shifted emphasis to empirical observation

At the most fundamental level, where does variation that is necessary for evolution come from?

mutations

The DNA molecule consists of a double helix, the two individual strands of which are held together by _________.

nitrogenous bases

It is common for entire populations of animals living in lightless caves to have no eyes whereas the same types of animals living above ground have eyes. This phenomenon _________________.

occurs because mutations that silence ("knock out") a single Hox gene result in no eyes, occurs because having malformed eyes in lightless caves confers no selective disadvantage, and occurs because mutations silencing the eye-forming Pax6 Hox gene are removed by natural selection in above-ground populations

The oldest rocks and fossils on earth are found _________ because this type of crust is not easily destroyed during the process of __________.

on the continents, sea floor spreading

For what concept/discovery is Charles Darwin known?

origin of coral reef atolls

The oldest body fossils (actual remains of an organism) are from ______ and are approximately _____ years old.

prokaryotes, 3.4 billion

Neoplatonism and Aristolelianism were important concepts because they __________.

provided explanations for fossils that did not require them to have once been free-living things

Zorses (the offspring of a cross between a horse and a zebra) are usually sterile because the males cannot produce functional gametes (sperm). This is evidence that horses and zebras are __________.

separated by a postzygotic barrier

Two different species (Species A and Species B) with the same lifespans experience a bout of directional selection that favors smaller body sizes. Body size is heritable and the population mean is observed to decrease by the same amount in both species. If Species A is more variable in body size than Species B, which of the following is true?

species B has a higher rate of evolution

Human birth is difficult. Small infants are less likely to survive than bigger ones, but infants that are too big can die during birth because of difficulty arising during labor. Assuming that natural selection applies to birth weight, this situation would result in ______________.

stabilizing selection

Which of the following best describes the principle of superposition?

stacked sedimentary layers are youngest at the top and oldest at the bottom

The DNA molecule consists of a ____________ bound to ___________.

sugar-phosphate backbone, bases

The sedimentary cycle, in combination with uniformitarianism, can be used to conclude that _______.

the earth must be very old.

Which of the following is a necessary step in the formation of a new species?

the establishment of a barrier to reproduction

What data provide our best estimate for the age of the earth?

the radioisotopic ages of minerals in meteorites

According to the biological species concept, species are defined by _________________.

their ability to produce viable offspring

A codon consists of __________, which identifies a specific ____________.

three bases, amino acid

tRNA is used during ________, to assemble _______.

translation, proteins

The first geological map __________. (select all that apply)

was constructed by Smith, a poor working man, established a predictive framework for geological resource discovery and extraction, and was derived by documenting the location of sedimentary deposits and the fossils they contained

Faunal Succession _____________________.

was demonstrated by mapping rocks and fossils, was discovered before the theory of evolution by natural selection, can be used to order and subdivide geological time, and forms the basis of biostratigraphy