Descent with Modification: Review

1) On which of the following did Linnaeus base his classification system?

2) Catastrophism, meaning the regular occurrence of geological or meteorological disturbances (catastrophes), was Cuvier's attempt to explain the existence of

3) Which of the following events, as described here, is most in agreement with the idea of catastrophism?

4) What was the prevailing notion prior to the time of Lyell and Darwin?

5) 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 would you use to correct this student's misconception?

6) "Improving the intelligence of an adult through education will result in that adult's descendants being born with a greater native intelligence." This statement is an example of

7) In the mid-1900s, the Soviet geneticist Lysenko exposed winter wheat plants to ever-colder temperatures, collected their seeds, and then exposed the seedlings to ever-colder temperatures. He repeated his attempts over the course of decades in an attempt to evolve cold-tolerant winter wheat. Lysenko's attempts in this regard were most in agreement with the ideas of

8) Darwin's mechanism of natural selection required long time spans in order to modify species. From whom did Darwin get the concept of Earth's ancient age?

9) Darwin had initially expected the living plants of temperate South America to 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

10) Who was the naturalist who synthesized a concept of natural selection independently of Darwin?

11) Charles Darwin was the first to propose

12) In evolutionary terms, the more closely related two different organisms are, the

13) Both Darwin's and Lamarck's ideas regarding evolution suggest which of the following?

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

15) Which of the following represents an idea Darwin took from the writings of Thomas Malthus?

16) Which statement about natural selection is most correct?

17) Given a population that contains genetic variation, what is the correct sequence of the following events, under the influence of natural selection?

1. Differential reproduction occurs.

2. A new selective pressure arises.

3. Allele frequencies within the population change.

4. Poorly adapted individuals have decreased survivorship.

18) To observe natural selection's effects on a population, what must be true?

19) If the HMS Beagle had completely bypassed the Galapagos Islands, Darwin would have had a much poorer understanding of

20) During drought years on the Galapagos, small, easily eaten seeds become rare leaving only large, hard-cased seeds that only birds with large beaks can eat. If a drought persists for several years, then what should one expect to result from natural selection?

21) Which of the following statements is not an inference of natural selection?

22) Which of the following must exist in a population before natural selection can act upon that population?

23) 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 would least likely be observed in the algae-eater population over the course of many generations?

24) 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. What inferences might you make about this population?

25) Which of the following is the best example of humans undergoing evolution, understood as "descent with modification"?

26) Which statement best describes how the evolution of pesticide resistance occurs in a population of insects?

27) DDT was once considered a "silver bullet" that would permanently eradicate insect pests. Today, instead, DDT is largely useless against many insects. What would need to be true for pest eradication efforts to have been successful in the long run?

28) 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. Maintaining resistance against the herbicide is metabolically expensive for the plants. Which combination of events should cause the most effective replacement of the non-herbicide-resistant strain of plants by the resistant strain?

1. an abundance of sunny weather

2. an abundance of cloudy weather

3. the presence of the herbicide in the environment

4. the absence of the herbicide from the environment

5. the maintenance of the proper conditions for one generation

6. the maintenance of the proper conditions for many generations

30) Of the following anatomical structures, which is homologous to the wing of a bat?

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

32) Structures as different as human arms, bat wings, and dolphin flippers contain many of the same bones, these bones having developed from the same embryonic tissues. How do biologists interpret these similarities?

33) Human intestines are held in place by membranes called mesenteries. In bipedal humans, it would be logical for these mesenteries to be attached to the rib cage. Instead, they are attached to the backbone, as they are in quadrupedal mammals. Because of this arrangement, human mesenteries have a tendency to tear more often than mesenteries in other mammals, as frequently observed among truck drivers and jackhammer operators. The same evolutionary modification that causes increased susceptibility to torn mesenteries is responsible for

34) As adults, certain species of whales possess baleen instead of teeth. Baleen is used to filter the whales' diet of planktonic animals from seawater. As embryos, baleen whales possess teeth, which are later replaced by baleen. The teeth of embryonic baleen whales are evidence that

35) 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?

36) Which of the following pieces of evidence most strongly supports the common origin of all life on Earth?

37) What would be the best technique for determining the evolutionary relationships among several closely related species, each of which still contains living members?

38) Logically, which of these should cast the most doubt on the relationships depicted by an evolutionary tree?

39) Which of the following statements gives the least support to the claim that the human appendix is a completely vestigial organ?

40) 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 shed the most light on whether these structures are homologous or whether they are, instead, the result of convergent evolution?

41) Ichthyosaurs were aquatic dinosaurs. Fossils show us that they had dorsal fins and tails just as fish do, 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

42) 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

43) 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 explanation for how this difference in tails came about?

44) The theory of evolution is most accurately described as

45) The Galapagos Islands are cooled off by the

46) Which of these is a consequence of uniformitarianism?

47) At the fossil site Punta Alta, Darwin found evidence

48) His experiences with Fuegians and slavery convinced Darwin that differences among all peoples are primarily ________ differences.

49) Which explains variations in homologous structures?

50) Which of the following reflect Hutton and Lyell's ideas of gradualism that were incorporated into Darwin's theory of evolution?

51) Which of the following is not an observation or inference on which natural selection is based?

52) Analysis of forelimb anatomy of humans, bats, and whales shows that humans and bats have fairly similar skeletal structures, while whales have diverged considerably in the shapes and proportions of their bones. However, analysis of several genes in these species suggests that all three diverged from a common ancestor at about the same time. Which of the following is the best explanation for these data?

53) Which of the following observations helped Darwin shape his concept of descent with modification?

South American temperate plants are more similar to the tropical plants of South America than to the

54) Darwin synthesized information from several sources in developing his theory of evolution by natural selection. Which of the following did not influence his thinking?

55) In science, the term theory generally applies to an idea that

56) Within a few weeks of treatment with the drug 3TC, a patient's HIV population consists entirely of 3TC-resistant viruses. How can this result best be explained?

57) The smallest biological unit that can evolve over time is

58) Which of the following ideas is common to both Darwin's and Lamarck's theories of evolution?

59) Which of the following pairs of structures is least likely to represent homology?