Exam 15: Tracing Evolutionary History

A disaster such as a meltdown in a nuclear power plant requires close examination of potential impacts on organisms. Which of the following would be useful to biologists in such a situation?

The branching "tree of life" analogy

________ and ________ mean the same thing.

Which of the following options lists taxonomic categories in the correct order from most specific to most general?

This figure shows the hierarchy of classification of the cow, Bos primigenius. -The three boxes at the base of the hie PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 1 rarchy represent

Which of the following environments is thought to have promoted the dehydration synthesis of polypeptides and other macromolecules from smaller organic monomers on a prebiotic Earth?

Potassium-40 can be used to date ________ that are ________ old.

The earliest known flowering plants date to the

Over the past 500 million years, there have been ________ mass extinctions, and each time, at least ________ of the species on Earth became extinct.

The first organisms on Earth were very small, but now when you look around you see many large organisms. Which of the following is the best explanation for this observation?

Ever since Darwin, systematics has tried to

The example of ocean and lake stickleback fishes indicates that morphology can be altered

The earliest known land plants date to the

The earliest discovered fossils are of ________ dating back to ________ years ago.

Some RNA molecules can function like enzymes. These particular enzymatic RNA molecules are called

In mammals, the presence of four limbs is ________, and hair is ________.

The technique called radiometric dating is based on

Molecular data can be used to assess relationships among the major groups of living organisms whose common ancestors lived millions or billions of years ago. Similar techniques can be used to assess relationships among populations within a species. How can molecular techniques be useful for such varied comparisons?

The findings of Pasteur and others have established that

How do scientists calibrate a molecular clock for a group of organisms with known nucleotide sequences?