AP Bio Final 2
Plant species A has a diploid number of 12. Plant species B has a diploid number of 16. A new species, C, arises as an allopolyploid from A and B. The diploid number for species C would probably be
14
If the half-life of carbon-14 is about 5,730 years, then a fossil that has one-sixteenth the normal proportion of carbon-14 to carbon-12 should be about how many years old?
22,900
Approximately how far back in time does the fossil record extend?
3.5 billion years
What is thought to be the correct sequence of these events, from earliest to most recent, in the evolution of life on Earth? 1. origin of mitochondria 2. origin of multicellular eukaryotes 3. origin of chloroplasts 4. origin of cyanobacteria 5. origin of fungal-plant symbioses
4, 1, 3, 2, 5
Rank the following one -base point mutations (from most likely to least likely) with respect to their likelihood of affecting the structure of the corresponding polypeptide: 1. insertion mutation deep within an intron 2. substitution mutation at the third position of an exonic codon 3. substitution mutation at the second position of an exonic codon 4. deletion mutation within the first exon of the gene
4, 3, 2, 1
If, on average, 46% of the loci in a species' gene pool are heterozygous, then the average homozygosity of the species should be
54%.
Review the formula for effective population size. Imagine a population of 1,000 small rodents. Of these, 300 are breeding females, 300 are breeding males, and 400 are nonbreeding juveniles. What is the effective population size?
600
In which community would organisms most likely have adaptations enabling them to respond to different photoperiods?
forests
What was the prevailing belief prior to the time of Lyell and Darwin?
Earth is a few thousand years old, and populations are unchanging
During a study session about evolution, one of your fellow students remarks, "The giraffe stretched its neck while reaching for higher leaves; its offspring inherited longer necks as a result." Which statement is most likely to be helpful in correcting this student's misconception?
Characteristics acquired during an organism's life are generally not passed on through genes.
Which of the following nations has become a world leader in the establishment of zoned reserves?
Costa Rica
If organisms A, B, and C belong to the same class but to different orders and if organisms D, E, and F belong to the same order but to different families, which of the following pairs of organisms would be expected to show the greatest degree of structural homology?
D and F
Of the following anatomical structures, which is homologous to the bones in the wing of a bird?
bones in the flipper of a whale
Which of the following steps has not yet been accomplished by scientists studying the origin of life?
formation of protocells that use DNA to direct the polymerization of amino acides
Which statement represents the best explanation for the observation that the nuclear DNA of wolves and domestic dogs has a very high degree of sequence homology?
Dogs and wolves shared a common ancestor very recently.
Members of which kingdom have cell walls and are all heterotrophic?
fungi
Which of the following is consistent with forest fragmentation research?
Edge communities consistently have low species diversity.
Why do moderate levels of disturbance result in an increase in community diversity?
Habitats are opened for less competitive species
If Darwin had been aware of genes, and of their typical mode of transmission to subsequent generations, with which statement would he most likely have been in agreement?
If natural selection can change one gene's frequency in a population over the course of generations then, given enough time and enough genes, natural selection can cause sufficient genetic change to produce new species from old ones.
Which of these should decline in hybrid zones where reinforcement is occurring?
gene flow between distinct gene pools
Which statement most accurately describes how matter and energy are used in ecosystems?
Matter is cycled through ecosystems, energy is not
Why do logged tropical rain forest soils typically have nutrient-poor soils?
Most of the nutrients in the ecosystem are removed in the harvested timber.
Which of the following is not an observation or inference on which natural selection is based?
Poorly adapted individuals never produce offspring.
Which of the following represents an idea that Darwin learned from the writings of Thomas Malthus?
Populations tend to increase at a faster rate than their food supply normally allows
As N approaches K for a certain population, which of the following is predicted by the logistic equation?
The growth rate will approach zero.
How does inefficient transfer of energy among trophic levels result in the typically high endangerment status of many top-level predators?
Top-level predators are destined to have small populations that are sparsely distributed.
An ecologist recorded 12 white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, per square mile in one woodlot and 20 per square mile in another woodlot. What was the ecologist comparing?
density
In a comparison of birds and mammals, having four limbs is
a shared ancestral character.
Which of the following is a defining characteristic that all protobionts had in common?
a surrounding membrane or membrane-like structure
Which marine zone would have the lowest rates of primary productivity (photosynthesis)?
abyssal
What is the single greatest threat to biodiversity?
habitat alteration, fragmentation, and destruction
Species richness increases
as we travel southward from the North Pole.
In order for speciation to occur, what must be true?
at least one gene, affecting at least one phenotypic trait, must change
The first genes on Earth were probably
auto-catalytic RNA molecules.
If the sun were to suddenly stop providing energy to Earth, most ecosystems would vanish. Which of the following ecosystems would likely survive the longest after this hypothetical disaster?
benthic ocean
Relatively small geographic areas with high concentrations of endemic species and a large number of endangered and threatened species are known as
biodiversity hot spots.
Which of the various species concepts distinguishes two species based on the degree of genetic exchange between their gene pools?
biological
For the following questions, match the statement with the appropriate term/phrase. This causes extremely high levels of toxic chemicals in fish-eating birds
biological manification
Uniform spacing patterns in plants such as the creosote bush are most often associated with
competition
Which of the following causes populations to shift most quickly from an exponential to a logistic population growth?
competition for resources
Why do populations grow more slowly as they approach their carrying capacity?
competition for resources
Population ecologists follow the fate of same-age cohorts to
find birth and death rates
If a meteor impact or volcanic eruption injected a lot of dust into the atmosphere and reduced the sunlight reaching Earth's surface by 70% for one year, which of the following marine communities most likely would be least affected?
deep-sea vent
In seedcracker finches from Cameroon, small- and large-billed birds specialize in cracking soft and hard seeds, respectively. If long-term climatic change resulted in all seeds becoming hard, what type of selection would then operate on the finch population?
directional selection
Which of the following is most likely to produce an African butterfly species in the wild whose members have one of two strikingly different color patterns?
disruptive selection
Which of the following is characteristic of K-selected populations?
early maturation
Why does a vegetarian leave a smaller ecological footprint than an omnivore?
eating meat is an inefficient way of acquiring photosynthetic productivity
Which of the following levels of ecological organization is arranged in the correct sequence from most to least inclusive?
ecosystem, community, population, individual
Which series is correctly layered from top to bottom in a tropical rain forest?
emergent layer, canopy, under story, shrub/immature layer, ground layer
The most important feature that permits a gene to act as a molecular clock is
having a reliable average rate of mutation.
In the formula for determining a population's genotype frequencies, the 2 in the term 2pq is necessary because
heterozygotes can come about in two ways
In the formula for determining a population's genotype frequencies, the pq in the term 2pq is necessary because
heterozygotes have two alleles
The greatest cause of the biodiversity crisis, the one which includes all of the others, is
human overpopulation.
DNA sequences in many human genes are very similar to the sequences of corresponding genes in chimpanzees. The most likely explanation for this result is that
humans and chimpanzees share a relatively recent common ancestor.
When climbing a mountain, we can observe transitions in biological communities that are analogous to the changes
in biomes at different latitudes.
Zoonotic disease
is caused by pathogens that are transferred from other animals to humans by direct contact or by means of a vector.
It has been observed that organisms on islands are different from, but closely related to, similar forms found on the nearest continent. This is taken as evidence that
island forms are descended from mainland forms
In a tide pool, 15 species of invertebrates were reduced to eight after one species was removed. The species removed was likely a(n)
keystone species.
The loss of ventral spines by modern freshwater sticklebacks is due to natural selection operating on the phenotypic effects of Pitx1 gene elimination (loss).
silencing (loss of expression).
A population's carrying capacity
may change as environmental conditions change.
There are more species in tropical areas than in places more distant from the equator. This is probably a result of
more intense solar radiation
Evidence shows that some grasses benefit from being grazed. Which of the following terms would best describe this plant-herbivore interaction?
mutualism
According to the competitive exclusion principle, two species cannot continue to occupy the same
niche.
How is it that the open ocean produces the highest net primary productivity of Earth's ecosystems, yet net primary productivity per square meter is relatively low?
oceans have the largest area of all the ecosystems on Earth
Which of the following properly links the nutrient to its reservoir?
phosphorous--sedimentary rock
Which eukaryotic kingdom includes members that are the result of endosymbioses that included an ancient proteobacterium and an ancient cyanobacterium?
plantae
Which of the following areas of study focuses on the exchange of energy, organisms, and materials between ecosystems?
population ecology
Two species of frogs belonging to the same genus occasionally mate, but the offspring fail to develop and hatch. What is the mechanism for keeping the two frog species separate?
postzygotic barrier called hybrid inviability
Which of the following are important biotic factors that can affect the structure and organization of biological communities?
predation, competition
Which eukaryotic kingdom is polyphyletic, and therefore unacceptable, based on cladistics?
protista
In modern terminology, diversity is understood to be a result of genetic variation. Which of the following is a recognized source of variation for evolution?
recombination by crossing over in meiosis
The best classification system is that which most closely
reflects evolutionary history
The difference between geographic isolation and habitat differentiation is the
relative locations of two populations as speciation occurs.
How might an ecologist test whether a species is occupying its realized or its fundamental niche?
remove a competitor species to see if the species expands its range
The most likely explanation for the high rate of sympatric speciation that apparently existed among the cichlids of Lake Victoria in the past is
sexual selection
When using a cladistic approach to systematics, which of the following is considered most important for classification? overall phenotypic similarity
shared derived characters
According to the concept of punctuated equilibrium, the "sudden" appearance of a new species in the fossil record means that
speciation occurred rapidly in geologic time
Sparrows with average-sized wings survive severe storms better than those with longer or shorter wings, illustrating
stabilizing selection.
The main reason polar regions are cooler than the equator is that
sunlight strikes the poles at a lower angle
Which of the following statements best summarizes evolution as it is viewed today?
survival of the fittest
Which of the following statements most detracts from the claim that the human appendix is a completely vestigial organ?
the appendix has a substantial amount of defensive lymphatic tissue
How might the extinction of some Pacific Island bats called "flying foxes" threaten the survival of over 75% of the tree species in those islands?
the bats pollinate the trees and disperse seeds.
The oak tree pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, has migrated 650 km in 10 years. West Nile virus spread from New York State to 46 other states in 5 years. The difference in the rate of spread is probably related to
the mobility of their hosts.
Agricultural lands frequently require nutrient augmentation because
the nutrients that become the biomass of plants are not cycled back to the soil on lands where they are harvested.
Which of the following statements provides the strongest evidence that prokaryotes evolved before eukaryotes?
the oldest fossilized cells resemble prokaryotes
No two people are genetically identical, except for identical twins. The main source of genetic variation among human individuals is
the reshuffling of alleles in sexual reproduction.
If one organ is an exaptation of another organ, then what must be true of these two organs?
they are both homologous organs
If two modern organisms are distantly related in an evolutionary sense, then one should expect that
they should share fewer homologous structures than two more closely related organisms.
Which of these ecosystems has the highest net primary productivity per square meter?
tropical rain forest
Which of the following is most key to understanding the demographic transition in human population growth?
voluntary reduction of family size
If you were using cladistics to build a phylogenetic tree of cats, which of the following would be the best outgroup?
wolf