1) Catastrophism, meaning the regular occurrence of geological or
meteorological disturbances
(catastrophes), was Cuvier's
attempt to explain the existence of
A) evolution.
B) the
fossil record.
C) uniformitarianism.
D) the origin of new
species.
E) natural selection.
b
2) What was the prevailing belief prior to the time of Lyell and
Darwin?
A) Earth is a few thousand years old, and populations are
unchanging.
B) Earth is a few thousand years old, and populations
gradually change.
C) Earth is millions of years old, and
populations rapidly change.
D) Earth is millions of years old,
and populations are unchanging.
E) Earth is millions of years
old, and populations gradually change.
a
3) 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?
A)
Characteristics acquired during an organism's life are
generally not passed on through genes.
B) Spontaneous mutations
can result in the appearance of new traits.
C) Only favorable
adaptations have survival value.
D) Disuse of an organ may lead
to its eventual disappearance.
E) If the giraffes did not have to
compete with each other, longer necks would not have been
passed
on to the next generation.
a
4) Which of the following is the most accurate summary of
Cuvier's consideration of fossils
found in the vicinity
of Paris?
A) extinction of species yes; evolution of new species
yes
B) extinction of species no; evolution of new species
yes
C) extinction of species yes; evolution of new species
no
D) extinction of species no; evolution of new species no
c
5) In the mid-1900s, the Soviet geneticist Lysenko believed that his
winter wheat plants, exposed
to ever-colder temperatures, would
eventually give rise to ever more cold-tolerant winter
wheat.
Lysenko's attempts in this regard were most in
agreement with the ideas of
c
6) Charles Darwin was the first person to propose
A) that
evolution occurs.
B) a mechanism for how evolution
occurs.
C) that Earth is older than a few thousand years.
D)
a mechanism for evolution that was supported by evidence.
E) that
population growth can outpace the growth of food resources.
d
7) Which of these conditions should completely prevent the occurrence
of natural selection in a
population over time?
A) All
variation between individuals is due only to environmental
factors.
B) The environment is changing at a relatively slow
rate.
C) The population size is large.
D) The population
lives in a habitat where there are no competing species present.
a
8) Natural selection is based on all of the following except
A)
genetic variation exists within populations.
B) the best-adapted
individuals tend to leave the most offspring.
C) individuals who
survive longer tend to leave more offspring than those who die
young.
D) populations tend to produce more individuals than the
environment can support.
E) individuals adapt to their
environments, and thereby evolve.
e
9) Which of the following represents an idea that Darwin learned from
the writings of Thomas
Malthus?
A) Technological innovation
in agricultural practices will permit exponential growth of
the
human population into the foreseeable future.
B)
Populations tend to increase at a faster rate than their food supply
normally allows.
C) Earth changed over the years through a series
of catastrophic upheavals.
D) The environment is responsible for
natural selection.
E) Earth is more than 10,000 years old.
b
10) Given a population that contains genetic variation, what is the
correct sequence of the
following events, under the influence of
natural selection?
1. Well-adapted individuals leave more
offspring than do poorly adapted individuals.
2. A change occurs
in the environment.
3. Genetic frequencies within the population
change.
4. Poorly adapted individuals have decreased
survivorship.
A) 2 → 4 → 1 → 3
B) 4 → 2 → 1 → 3
C) 4 →
1 → 2 → 3
D) 4 → 2 → 3 → 1
E) 2 → 4 → 3 → 1
a
11) A biologist studied a population of squirrels for 15 years.
During that time, the population
was never fewer than 30
squirrels and never more than 45. Her data showed that over half of
the
squirrels born did not survive to reproduce, because of both
competition for food and predation.
In a single generation, 90%
of the squirrels that were born lived to reproduce, and the
population
increased to 80. Which inference(s) about this
population might be true?
A) The amount of available food may
have increased.
B) The parental generation of squirrels developed
better eyesight due to improved diet; the
subsequent squirrel
generation inherited better eyesight.
C) The number of predators
that prey upon squirrels may have decreased.
D) A and C could be
true.
E) A, B, and C could be true.
d
12) Which of the following must exist in a population before natural
selection can act upon that
population?
A) genetic variation
among individuals
B) variation among individuals caused by
environmental factors
C) sexual reproduction
D) Three of the
responses are correct.
E) Two of the responses are correct.
a
13) Which of Darwin's ideas had the strongest connection to
Darwin having read Malthus's essay
on human population
growth?
A) descent with modification
B) variation among
individuals in a population
C) struggle for existence
D) the
ability of related species to be conceptualized in "tree
thinking"
E) that the ancestors of the Galápagos finches
had come from the South American mainland
c
14) 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?
A) 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.
B) If an individual's
somatic cell genes change during its lifetime, making it more fit,
then it will
be able to pass these genes on to its
offspring.
C) If an individual acquires new genes by engulfing,
or being infected by, another organism, then
a new genetic
species will be the result.
D) A single mutation in a single gene
in a single gamete will, if perpetuated, produce a new
species
within just two generations.
a
15) The role that humans play in artificial selection is to
A)
determine who lives and who dies.
B) create the genetic variants,
which nature then selects.
C) choose which organisms breed, and
which do not.
D) train organisms to breed more
successfully.
E) perform artificial insemination.
c
16) In a hypothetical environment, fishes called pike-cichlids are
visual predators of algae-eating
fish (in other words, they
locate their prey by sight). If a population of algae-eaters
experiences
predation pressure from pike-cichlids, which of the
following is least likely to be observed in the
algae-eater
population over the course of many generations?
A) selection for
drab coloration of the algae-eaters
B) selection for nocturnal
algae-eaters (active only at night)
C) selection for larger
female algae-eaters, bearing broods composed of more, and larger,
young
D) selection for algae-eaters that become sexually mature
at smaller overall body sizes
E) selection for algae-eaters that
are faster swimmers
c
17) DDT was once considered a "silver bullet" that
would permanently eradicate insect pests.
Today, instead, DDT is
largely useless against many insects. Which of these would have
been
required for this pest eradication effort to be successful
in the long run?
A) Larger doses of DDT should have been
applied.
B) All habitats should have received applications of DDT
at about the same time.
C) The frequency of DDT application
should have been higher.
D) None of the individual insects should
have possessed genomes that made them resistant to
DDT.
E)
DDT application should have been continual.
d
18) Which of the following statements best describes
theories?
A) They are nearly the same things as
hypotheses.
B) They are supported by, and make sense of, many
observations.
C) They cannot be tested because the described
events occurred only once.
D) They are predictions of future events.
b
19) Currently, two extant elephant species (X and Y) are placed in
the genus Loxodonta, and a
third species (Z) is placed in the
genus Elephas. Thus, which statement should be true?
A) Species X
and Y are not related to species Z.
B) Species X and Y share a
greater number of homologies with each other than either does
with
species Z.
C) Species X and Y share a common ancestor
that is still extant (in other words, not yet extinct).
D)
Species X and Y are the result of artificial selection from an
ancestral species Z.
E) Species X, Y, and Z share a common
ancestor, but nothing more can be claimed than this.
b
20) The rise of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
can be considered to be an
example of artificial selection
because
A) humans purposefully raise MRSA in large fermenters in
an attempt to make the bacteria ever-
more resistant.
B) S.
aureus is cultivated by humans to replenish the soil with
nutrients.
C) humans synthesize methicillin and create
environments in which bacteria frequently come
into contact with
methicillin.
D) Humans are becoming resistant to bacteria by
taking methicillin.
c
21) Two plant species live in the same biome but on different
continents. Although the two
species are not at all closely
related, they may appear quite similar as a result of
A) parallel
evolution.
B) convergent evolution.
C) allopatric
speciation.
D) introgression.
E) gene flow.
b
22) If the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus experiences a cost for
maintaining one or more
antibiotic-resistance genes, then what
should happen in environments from which antibiotics
are
missing?
A) These genes should continue to be maintained
in case the antibiotics ever appear.
B) These bacteria should be
outcompeted and replaced by bacteria that have lost these
genes.
C) The bacteria should try to make the cost worthwhile by
locating, and migrating to,
microenvironments where traces of
antibiotics are present.
D) The bacteria should start making and
secreting their own antibiotics.
b
23) Of the following anatomical structures, which is homologous to
the bones in the wing of a
bird?
A) cartilage in the dorsal
fin of a shark
B) bones in the hind limb of a kangaroo
C)
chitinous struts in the wing of a butterfly
D) bony rays in the
tail fin of a flying fish
E) bones in the flipper of a whale
e
24) If two modern organisms are distantly related in an evolutionary
sense, then one should
expect that
A) they live in very
different habitats.
B) they should share fewer homologous
structures than two more closely related organisms.
C) their
chromosomes should be very similar.
D) they shared a common
ancestor relatively recently.
E) they should be members of the
same genus.
b
25) Structures as different as human arms, bat wings, and dolphin
flippers contain many of the
same bones, these bones having
developed from very similar embryonic tissues. How do
biologists
interpret these similarities?
A) by identifying the bones as
being homologous structures
B) by the principle of convergent
evolution
C) by proposing that humans, bats, and dolphins share a
common ancestor
D) Three of the statements above are
correct.
E) Two of the statements above are correct.
e
26) Over evolutionary time, many cave-dwelling organisms have lost
their eyes. Tapeworms
have lost their digestive systems. Whales
have lost their hind limbs. How can natural selection
account for
these losses?
A) Natural selection cannot account for losses,
only for innovations.
B) Natural selection accounts for these
losses by the principle of use and disuse.
C) Under particular
circumstances that persisted for long periods, each of these
structures
presented greater costs than benefits.
D) The
ancestors of these organisms experienced harmful mutations that forced
them to find new
habitats that these species had not previously used.
c
27) Which of the following pieces of evidence most strongly supports
the common origin of all
life on Earth?
A) All organisms
require energy.
B) All organisms use essentially the same genetic
code.
C) All organisms reproduce.
D) All organisms show
heritable variation.
E) All organisms have undergone evolution.
b
28) Logically, which of these should cast the most doubt on the
relationships depicted by an
evolutionary tree?
A) None of
the organisms depicted by the tree ate the same foods.
B) Some of
the organisms depicted by the tree had lived in different
habitats.
C) The skeletal remains of the organisms depicted by
the tree were incomplete (in other words,
some bones were
missing).
D) Transitional fossils had not been found.
E)
Relationships between DNA sequences among the species did not match
relationships
between skeletal patterns.
e
29) Which of the following statements most detracts from the claim
that the human appendix is a
completely vestigial organ?
A)
The appendix can be surgically removed with no immediate ill
effects.
B) The appendix might have been larger in fossil
hominids.
C) The appendix has a substantial amount of defensive
lymphatic tissue.
D) Individuals with a larger-than-average
appendix leave fewer offspring than those with
a
below-average-sized appendix.
E) In a million years, the
human species might completely lack an appendix.
c
30) Members of two different species possess a similar-looking
structure that they use in a
similar fashion to perform the same
function. Which information would best help distinguish
between
an explanation based on homology versus one based on convergent
evolution?
A) The two species live at great distance from each
other.
B) The two species share many proteins in common, and the
nucleotide sequences that code for
these proteins are almost
identical.
C) The sizes of the structures in adult members of
both species are similar.
D) Both species are well adapted to
their particular environments.
b
31) Ichthyosaurs were aquatic dinosaurs. Fossils show us that they
had dorsal fins and tails, as do
fish, even though their closest
relatives were terrestrial reptiles that had neither dorsal fins
nor
aquatic tails. The dorsal fins and tails of ichthyosaurs and
fish are
A) homologous.
B) examples of convergent
evolution.
C) adaptations to a common environment.
D) Three
of the responses above are correct.
E) Two of the responses above
are correct.
e
32) Both ancestral birds and ancestral mammals shared a common
ancestor that was terrestrial.
Today, penguins (which are birds)
and seals (which are mammals) have forelimbs adapted
for
swimming. What term best describes the relationship of the
bones in the forelimbs of penguins
and seals, and what term best
describes the flippers of penguins and seals?
A) homologous;
homologous
B) analogous; homologous
C) homologous;
analogous
D) analogous; analogous
c
33) What must be true of any organ that is described as
vestigial?
A) It must be analogous to some feature in an
ancestor.
B) It must be homologous to some feature in an
ancestor.
C) It must be both homologous and analogous to some
feature in an ancestor.
D) It need be neither homologous nor
analogous to some feature in an ancestor.
b
34) What is true of pseudogenes?
A) They are composed of RNA,
rather than DNA.
B) They are the same things as introns.
C)
They are unrelated genes that code for the same gene product.
D)
They are vestigial genes.
d
35) 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
A) island forms and
mainland forms descended from common ancestors.
B) common
environments are inhabited by the same organisms.
C) the islands
were originally part of the continent.
D) the island forms and
mainland forms are converging.
E) island forms and mainland forms
have identical gene pools.
a
36) If one wanted to find the largest number of endemic species, one
should visit which of the
following geological features (assuming
each has existed for several millions of years)?
A) an isolated
ocean island in the tropics
B) an extensive mountain
range
C) a midcontinental grassland with extreme climatic
conditions
D) a shallow estuary on a warm-water coast
a
37) A high degree of endemism is most likely in environments that
are
A) easily reached and heterogeneous.
B) isolated and
heterogeneous.
C) isolated and homogeneous.
D) isolated and
extremely cold.
E) easily reached and homogeneous.
b
1) If x indicates the location of fossils of two closely related
species, then fossils of their most-
recent common ancestor are
most likely to occur in which stratum?
A) A
B) B
C)
C
D) D
c
2) If x indicates the fossils of two closely related species, neither
of which is extinct, then their
remains may be found in how many
of these strata?
A) one stratum
B) two strata
C) three
strata
D) four strata
b
3) Currently, two extant elephant species (X and Y) are placed in the
genus Loxodonta and a
third species (Z) is placed in the genus
Elephas. Assuming this classification reflects
evolutionary
relatedness, which of the following is the most accurate phylogenetic tree?
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
d
4) Which pair would probably have agreed with the process that is
depicted by this tree?
A) Cuvier and Lamarck
B) Lamarck and
Wallace
C) Aristotle and Lyell
D) Wallace and
Linnaeus
E) Linnaeus and Lamarck
b
5) How many separate species, both extant and extinct, are depicted
in this tree?
A) two
B) three
C) four
D)
five
E) six
e
6) According to this tree, what percent of the species seem to be
extant (in other words, not
extinct)?
A) 25%
B)
33%
C) 50%
D) 66%
E) 75%
d
7) Which of the five common ancestors, labeled V-Z, has given rise to
the greatest number of
species, both extant and extinct?
A)
V
B) W
C) Z
D) Both W and Z can be considered to have
given rise to the greatest number of extant and
extinct
species.
E) Both X and Y can be considered to have given rise to
the greatest number of extant and
extinct species.
e
8) Which of the five common ancestors, labeled V-Z, has been least
successful in terms of the
percent of its derived species that
are extant?
A) V
B) W
C) X
D) Y
E) Z
b
9) Which of the five common ancestors, labeled V-Z, has been most
successful in terms of the
percent of its derived species that
are extant?
A) V
B) W
C) X
D) Y
E) Z
e
10) Evolutionary trees such as this are properly understood by
scientists to be
A) theories.
B) hypotheses.
C)
guesses.
D) dogmas.
E) facts.
b
About 13 different species of finches inhabit the Galápagos Islands
today, all descendants of a
common ancestor from the South
American mainland that arrived a few million years
ago.
Genetically, there are four distinct lineages, but the 13
species are currently classified among
three genera. The first
lineage to diverge from the ancestral lineage was the warbler finch
(genus
Certhidea). Next to diverge was the vegetarian finch
(genus Camarhynchus), followed by five
tree finch species (also
in genus Camarhynchus) and six ground finch species (genus
Geospiza).
1) If the six ground finch species have evolved most
recently, then which of these is the most
logical
prediction?
A) They should be limited to the six islands that
most recently emerged from the sea.
B) Their genomes should be
more similar to each other than are the genomes of the five
tree
finch species.
C) They should share fewer anatomical
homologies with each other than they share with the
tree
finches.
D) The chances of hybridization between two
ground finch species should be less than the
chances of
hybridization between two tree finch species.
b
About 13 different species of finches inhabit the Galápagos Islands
today, all descendants of a
common ancestor from the South
American mainland that arrived a few million years
ago.
Genetically, there are four distinct lineages, but the 13
species are currently classified among
three genera. The first
lineage to diverge from the ancestral lineage was the warbler finch
(genus
Certhidea). Next to diverge was the vegetarian finch
(genus Camarhynchus), followed by five
tree finch species (also
in genus Camarhynchus) and six ground finch species (genus Geospiza).
2) According to a 1999 study, the vegetarian finch is genetically
no more similar to the tree
finches than it is to the ground
finches, despite the fact that it is placed in the same genus as
the
tree finches. Based on this finding, it is reasonable to
conclude that the vegetarian finch
A) is no more closely related
to the tree finches than it is to the ground finches, despite
its
classification.
B) should be re-classified as a warbler
finch.
C) is not truly a descendent of the original ancestral
finch.
D) is a hybrid species, resulting from a cross between a
ground finch and a tree finch.
a
1) Which of the following is not an observation or inference on which
natural selection is based?
A) There is heritable variation among
individuals.
B) Poorly adapted individuals never produce
offspring.
C) Species produce more offspring than the environment
can support.
D) Individuals whose characteristics are best suited
to the environment generally leave more
offspring than those
whose characteristics are less well suited.
E) Only a fraction of
an individual’s offspring may survive.
b
2) Which of the following observations helped Darwin shape his
concept of descent with
modification?
A) Species diversity
declines farther from the equator.
B) Fewer species live on
islands than on the nearest continents.
C) Birds live on islands
located farther from the mainland than the birds’ maximum
nonstop
flight distance.
D) South American temperate plants
are more similar to the tropical plants of South America
than to
the temperate plants of Europe.
E) Earthquakes reshape life by
causing mass extinctions.
d
3) Within six months of effectively using methicillin to treat S.
aureus infections in a
community, all new infections were caused
by MRSA. How can this result best be explained?
A) S. aureus can
resist vaccines.
B) A patient must have become infected with MRSA
from another community.
C) In response to the drug, S. aureus
began making drugresistant versions of the protein targeted
by
the drug.
D) Some drug-resistant bacteria were present at the
start of treatment, and natural selection
increased their
frequency.
E) The drug caused the S. aureus DNA to change.
d
1) The legless condition that is observed in several groups of extant
reptiles is the result of
A) their common ancestor having been
legless.
B) a shared adaptation to an arboreal (living in trees)
lifestyle.
C) several instances of the legless condition arising
independently of each other.
D) individual lizards adapting to a
fossorial (living in burrows) lifestyle during their lifetimes.
c
2) The various taxonomic levels (namely, genera, classes, etc.) of
the hierarchical classification
system differ from each other on
the basis of
A) how widely the organisms assigned to each are
distributed throughout the environment.
B) their
inclusiveness.
C) the relative genome sizes of the organisms
assigned to each.
D) morphological characters that are applicable
to all organisms.
b
3) 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?
A) A and B
B) A and C
C) B and D
D) C
and F
E) D and F
e
4) Linnaeus was a "fixist" who believed that species
remained fixed in the form in which they
had been created.
Linnaeus would have been uncomfortable with
A) classifying
organisms using the morphospecies concept.
B) the scientific
discipline known as taxonomy.
C) phylogenies.
D) nested,
ever-more inclusive categories of organisms.
E) a hierarchical
classification scheme.
c
5) The best classification system is that which most closely
A)
unites organisms that possess similar morphologies.
B) conforms
to traditional, Linnaean taxonomic practices.
C) reflects
evolutionary history.
D) reflects the basic separation of
prokaryotes from eukaryotes.
c
6) The term homoplasy is most applicable to which of the following
features?
A) the legless condition found in various lineages of
extant lizards
B) the five-digit condition of human hands and bat
wings
C) the β hemoglobin genes of mice and of humans
D) the
fur that covers Australian moles and North American moles
E) the
bones of bat forelimbs and the bones of bird forelimbs
a
7) If, someday, an archaean cell is discovered whose rRNA sequence is
more similar to that of
humans than the sequence of mouse rRNA is
to that of humans, the best explanation for this
apparent
discrepancy would be
A) homology.
B) homoplasy.
C)
common ancestry.
D) retro-evolution by humans.
E)
coevolution of humans and that archaean.
b
8) Which of the following 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) bat wing and bird
wing
D) eyelessness in the Australian mole and eyelessness in the
North American mole
a
9) Some molecular data place the giant panda in the bear family
(Ursidae) but place the lesser
panda in the raccoon family
(Procyonidae). Consequently, the morphological similarities of
these
two species are probably due to
A) inheritance of
acquired characteristics.
B) sexual selection.
C)
inheritance of shared derived characters.
D) possession of
analogous structures.
E) possession of shared primitive characters.
d
10) The importance of computers and of computer software to modern
cladistics is most closely
linked to advances in
A) light
microscopy.
B) radiometric dating.
C) fossil discovery
techniques.
D) Linnaean classification.
E) molecular genetics.
e
11) The common ancestors of birds and mammals were very early (stem)
reptiles, which almost
certainly possessed three-chambered hearts
(two atria, one ventricle). Birds and mammals,
however, are alike
in having four-chambered hearts (two atria, two ventricles). The
four-
chambered hearts of birds and mammals are best described
as
A) structural homologies.
B) vestiges.
C)
homoplasies.
D) the result of shared ancestry.
E) molecular homologies.
c
12) A large proportion of archaeans are extremophiles, so called
because they inhabit extreme
environments with high acidity,
salinity, and/or temperature. Such environments are thought
to
have been much more common on the primitive Earth. Thus,
modern extremophiles survive only
in places that their ancestors
became adapted to long ago. Which of the following
is,
consequently, a valid statement about modern extremophiles,
assuming that their habitats have
remained relatively
unchanged?
A) Among themselves, they should share relatively few
ancestral traits, especially those that
enabled ancestral forms
to adapt to extreme conditions.
B) On a phylogenetic tree whose
branch lengths are proportional to the amount of genetic
change,
the branches of the extremophiles should be shorter than the
non-extremophilic
archaeans.
C) They should contain genes
that originated in eukaryotes that are the hosts for
numerous
species of bacteria.
D) They should currently be
undergoing a high level of horizontal gene transfer with
non-
extremophilic archaeans.
b
13) Which of the following is (are) problematic when the goal is to
construct phylogenies that
accurately reflect evolutionary
history?
A) polyphyletic taxa
B) paraphyletic taxa
C)
monophyletic taxa
D) polyphyletic taxa and monophyletic
taxa
E) polyphyletic taxa and paraphyletic taxa
F) All of
the choices are correct.
d
14) Which of the following is true of all horizontally oriented
phylogenetic trees, where time
advances to the right?
A)
Each branch point represents a point in absolute time.
B)
Organisms represented at the base of such trees are descendants of
those represented at higher
levels.
C) The fewer branch
points that occur between two taxa, the more divergent their
DNA
sequences should be.
D) The common ancestor represented
by the rightmost branch point existed more recently in
time than
the common ancestors represented at branch points located to the
left.
E) The more branch points there are, the fewer taxa are
likely to be represented.
d
15) When using a cladistic approach to systematics, which of the
following is considered most
important for
classification?
A) shared primitive characters
B) analogous
primitive characters
C) shared derived characters
D) the
number of homoplasies
E) overall phenotypic similarity
c
16) Cladograms (a type of phylogenetic tree) constructed from
evidence from molecular
systematics are based on similarities
in
A) morphology.
B) the pattern of embryological
development.
C) biochemical pathways.
D) habitat and
lifestyle choices.
E) mutations to homologous genes.
e
17) There is some evidence that reptiles called cynodonts may have
had whisker-like hairs
around their mouths. If true, then what
can be properly said of hair?
A) It is a shared derived character
of mammals, even if cynodonts continue to be classified
as
reptiles.
B) It is a shared derived character of the
amniote clade, and not of the mammal clade.
C) It is a shared
ancestral character of the amniote clade, but only if cynodonts are
reclassified as
mammals.
D) It is a shared derived character
of the mammals, but only if cynodonts are reclassified as
mammals.
d
18) A phylogenetic tree constructed using sequence differences in
mitochondrial DNA would be
most valid for discerning the
evolutionary relatedness of
A) archaeans and bacteria.
B)
fungi and animals.
C) chimpanzees and humans.
D) sharks and
dolphins.
E) mosses and ferns.
c
19) The most important feature that permits a gene to act as a
molecular clock is
A) having a large number of base
pairs.
B) having a larger proportion of exonic DNA than of
intronic DNA.
C) having a reliable average rate of
mutation.
D) its recent origin by a gene-duplication
event.
E) its being acted upon by natural selection.
c
20) Neutral theory proposes that
A) molecular clocks are more
reliable when the surrounding pH is close to 7.0.
B) most
mutations of highly conserved DNA sequences should have no functional
effect.
C) DNA is less susceptible to mutation when it codes for
amino acid sequences whose side
groups (or R groups) have a
neutral pH.
D) DNA is less susceptible to mutation when it codes
for amino acid sequences whose side
groups (or R groups) have a
neutral electrical charge.
E) a significant proportion of
mutations are not acted upon by natural selection.
e
21) When it acts upon a gene, which of the following processes
consequently makes that gene an
accurate molecular clock?
A)
transcription
B) directional natural selection
C)
mutation
D) proofreading
E) reverse transcription
c
22) Which of these would, if it had acted upon a gene, prevent this
gene from acting as a reliable
molecular clock?
A) neutral
mutations
B) genetic drift
C) mutations within
introns
D) natural selection
E) most substitution mutations
involving an exonic codon's third positionv
d
23) Which kind of DNA should provide the best molecular clock for
determining the
evolutionary relatedness of several species whose
common ancestor became extinct billions of
years ago?
A)
that coding for ribosomal RNA
B) intronic DNA belonging to a gene
whose product performs a crucial function
C) paralogous DNA that
has lost its function (i.e., no longer codes for functional gene
product)
D) mitochondrial DNA
E) exonic DNA that codes for a
noncrucial part of a polypeptide
a
24) What kind of evidence has recently made it necessary to assign
the prokaryotes to either of
two different domains, rather than
assigning all prokaryotes to the same kingdom?
A)
molecular
B) behavioral
C) nutritional
D)
anatomical
E) ecological
a
25) Which kingdom has been replaced with two domains?
A)
Plantae
B) Fungi
C) Animalia
D) Protista
E) Monera
e
26) Which eukaryotic kingdom is polyphyletic, and therefore
unacceptable, based on cladistics?
A) Plantae
B)
Fungi
C) Animalia
D) Protista
E) Monera
d
1) Which extinct species should be the best candidate to serve as the
outgroup for the clade
whose common ancestor occurs at position 2
in Figure 20.1?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E
a
2) If Figure 20.1 is an accurate depiction of relatedness, then which
of the following should be
correct?
1. The entire tree is
based on maximum parsimony.
2. If all species depicted here make
up a taxon, this taxon is monophyletic.
3. The last common
ancestor of species B and C occurred more recently than the last
common
ancestor of species D and E.
4. Species A is the
direct ancestor of both species B and species C.
5. The species
present at position 3 is ancestral to C, D, and E.
A) 1 and
3
B) 3 and 4
C) 2, 3, and 4
D) 1, 2, and 3
d
3) What can be properly inferred from Figure 20.2?
A) In the
"Without" tree, pigs are more distantly related to
hippos than is depicted in the
"Within"
tree.
B) In the "Without" tree, pigs are more
closely related to hippos than are whales.
C) In the
"Within" tree, pigs are more closely related to
whales than they are to hippos.
D) The
"Without" tree is more consistent with molecular
evidence than is the "Within" tree.
E) In the
"Within" tree, all artiodactyls, including hippos,
are more closely related to each other
than any are to the whales.
b
4) Placing whales and hippos in the same clade means that
A)
these organisms are phenotypically more similar to each other than to
any others shown on
the trees in Figure 20.2.
B) their
morphological similarities are probably homoplasies.
C) they had
a common ancestor.
D) all three of the responses are
correct.
E) two of the responses are correct.
c
5) If it turns out that the whale lineage diverged from the lineage
leading to hippos after the
divergence of the lineage leading to
the pigs and other artiodactyls, and if the whales continue to
be
classified in the order Cetacea, then what becomes true of the order
Artiodactyla?
A) It becomes monophyletic.
B) It becomes
paraphyletic.
C) It becomes polyphyletic.
D) It is
incorporated into the order Cetacea.
b
6) If it turns out that the whale lineage diverged from the lineage
leading to hippos after the
divergence of the lineage leading to
the pigs and other artiodactyls, and if the whales continue to
be
classified in the order Cetacea, then what becomes true of the taxon
Cetartiodactyla?
A) It should be considered as one monophyletic
superorder.
B) It should be considered a superorder that consists
of two monophyletic orders.
C) It should be established as a
paraphyletic order.
D) It should be thrown out or modified by
taxonomists if classification is to reflect evolutionary
history.
a
7) One morphological feature of modern cetaceans is a vestigial
pelvic girdle. If it is determined
that cetacean lineage diverged
from the artiodactyls' lineage after the divergence of pigs
and
other artiodactyla, then what should be true of the vestigial
pelvic girdle of cetaceans?
A) It should be considered a shared
ancestral character of the cetartiodactyls.
B) It should be
considered a shared derived character of the cetartiodactyls.
C)
It should be considered a shared ancestral character of the
cetaceans.
D) It should be considered a shared derived character
of the cetaceans.
d
8) If cetaceans are determined to have diverged from the lineage
leading to the artiodactyls
before the divergence of lineages
leading to the modern artiodactyls (including hippos), then
the
cetaceans can be considered
1. a sister order to the
order Artiodactyla.
2. an ingroup of the order
Artiodactyla.
3. the common ancestor of the order
Artiodactyla.
A) 1 only
B) 3 only
C) 1 and 2
D) 1
and 3
E) 2 and 3
a
9) It was once thought that cetaceans had evolved from an extinct
group of mammals called the
mesonychids. If, in the future, it is
determined that some organisms currently classified as
cetaceans
did actually evolve from mesonychids, whereas other cetaceans evolved
from
artiodactyl stock, then what will be true of the order
Cetacea?
A) It will be paraphyletic.
B) It will be
polyphyletic.
C) It will need to be modified if classification is
to reflect evolutionary history.
D) A and C
E) B and C
d
10) If the early history of life on Earth is accurately depicted by
Figure 20.3, then which
statement is least in agreement with the
hypothesis proposed by this tree?
A) The last universal common
ancestor of all extant species is better described as a
community
of organisms, rather than an individual
species.
B) The origin of the three domains appears as a
polytomy.
C) Archaean genomes should contain genes that
originated in bacteria, and vice versa.
D) Eukaryotes are more
closely related to archaeans than to bacteria.
...
11) Which of these processes can be included among those responsible
for the horizontal
components of Figure 20.3?
A)
endosymbiosis
B) mitosis
C) binary fission
D) point
mutations
E) S phase of the cell cycle
a
12) Which portion of Figure 20.3 may ultimately be better depicted as
a "ring"?
A) the bacterial lineage
B) the
archaean lineage
C) the eukaryotic lineage
D) the trunk of
the tree
E) the part corresponding to the first living cell on Earth
d
13) The great apes comprise the family Hominidae, whereas the lesser
apes comprise the family
Hylobatidae. If the extant organisms on
the far right side of Figure 20.4 comprise the
next-most
exclusive (i.e., specific) taxon, then they comprise
different
A) subspecies.
B) species.
C)
genuses.
D) genera.
E) orders.
d
14) Together, the lesser apes and great apes shared a common ancestor
most recently with other
members of their
A) order.
B)
class.
C) subclass.
D) subfamily.
E) family.
a
15) Assuming chimps and gorillas are humans' closest
relatives, removing humans from the great
ape clade and placing
them in a different clade has the effect of making the phylogenetic
tree of
the great apes
A) polyphyletic.
B)
paraphyletic.
C) monophyletic.
D) conform with
Linnaeus's view of great ape phylogeny.
b
16) From Figure 20.4, which other event occurred closest in time to
the divergence of gorillas
from the lineage that led to humans
and chimps?
A) the divergence of chimps and humans
B) the
divergence of Dryopithecus and Ouranopithecus
C) the divergence
of gibbons and siamangs
D) could be either the divergence of
chimps and humans OR of Dryopithecus and
Ouranopithecus
E)
could be either the divergence of chimps and humans OR of gibbons and siamangs
e
17) Based on the tabular data, and assuming that time advances
vertically, which cladogram (a
type of phylogenetic tree) is the
most likely depiction of the evolutionary relationships
among
these five species?
A)
B)
C)
D)
d
18) Which of the following is the best explanation for the high
degree of sequence homology
observed in Exon I among these five
species?
A) It is the most-upstream exon of this gene.
B)
Due to alternative gene splicing, this exon is often treated as an
intron.
C) It codes for a polypeptide domain that has a crucial
function.
D) These five species must actually constitute a single
species.
E) This exon is rich in G-C base pairs; thus, it is more stable.
c
19) Regarding these sequence homology data, the principle of maximum
parsimony would be
applicable in
A) distinguishing introns
from exons.
B) determining degree of sequence homology.
C)
selecting appropriate genes for comparison among species.
D)
inferring evolutionary relatedness from the number of sequence differences.
d
20) Which of these four gene parts should allow the construction of
the most accurate
phylogenetic tree, assuming that this is the
only part of the gene that has acted as a reliable
molecular
clock?
A) Intron I
B) Exon I
C) Intron VI
D) Exon V
c
20
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
20.3 Scenario Question
Traditionally, zoologists have placed
birds in their own class, Aves. More recently, molecular
evidence
has shown that birds are more closely related to reptiles than their
anatomy reveals.
Genetically, birds are more closely related to
crocodiles than crocodiles are to turtles. Thus, bird
anatomy has
become highly modified as they have adapted to flight, without their
genes having
undergone nearly as much change.
1)
Taxonomically, what should be done with the birds?
A) The
traditional stance is correct. Such dramatic morphological change as
undergone by birds
merits that the birds be placed in their own
order, separate from the reptiles.
B) The birds should be
reclassified, and their new taxon should be the subclass Aves.
Genetic
similarity trumps morphological dissimilarity in cases
where morphological traits are
uninformative.
C) The rest of
the reptiles should be reclassified as a subclass within the class
Aves.
D) The classification scheme should remain the same because
of historical precedence.
b
1) In a comparison of birds and mammals, the condition of having four
limbs is
A) a shared ancestral character.
B) a shared
derived character.
C) a character useful for distinguishing birds
from mammals.
D) an example of analogy rather than
homology.
E) a character useful for sorting bird species.
a
2) To apply parsimony to constructing a phylogenetic tree,
A)
choose the tree that assumes all evolutionary changes are equally
probable.
B) choose the tree in which the branch points are based
on as many shared derived characters as
possible.
C) base
phylogenetic trees only on the fossil record, as this provides the
simplest explanation for
evolution.
D) choose the tree that
represents the fewest evolutionary changes in either DNA sequences
or
morphology.
E) choose the tree with the fewest branch points.
d
3) In figure shown below, which similarly inclusive taxon descended
from the same common
ancestor as Canidae?
A) Felidae
B) Mustelidae
C) Carnivora
D)
Canis
E) Lutra
b
4) Three living species X, Y, and Z share a common ancestor T, as do
extinct species U and V. A
grouping that consists of species T,
X, Y, and Z (but not U or V) makes up
A) a monophyletic
taxon.
B) a clade.
C) an ingroup, with species U as the
outgroup.
D) a paraphyletic group.
E) a polyphyletic group.
d
d
5) Based on the tree below, which statement is not correct?
A) The salamander lineage is a basal taxon.
B) Salamanders are
a sister group to the group containing lizards, goats, and
humans.
C) Salamanders are as closely related to goats as to
humans.
D) Lizards are more closely related to salamanders than
to humans.
E) The group highlighted by shading is paraphyletic.
d