Darwinʹs mechanism of natural selection required long time spans in
order to modify
species. From whom did Darwin get the concept of
Earthʹs ancient age?
A) Georges Cuvier
B) Charles
Lyell
C) Alfred Wallace
D) Thomas Malthus
E) John Henslow
B
As a young biologist, Charles Darwin had expected the living plants
of temperate South
America would resemble those of temperate
Europe, but he was surprised to find that they
more closely
resembled the plants of tropical South America. The biological
explanation for
this observation is most properly associated with
the field of
A) meteorology.
B) embryology.
C)
vertebrate anatomy.
D) bioengineering.
E) biogeography
E
Which of these naturalists synthesized a concept of natural selection
independently of
Darwin?
A) Charles Lyell
B) Gregor
Mendel
C) Alfred Wallace
D) John Henslow
E) Thomas Malthus
C
Charles Darwin was the first person to propose
A) that evolution
occurs.
B) a mechanism for how evolution occurs.
C) that the
Earth is older than a few thousand years.
D) a mechanism for
evolution that was supported by evidence.
E) a way to use
artificial selection as a means of domesticating plants and animals.
D
In Darwinʹs thinking, the more closely related two different
organisms are, the
A) more similar their habitats are.
B)
less similar their DNA sequences are.
C) more recently they
shared a common ancestor.
D) less likely they are to have the
same genes in common.
E) more similar they are in size.
C
) 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
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
Which of the following represents an idea that Darwin learned from
the writings of Thomas
Malthus?
A) All species are fixed in
the form in which they are created.
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
Which statement about natural selection is most correct?
A)
Adaptations beneficial in one habitat should generally be beneficial
in all other
habitats as well.
B) Different species that
occupy the same habitat will adapt to that habitat by
undergoing
the same genetic changes.
C) Adaptations beneficial at one time
should generally be beneficial during all other
times as
well.
D) Well-adapted individuals leave more offspring, and thus
contribute more to the next
generationʹs gene pool, than do
poorly adapted individuals.
E) Natural selection is the sole
means by which populations can evolve.
D
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
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 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 number of predators may have decreased.
C) The squirrels of
subsequent generations should show greater levels of
genetic
variation than previous generations, because squirrels
that would not have survived
in the past will now
survive.
D) A and B only
E) A, B, and C
E
To observe natural selectionʹs effects on a population, which of
these must be true?
A) One must observe more than one generation
of the population.
B) The population must contain genetic
variation.
C) Members of the population must increase or decrease
the use of some portion of their
anatomy.
D) A and C
only
E) A and B only
E
If the HMS Beagle had completely bypassed the Galapagos Islands,
Darwin would have had
a much poorer understanding of the
A)
relative stability of a well-adapted populationʹs numbers over many
generations.
B) ability of populations to undergo modification as
they adapt to a particular
environment.
C) tendency of
organisms to produce the exact number of offspring that the
environment
can support.
D) unlimited resources that support
population growth in most natural environments.
E) lack of
genetic variation among all members of a population.
B
During drought years on the Galapagos, small, easily eaten seeds
become rare, leaving
mostly large, hard-cased seeds that only
birds with large beaks can eat. If a drought
persists for several
years, what should one expect to result from natural
selection?
A) Small birds gaining larger beaks by exercising
their mouth parts.
B) Small birds mutating their beak genes with
the result that later-generation offspring
have larger
beaks.
C) Small birds anticipating the long drought and eating
more to gain weight and,
consequently, growing larger
beaks.
D) More small-beaked birds dying than larger-beaked birds.
The offspring produced in
subsequent generations have a higher
percentage of birds with large beaks.
E) Larger birds eating less
so smaller birds can survive.
D
Which of the following statements is an inference of natural
selection?
A) Subsequent generations of a population should have
greater proportions of
individuals that possess traits better
suited for success in unchanging environments.
B) An individual
organism undergoes evolution over the course of its lifetime.
C)
Habitats do not generally have unlimited resources.
D) Natural
populations tend to reproduce to their full biological
potential.
E) Some of the variation that exists among individuals
in a population is genetic.
A
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) B and C
only
E) A, B, and C
A
) Which of Darwinʹs ideas had the strongest connection to Darwin
having read Malthusʹs
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 ʺtree thinkingʺ
E) That
the ancestors of the Galapagos finches had come from the South American
C
How many separate species, both extant and extinct, are depicted in
this tree?
A) 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5
E) 6
E
According to this tree, what percent of the species seem to be extant
(i.e., not extinct)?
A) 25%
B) 33%
C) 50%
D)
66%
E) 75%
D
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) X
D) Y
E) Z
C
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
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
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
Evolutionary trees such as this are properly understood by scientists
to be
A) theories.
B) hypotheses.
C) laws.
D)
dogmas.
E) facts.
B
In a hypothetical environment, fishes called pike-cichlids are visual
predators of
algae-eating fish (i.e., they locate their prey by
sight). If a population of algae-eaters
experiences predation
pressure from pike-cichlids, which of the following should
least
likely 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
Which statement best describes the evolution of pesticide resistance
in a population of
insects?
A) Individual members of the
population slowly adapt to the presence of the chemical
by
striving to meet the new challenge.
B) All insects
exposed to the insecticide begin to use a formerly silent gene to make
a
new enzyme that breaks down the insecticide molecules.
C)
Insects observe the behavior of other insects that survive pesticide
application, and
adjust their own behaviors to copy those of the
survivors.
D) Offspring of insects that are genetically resistant
to the pesticide become more
abundant as the susceptible insects
die off.
D
DDT was once considered a ʺsilver bulletʺ 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
Some members of a photosynthetic plant species are genetically
resistant to an herbicide,
while other members of the same
species are not resistant to the herbicide. Which
combination of
events should cause the most effective replacement of
the
non-herbicide-resistant strain of plants by the resistant
strain?
1. The presence of the herbicide in the
environment
2. The absence of the herbicide from the
environment
3. The maintenance of the proper conditions for one
generation
4. The maintenance of the proper conditions for many
generations
A) 1 and 3
B) 1 and 4
C) 2 and 3
D) 2
and 4
B
C
) Of the following anatomical structures, which is homologous to the
wing of a bird?
A) Dorsal fin of a shark
B) Hindlimb of a
kangaroo
C) Wing of a butterfly
D) Tail fin of a flying
fish
E) Flipper of a cetacean
E
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
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
B) By the principle of convergent
evolution
C) By proposing that humans, bats, and dolphins share a
common ancestor
D) A and C only
E) A, B, and C
D
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
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
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 (i.e., 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
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
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 in size.
D) Both
species are well adapted to their particular environments.
E)
Both species reproduce sexually.
B
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) A and
C only
E) B and C only
E
) 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
Monkeys of South and Central America have prehensile tails, meaning
that their tails can
be used to grasp objects. The tails of
African and Asian monkeys are not prehensile. Which
discipline is
most likely to provide an evolutionary explanation for how this
difference in
tails came about?
A) Aerodynamics
B)
Biogeography
C) Physiology
D) Biochemistry
E) Botany
B
The theory of evolution is most accurately described as
A) an
educated guess about how species originate.
B) one possible
explanation, among several scientific alternatives, about how
species
have come into existence.
C) an opinion that some
scientists hold about how living things change over time.
D) an
overarching explanation, supported by much evidence, for how
populations
change over time.
E) an idea about how acquired
characteristics are passed on to subsequent generations.
D
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 suited.
E) Only a fraction of the
offspring produced by an individual may survive.
B
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) Humans and bats evolved by natural
selection, and whales evolved by Lamarckian
mechanisms.
B)
Forelimb evolution was adaptive in people and bats, but not in
whales.
C) Natural selection in an aquatic environment resulted
in significant changes to whale
forelimb anatomy.
D) Genes
mutate faster in whales than in humans or bats.
E) Whales are not
properly classified as mammals.
C
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 can be found on islands
located farther from the mainland than the birdsʹ
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
Within a few weeks of treatment with the drug 3TC, a patientʹs HIV
population consists
entirely of 3TC-resistant viruses. How can
this result best be explained?
A) HIV can change its surface
proteins and resist vaccines.
B) The patient must have become
reinfected with 3TC-resistant viruses.
C) HIV began making
drug-resistant versions of reverse transcriptase in response to
the
drug.
D) A few drug-resistant viruses were present at
the start of treatment, and natural
selection increased their
frequency.
E) The drug caused the HIV RNA to change
D
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
A) humans and chimpanzees
share a relatively recent common ancestor.
B) humans evolved from
chimpanzees.
C) chimpanzees evolved from humans.
D)
convergent evolution led to the DNA similarities.
E) humans and
chimpanzees are not closely related.
A
Which of the following pairs of structures is least likely to
represent homology?
A) The wings of a bat and the arms of a
human
B) The hemoglobin of a baboon and that of a gorilla
C)
The mitochondria of a plant and those of an animal
D) The wings
of a bird and those of an insect
E) The brain of a cat and that
of a dog
D