Biology Test 5 Chapters 9 & 10

Which of the following is an example of a female mating with a male only after submitting him to a courtship ritual?

A female bower bird will mate with a male only after inspecting the small thatched structure he has built for her.

Human babies quickly and easily develop a fear of snakes, yet they don't easily develop a fear of guns. Why?

During most of the history of human evolution, snakes were dangerous to humans and guns didn't exist.

Which of the following is NOT a correct statement about fixed action patterns?

Fixed action patterns are an example of prepared learning.

Which of the following BEST explains the finding that the nuclear DNA of house cats and African wild cats has a very high degree of similarity?

House cats and African wild cats share a recent common ancestor.

Which of the following has/have had strong effects on the evolution of mating systems in animals?

Only a) and b) have had strong effects on the evolution of mating systems in animals.

__________________ isolating mechanisms include hybrid mortality and hybrid infertility.

Postzygotic

Why is this goose in the figure rolling a beer can back to her nest?

She's exhibiting a fixed action pattern that directs her to retrieve any item that even vaguely resembles an egg.

When scientists displace an adult female Belding's ground squirrel to a new group for an experiment, she still risks her life alarm-calling although she is not saving any of her kin. Why does this behavior still persist now that it is harmful to her fitness?

The ground squirrel is acting on instinct and still calls because she possesses no instincts suited to this evolutionarily novel situation.

During the breeding season, the sight of a red belly on any other stickleback triggers aggressive behavior in a male stickleback. This is called:

a fixed action pattern

From an evolutionary perspective, behavior can be viewed best as:

a trait that can satisfy the three conditions required for evolution by natural selection.

The method of speciation that has led to the production of wheat, bananas, potatoes, and coffee is called:

allopolyploidy

In a set of classic experiments performed in the early 1950s, Urey and Miller subjected an experimental system composed of H2, CH4 (methane), and NH4 (ammonia) to electrical sparks. A few days later, they found ________________ in their system.

amino acids

The Belding's ground squirrel giving off an alarm signal in the figure would most commonly be:

an older female in the colony in which she was born.

Polygynous species:

are usually sexually dimorphic, with males larger and more highly ornamented.

Among Natterjack toads in northern Europe, males produce booming calls to attract females. Females desire large males and the size of the male determines the volume of the call. Why is the Natterjack's call considered an "honest signal"?

because the call of a large Natterjack male cannot be faked by a smaller Natterjack male

Monogamy, a relatively rare system outside of the birds, evolves when:

both males and females have high and equal parental investment.

The plural of genus is:

genera

Altruistic behavior in animals may be a result of kin selection, a theory maintaining that:

genes are more likely to persist within a population when they cause behaviors that assist other animals who share those genes.

Which of the following best illustrates an instinctive behavior in cats?

hunting and killing

Although beneficial, group living also has many costs. Which of the follow is NOT a cost to an individual of living in a group?

increased opportunity for reciprocal altruism

Classification is an important aspect of understanding and describing the many life forms on earth. In their classification scheme, biologists use different "ranks" that are more or less inclusive. Which of the following correctly lists these ranks from most to least inclusive?

domain, phylum, family, genus, species

A comparison of the graphs in the figure shows that reproductive output in fruit flies:

males maximize reproductive success by mating with as many females as possible.

Polygamy and monogamy are two types of:

mating systems

Exclusive male parental care is much more prevalent in fish than in mammals because:

most fish reproduce by external fertilization while most mammals do not.

In a polygynous mating system:

multiple females tend to mate with the same male.

In a random study of 1,000 wills, it was shown that ___________________ received the smallest share of a deceased's estate.

non-relatives

Which of the following gases was the least abundant in the earth's atmosphere 3.5 billion years ago?

oxygen

Molecules released by an individual into the environment that trigger behavioral responses in other individuals are called:

pheromones

A single breeding male red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) may mate with several females, but each female usually mates with only one male. This type of mating system is known as:

polygyny

In a species such as elephant seals, in which males are significantly larger than females, the most likely mating system is:

polygyny

Applying what you know about punctuated equilibrium versus gradualism, which method of speciation is most likely to lead to punctuated equilibrium?

polyploidy

Although most children don't talk until they are a year old, by the age of three they understand most rules of sentence construction and the average six-year-old native English speaker already has a vocabulary of about 13,000 words. These skills are impressive, particularly in light of the fact that, at this age, children are not competent at most activities, from cooking to driving to fine motor coordination. Language acquisition is:

prepared learning

When the female silkworm moth is ready to mate, she:

releases a potent chemical into the air.

Though you were not on earth at the time, if you had to predict the method of reproduction utilized by the earliest organisms on this planet, which of the following choices would you select?

reproduction by duplicating their DNA material and dividing in two

The energy that a parent puts into the growth, feeding, and care of offspring is called:

reproductive investment

Kin selection is defined as:

selection for a behavior that lowers an individual's own chances of survival or reproduction, but raises those of a relative.

When the sexes of a species differ in size or appearance, it is called:

sexual dimorphism

The classic experiments performed in the 1950s by Harold Urey and Stanley Miller, were the first to show that:

simple organic molecules, such as amino acids, could form spontaneously in the laboratory under chemical conditions mimicking those of primitive Earth.

_________________ produces new species and _________________ takes them away.

speciation; extinction

An animal will preferentially feed on:

the prey that provides the most energy relative to effort.

If two alleles exist at the same gene locus in a population, one for a selfish behavior and one for a selfless behavior, regardless of the initial frequencies, over time:

the selfish behavior allele will increase its percentage in the population to near fixation.

Much of what is known about the history of the origin of life came from:

the study of fossils

In polygynous mating systems:

there is usually greater variation in reproductive success among males than among females.

Vampire bats:

will sometimes regurgitate blood into the mouth of an unrelated individual that is close to starving.

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

Adaptive radiation is a special case of divergent evolution.

Which of the following is NOT a topic in animal behavior?

All of the above are topics in animal behavior.

The idea of "punctuated equilibrium" suggests that species will show little to no evolutionary change throughout their history. When evolution does occur, according to this idea, it happens sporadically and relatively quickly compared to the species' full duration on earth. This idea of evolution in spurts challenges which of the components of Darwin's theory of evolution?

Both a) and b) are correct

The fixed action pattern found in geese, in which they will retrieve a model egg the size of a basketball preferentially to retrieving their own egg, was able to evolve because:

Both a) and b) were necessary for the particular behavior to evolve.

Which of the following is the best way to distinguish male from female?

Males produce motile gametes.

Homo sapiens is the name of a species. Homo is the name of a genus. Hominidae is the name of a family. Primate is the name of an order. Mammal is the name of a:

class

______________________ is an action or signal on the part of one organism that alters the behavior of another organism.

communication

"Establishing a phylogeny for bacteria is more difficult than establishing a phylogeny for plants or animals." This statement is:

correct because bacteria can engage in lateral gene transfer.

Using the phylogenetic tree in the figure, determine which of the following constitutes a monophyletic group.

crocodiles and birds

The adaptive radiation of the insects was most probably triggered by:

evolutionary innovations

Arguments that a morphological characteristic or behavior has evolved because it benefits the species or population are arguments for:

group selection

The morphological species concept:

groups species based on similar phenotype.

Because it is possible for a female to mate with multiple males, any of whom could be the father, male mammals and birds will always:

have some degree of paternity uncertainty.

When a male fish defends his nest:

he increases the percentage of eggs in the nest that he will fertilize.

Cross-cultural studies are important in studying behavioral biology because:

they allow us to evaluate the hereditary component of behaviors by revealing behaviors that persist throughout different cultures.

When individuals of any species find themselves in an environment that differs from the environment to which they are evolutionarily adapted, we observe that:

they engage in behaviors better fit to the environment the species evolved in than the environment the individual organisms find themselves in.

The waggle dance is:

used for food location in honeybees.

One plant species that has evolved in the manner depicted in the figure is: (The hybrid individual has achieved reproductive isolation from the original parental populations, and therefore, is a new species)

wheat