Ch 26 - Phylogeny and the Tree of Life

Based on cladistics, which eukaryotic kingdom is polyphyletic and, therefore, unacceptable? a) Protista b) Animalia c) Fungi d) Plantae

A

Which of the following pairs are the best examples of homologous structures? a) bones in the bat wing and bones in the human forelimb b) owl wing and hornet wing c) eyelessness in the Australian mole and eyelessness in the North American mole d) bat wing and bird wing

A

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 ________. a) share a very recent common ancestor b) have very similar morphologies c) belong to the same order d) are both members of the order Carnivora

A

Your professor wants you to construct a phylogenetic tree of orchids. She gives you tissue from seven orchid species and one lily. What is the most likely reason she gave you the lily? a) to serve as an outgroup b) to see if the lily and the orchids show all the same shared derived characters c) to demonstrate likely homoplasies d) to see if the lily is a cryptic orchid species

A

The best classification system is that which most closely ________. a) reflects the basic separation of prokaryotes from eukaryotes b) reflects evolutionary history c) conforms to traditional, Linnaean taxonomic practices d) unites organisms that possess similar morphologies

B

The legless condition that is observed in several groups of extant reptiles is the result of ________. a) their common ancestor having been legless b) several instances of the legless condition arising independently of each other c) individual lizards adapting to a fossorial (living in burrows) lifestyle during their lifetimes d) a shared adaptation to an arboreal (living in trees) lifestyle

B

In a comparison of birds and mammals, the condition of having four limbs is a) an example of analogy rather than homology. b) a character useful for distinguishing birds from mammals. c) a shared ancestral character. d) a shared derived character.

C

Some beetles and flies have antler-like structures on their heads, much like male deer. The existence of antlers in beetle, fly, and deer species with strong male-male competition is an example of ________. a) homology b) similarity due to shared ancestry c) convergent evolution d) parsimony

C

The importance of computers and of computer software to modern systematics s is most closely linked to advances in ________. a) radiometric dating b) fossil discovery techniques c) molecular genetics d) light microscopy

C

Which eukaryotic kingdom includes members that are the result of endosymbioses that included an ancient aerobic bacterium and an ancient cyanobacterium? a) Protista b) Animalia c) Plantae d) Fungi

C

Carolus Linnaeus believed that species remained fixed in the form in which they had been created. Linnaeus would have been uncomfortable with ________. a) taxonomy b) nested, increasingly inclusive categories of organisms c) a hierarchical classification scheme d) phylogenies

D

If you were using cladistics to build a phylogenetic tree of cats, which of the following would be the best outgroup? a) domestic cat b) leopard c) lion d) wolf

D

The lakes of northern Minnesota are home to many similar species of damselflies of the genus Enallagma. These species have apparently undergone speciation from ancestral stock since the last glacial retreat about 10 thousand years ago. Sequencing which of the following would probably be most useful in sorting out evolutionary relationships among these closely related species? a) conserved regions of nuclear DNA b) ribosomal RNA c) amino acids in proteins d) mitochondrial DNA

D

The various taxonomic levels (for example, phyla, genera, classes) of the hierarchical classification system differ from each other on the basis of ________. a) morphological characters that are applicable to all organisms b) the relative genome sizes of the organisms assigned to each c) how widely the organisms assigned to each are distributed throughout the environment d) their inclusiveness

D

Which of the following is (are) problematic when the goal is to construct phylogenies that accurately reflect evolutionary history? a) polyphyletic taxa b) monophyletic taxa c) paraphyletic taxa d) polyphyletic taxa and paraphyletic taxa

D