1 Bio 1B Evolution (Mishler) Practice questions Fall 2008 *Answers are on the last page, but please don't peek till you've tried hard on the question * 1. Evolution is often described as "the theme that ties together all aspects of biology." This is because the process of evolution A. explains how organisms become adapted to their environment. B. explains the diversity of organisms. C. explains why all organisms have characteristics in common. D. explains why distantly related organisms sometimes resemble one another. E. all of the above are appropriate answers. 2. Which of the following is not an example of an evolutionary adaptation: A. the cryptic appearance of the moth Abrostola trigemina, which looks like a broken twig. B. the appearance of the leafy sea dragon (a sea horse) which looks so much like the kelp (seaweed) in which it lives that it lures prey into the seeming safety of the kelp forest and then eats them. C. the long, broad wings of the red-tailed hawk that allow it to sustain a gliding flight over open country while it searches for prey with its keen eyes. D. the rounded body shape of the sargassum crab which resembles the floats of the brown alga Sargassum in which it lives. E. all of the above are examples of adaptations. 3. One example of coevolution is that between A. birds and bees. B. flowering plants and insects. C. dinosaurs and mammals. D. humans and other primates. E. worms and fishes. 4. Which of the following is not a fact or inference of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection? A. there is heritable variation among individuals. B. there is struggle for limited resources. C. individuals whose inherited characteristics best fit them to the environment will on average leave more offspring. D. offspring inherit characteristics acquired by their parents during the parents lifetime. E. all of the above are correct statements.2 5. The idea that attributes acquired by an individual during its lifetime (for example, increased or decreased muscular strength due to more or less physical work) were passed on to the offspring is known as _________ and is attributed to _________. A. adaptation, Wallace. B. natural selection, Darwin. C. inheritance of acquired characteristics, Lamarck. D. genetics, Mendel. E. none of the above is correct. 6. Natural selection can be most closely equated with A. assortative mating. B. genetic drift. C. differential reproductive success. D. bottlenecking of a population. E. gene flow. 7. Which of the following elements of the writings of Malthus influenced Darwin? A. artificial selection B. differential reproductive success C. the potential for population growth exceeds what the environment can support D. species become better adapted to their local environments through natural selection E. favorable variations accumulate in a population after many generations of being perpetuated by natural selection 8. Darwin's thinking about evolution was influenced by things that he observed on his voyage around the world in the HMS Beagle, including all of the following except A. fossil beds in South America. B. giant land tortoises on the Galapagos. C. birds known as finches on the Galapagos. D. lands with similar climates, e.g., Australia and Chile, have very different animals and plants. E. all of the above are correct. 9. Evidence of a unitary origin of life comes from: A. analogous traits. B. homologous traits. C. examples of sexual selection. D. examples of convergent evolution. E. none of the above give evidence of a unitary origin of life.3 10. What do a mushroom, a tree, and a human have in common? A. They are all members of the same kingdom. B. They are all prokaryotic. C. They are all members of the same class. D. They are all members of the same phylum. E. They are all composed of cells with nuclei. 11. If two different species belong to the same family, then they also belong to the same _______. A. order B. class C. phylum D. all of the above are correct E. none of the above is correct 12. The age of the earth generally accepted during Darwin's lifetime was incorrect. The earth is now estimated to be about A. 3.5 billion years old B. 2 billion years old C. 1 million years old D. 4.6 billion years old E. 20 billion years old 13. The bones in the front leg of a lizard and in the wing of a bat, which are evolutionarily derived from their common ancestor, are said to be A. analogous B. functionally similar C. sympatric D. homologous E. convergent 14. Assuming that milk production has only arisen once, then its presence in all monotreme, marsupial and placental mammals, and no other groups, is an example of: A. a synapomorphy. B. convergent evolution. C. analogous structures. D. a plesiomorphy. E. none of the above is correct.4 15. Which clade (monophyletic group), or clades, do the birds belong to? clade 1: animals with backbones (vertebrates). clade 2: animals with an amniotic egg (amniotes). clade 3: animals with four bony limbs (tetrapods). A. 1. B. 3. C. 1 & 2. D. 1 & 3. E. 1, 2 & 3. 16. All living and extinct members of an order of birds called Passeriformes (the perching birds) have a distinctive palate, wing, and foot structure, and these are not found in any other bird species. The presence of these structures in all Passeriformes and no other birds means the structures are _______, and that the order Passeriformes is a _______ group. A. synapomorphies, monophyletic. B. symplesiomorphies, monophyletic. C. synapomorphies, paraphyletic. D. symplesiomorphies, paraphyletic. E. none of the above is correct. 17. Despite their disjunct distribution, the living families of ratite birds, namely the ostrich of Africa, rhea of South America, emu of Australia, cassowary of Australia and New Guinea, kiwi of New Zealand and the tinamon of tropical America, comprise all the living descendants of a lineage that diverged from a common ancestral stock that inhabited Gondwanaland before it split into the southern land masses. Including their common ancestor they thus form a/an _______. A. convergent group. B. analogous group. C.
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