Campbell Biology: Organismic Biology Test 1 Flashcards

1) 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 algae-eaters that are faster swimmers

D) selection for algae-eaters that become sexually mature at smaller overall body sizes

E) selection for larger female algae-eaters, bearing broods composed of more, and larger, young

2) 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) Disuse of an organ may lead to its eventual disappearance.

B) Spontaneous mutations can result in the appearance of new traits.

C) If the giraffes did not have to compete with each other, longer necks would not have been passed on to the next generation.

D) Characteristics acquired during an organism's life are generally not passed on through genes.

E) Only favorable adaptations have survival value.

3) 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 sizes of the structures in adult members of both species are similar in size.

B) The two species share many proteins in common, and the nucleotide sequences that code for these proteins are almost identical.

C) Both species are well adapted to their particular environments.

D) The two species live at great distance from each other.

4) Charles Darwin was the first person to propose

A) that Earth is older than a few thousand years.
B) a mechanism for evolution that was supported by evidence.
C) a mechanism for how evolution occurs.
D) that population growth can outpace the growth of food resources.
E) that evolution occurs.

5) Natural selection is based on all of the following except

A) populations tend to produce more individuals than the environment can support.

B) individuals who survive longer tend to leave more offspring than those who die young.

C) genetic variation exists within populations.

D) the best-adapted individuals tend to leave the most offspring.

E) individuals adapt to their environments and, thereby, evolve.

6) The upper forelimbs of humans and bats have fairly similar skeletal structures, whereas the

corresponding bones in whales have very different shapes and proportions. However, genetic

data suggest that all three kinds of organisms diverged from a common ancestor at about the

same time. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for these data?

A) Natural selection in an aquatic environment resulted in significant changes to whale forelimb anatomy.

B) Whales are not properly classified as mammals.

C) Forelimb evolution was adaptive in people and bats, but not in whales.

D) Genes mutate faster in whales than in humans or bats.

E) Humans and bats evolved by natural selection, and whales evolved by Lamarckian mechanisms.

7) If two modern organisms are distantly related in an evolutionary sense, then one should expect that

A) they should share fewer homologous structures than two more closely related organisms.

B) they live in very different habitats.

C) their chromosomes should be very similar.

D) they shared a common ancestor relatively recently.

E) they should be members of the same genus.

8) If the six ground finch species have evolved most recently, then which of these is the most logical prediction?

A) Their genomes should be more similar to each other than are the genomes of the five tree finch species.

B) They should be limited to the six islands that most recently emerged from the sea.

C) The chances of hybridization between two ground finch species should be less than the

chances of hybridization between two tree finch species.

D) They should share fewer anatomical homologies with each other than they share with the tree finches.

9) A 14th species that descended from the original ancestral finch, the Cocos Island finch, is endemic to its namesake island, located 550 km off Costa Rica. The Cocos Island finch is genetically much more similar to the tree finches than is the vegetarian finch, yet it is classified in its own genus Pinarolaxias. Moreover, the Cocos Island finch and the vegetarian finch are the two finch species that are most genetically different from the ancestral Galápagos finch. Thus, if classification is to reflect evolutionary relationships, the vegetarian finch should

A) be placed in its own genus.

B) be switched from Camarhynchus to Pinarolaxias.

C) remain in the genus Camarhynchus.

D) be switched from Camarhynchus to Certhidea.

E) be switched from Camarhynchus to Geospiza.

10) 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) Some drug-resistant bacteria were present at the start of treatment, and natural selection increased their frequency.

C) A patient must have become infected with MRSA from another community.

D) The drug caused the S. aureus DNA to change.

E) In response to the drug, S. aureus began making drug-resistant versions of the protein targeted by the drug.

11) 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

12) The rise of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can be considered to be an example of artificial selection because

A) S. aureus is cultivated by humans to replenish the soil with nutrients.

B) Humans are becoming resistant to bacteria by taking methicillin.

C) humans synthesize methicillin and create environments in which bacteria frequently come into contact with methicillin.

D) humans purposefully raise MRSA in large fermenters in an attempt to make the bacteria ever-more resistant.

13) The role that humans play in artificial selection is to

A) create the genetic variants, which nature then selects.

B) perform artificial insemination.

C) determine who lives and who dies.

D) choose which organisms breed, and which do not.

E) train organisms to breed more successfully.

14) Which pair would probably have agreed with the process that is depicted by this tree?

A) Aristotle and Lyell

B) Linnaeus and Lamarck

C) Wallace and Linnaeus

D) Lamarck and Wallace

E) Cuvier and Lamarck

15) Which of the following statements most detracts from the claim that the human appendix is a completely vestigial organ?

A) The appendix has a substantial amount of defensive lymphatic tissue.

B) The appendix can be surgically removed with no immediate ill effects.

C) The appendix might have been larger in fossil hominids.

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.