Deck 23: Paleobiology and Macroevolution

Question 1

Most dinosaurs were extinct by ____ years ago.

A) 10,000
B) 1 million
C) 500 million
D) 65 million
E) 1 billion

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which element is least useful for dating fossils greater than 10 million years old?

A) Carbon-14
B) Uranium-238
C) Uranium-235
D) Thorium-232
E) Rubidium-87

Answer 2

A

Question 3

If the entire history of the Earth is symbolized by a 12-month calendar, dinosaurs and mammals both appear in the month of ____.

A) August
B) September
C) October
D) November
E) December

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Fossils are predominantly found in ____.

A) metamorphic rocks
B) igneous rocks
C) sedimentary rocks
D) crystalline rocks
E) radioactive rocks

Question 5

The first dinosaur fossils were discovered in ____, leading to the first public dinosaur craze.

A) Britain
B) Australia
C) United States
D) South Africa
E) China

Question 6

The time interval used to measure the absolute age of rocks by radiometric dating is called the ____.

A) radioisotope unit
B) radiometric unit
C) radiometric life
D) radioisotope life
E) half-life

Question 7

Over time, the carbon isotope¹⁴C decays into ____.

A) 12C
B) 14N
C) 12N
D) 13C
E) 12B

Question 8

Angiosperms first appeared during the ____ period.

A) Cambrian
B) Jurassic
C) Cretaceous
D) Neogene
E) Devonian

Question 9

Most dinosaurs died out by the end of the ____ period.

A) Triassic
B) Jurassic
C) Cretaceous
D) Quaternary
E) Permian

Question 10

According to the geological time scale, which segment of Earth's history is the oldest?

A) Hadean eon
B) Archean eon
C) Proterozoic eon
D) Paleozoic era
E) Cenozoic era

Question 11

During the Cretaceous period, ____.

A) mammals diversified and flourished
B) life appeared on this planet
C) the first animals with shells and skeletons appeared
D) the dinosaurs reached their peak and then most species became extinct
E) the first human-like apes appeared

Question 12

Mammals underwent an evolutionary "explosion", or major adaptive radiation, during the ____.

A) Mesozoic era
B) Cambrian period
C) Triassic period
D) Devonian period
E) Cenozoic era

Question 13

The earliest signs of life appeared on Earth during the ____.

A) Archean
B) Paleozoic
C) Mesozoic
D) Cambrian
E) Cenozoic

Question 14

Which group of animals are living representatives of the theropods, a lineage of bipedal predatory dinosaurs?

A) birds
B) crocodiles and alligators
C) snakes and lizards
D) turtles
E) mammals

Question 15

Dinosaurs flourished during the ____ era.

A) Archaean
B) Paleozoic
C) Mesozoic
D) Cambrian
E) Cenozoic

Question 16

A paleontologist estimates that when a particular rock formed, it contained 12 mg of the radioactive isotope potassium-40, which has a half-life of 1.25 billion years. The rock now contains 3 mg of the isotope. About how old is the rock?

A) 2.5 billion years
B) 5.0 billion years
C) 1.25 billion years
D) 0.3 billion years
E) 0.4 billion years

Question 17

The analysis of large-scale changes in morphology and diversity over life's 3.8-billion-year history comprises the study of ____.

A) microevolution
B) mutation
C) macroevolution
D) artificial selection
E) genetic drift

Question 18

Which adaptation is least likely to be found in any dinosaurs?

A) bright coloration
B) bipedal posture
C) feathered wings
D) gills for breathing underwater
E) posture with heads upright and tails off the ground

Question 19

The radioactive decay of carbon-14 can be used to determine ____.

A) relative dating
B) absolute dating
C) mutation rates
D) plate tectonics
E) extinction rates

Question 20

Radiometric dating works best with ____.

A) sedimentary rocks
B) limestone
C) metamorphic rock
D) volcanic rocks
E) meteorites

Question 21

As a result of plate tectonics, new crust is added to the Earth at ____, and old crust is recycled into the mantle at ____.

A) oceanic ridges; oceanic trenches
B) oceanic ridges; continental crusts
C) oceanic trenches; oceanic ridges
D) continental crusts; oceanic trenches
E) oceanic trenches; continental crusts

Question 22

The most severe mass extinction on Earth occurred at the end of the ____ period.

A) Cambrian
B) Carboniferous
C) Jurassic
D) Permian
E) Devonian

Question 23

To which zoogeographical realm does the North American continent belong?

A) Palearctic
B) Oceanian
C) Neotropical
D) Panamanian
E) Nearctic

Question 24

Australia and Eurasia each have a mouse-like mammal, one a marsupial, the other a placental. These distantly related species are an example of ____.

A) disjunct dispersal
B) disjunct vicariance
C) adaptive radiation
D) convergent evolution
E) distant migration

Question 25

A species confined to a specific geographic area and found nowhere else on Earth is called ____.

A) endemic
B) allopatric
C) sympatric
D) autopolyploid
E) polymorphic

Question 26

Which terrestrial herbivore in Australia shares overall similarities in body form and ecological roles as the distantly related North American woodchuck ( Marmota monax )?

A) marsupial mole ( Notoryctes typhlops )
B) yellow-footed marsupial mouse ( Antechinus flavipes )
C) wombat ( Vombatus ursinus )
D) honey glider ( Petaurus breviceps )
E) Tasmanian wolf ( Thylacinus cynocephalus )

Question 27

The term ____ refers to all the organisms, including plants and animals, living in a particular region.

A) fauna
B) biota
C) flora
D) population
E) ecosystem

Question 28

Plate tectonics causes oceanic ridges to form where ____.

A) continental plates collide
B) shallow seas dry up
C) magma rises through fissures in the sea floor
D) old oceanic crust sinks below continental crust
E) subduction uplifts continental crust

Question 29

Throughout Earth's history, changes in climate patterns that led to declining sea levels took an especially severe toll on organisms living in ____ environments.

A) interior freshwater
B) interior terrestrial
C) coastal terrestrial
D) shallow marine
E) deep marine

Question 30

Continental drift caused the large supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic era to separate into a northern continent, called ____, and a southern continent, called ____.

A) Pangaea; Laurasia
B) Laurasia; Gondwana
C) Gondwana; Laurasia
D) Pangaea; Gondwana
E) Gondwana; Pangaea

Question 31

The 14 species of finches native to the Galápagos Islands ____, and therefore illustrate adaptive radiation.

A) diverged following a mass extinction event
B) evolved from a single common ancestor
C) migrated independently from South America
D) represent a convergent evolutionary process
E) evolved from numerous distant ancestors

Question 32

At times when Earth's climate was cooler than it is today, the polar ice caps ____, rainfall ____, and sea levels ____.

A) retreated; increased; rose
B) retreated; decreased; fell
C) grew larger; increased; fell
D) grew larger; increased; rose
E) grew larger; decreased; fell

Question 33

Fossilized wood and bone fragments can be accurately aged using ____.

A) Thorium-232
B) Uranium-238
C) Uranium-235
D) Potassium-40
E) Carbon-14

Question 34

When rapid speciation produces a cluster of closely related species that occupy different habitats or consume different foods, the process is referred to as ____.

A) punctuated equilibrium
B) disjunct dispersal
C) disjunct vicariance
D) adaptive radiation
E) continuous vicariance

Question 35

A single seed lands on one of a group of isolated islands. Several million years later, its descendants have evolved into a number of new species on the different islands, representing a variety of trees, shrubs, and vines. This is an example of ____.

A) adaptive radiation
B) punctuated equilibrium
C) genetic drift
D) microevolution
E) mutation

Question 36

On a regional level, coastal areas generally experience ____ fluctuations in temperature compared to interior regions of land masses.

A) smaller daily but larger seasonal
B) larger daily but smaller seasonal
C) only larger daily
D) smaller daily and seasonal
E) larger daily and seasonal

Question 37

Today we are living in one of the ____ periods of Earth's history, but global climate change is occurring much ____ than ever before.

A) cooler; faster
B) cooler; slower
C) warmer; faster
D) warmer; slower
E) warmer; more unpredictably

Question 38

The movement of organisms away from their place of origin, called ____, can produce a ____ distribution, in which closely related species live in widely separated locations.

A) fragmentation; continuous
B) vicariance; disjunct
C) vicariance; continuous
D) dispersal; disjunct
E) dispersal; continuous

Question 39

About 250 million years ago Earth's continents merged into one supercontinent called ____.

A) Nazca
B) Eurasia
C) Laurasia
D) Gondwana
E) Pangaea

Question 40

Today, Australia, Antarctica, and South America represent fragments of ____.

A) Australasia
B) Laurasia
C) Gondwana
D) Eurasia
E) Amerasia

Question 41

Which is a likely result of a mass extinction?

A) The creation of "empty niche spaces," which can stimulate radiation of surviving groups.
B) The elimination of non-beneficial alleles from gene pools.
C) The increase in the rate of new mutations in remaining species.
D) The decrease in the rate of new mutations in remaining species.
E) The introduction of mutations that have a greater than usual effect.

Question 42

In which period was a mass extinction event least likely?

A) Permian
B) Neogene
C) Cretaceous
D) Ordovician
E) Devonian

Question 43

Although ferns and conifers maintained their diversity into the early Cenozoic era, ____ may have hastened their decline in the early Cretaceous.

A) cycads
B) gymnosperms
C) angiosperms
D) invertebrates
E) mammals

Question 44

The apparent lack of intermediate forms in the fossil record can be explained by the ____ hypothesis.

A) disruptive selection
B) fossil decay
C) punctuated equilibrium
D) genetic drift
E) allopatric speciation

Question 45

Different clusters of related Galápagos finch species each occupy a somewhat different ____, a term that describes a general way of life.

A) niche zone
B) adaptive zone
C) hybrid zone
D) novel habitat
E) disjunct habitat

Question 46

The evolution of horses is best characterized as ____.

A) a linear sequence of intermediate forms leading to modern horses
B) an example of evolutionary convergence
C) poorly documented and speculative
D) a gradual increase in body size
E) a complex branched history with many extinct lineages

Question 47

The evolutionary mode in which species evolve rapidly at first and then remain stable for very long periods of time is called ____.

A) catastrophism
B) uniformitarianism
C) disruptive selection
D) punctuated equilibrium
E) phyletic gradualism

Question 48

The concept that most morphological changes in species occur gradually over long periods of time is known as the ____.

A) phyletic gradualism hypothesis
B) principle of convergent evolution
C) punctuated equilibrium hypothesis
D) unified theory of evolution
E) concept of adaptive radiation

Question 49

The fossil record indicates that the immediate ancestors of modern marine animals diversified in the ____ period, right after the ____ extinction.

A) Ordovician; Cambrian
B) Jurassic; Triassic
C) Carboniferous; Devonian
D) Paleogene; Cretaceous
E) Triassic; Permian

Question 50

As environments change, poorly adapted organisms will not survive and reproduce; therefore, we can expect species to disappear at some low rate, called the ____.

A) background extinction rate
B) punctuated equilibrium
C) rate of phyletic gradualism
D) rate of adaptive radiation
E) mass extinction rate

Question 51

The potential seventh mass extinction refers to ____.

A) the loss of 50% of species on Earth, including dinosaurs, at the end of the Cretaceous
B) the most extensive loss of species that occurred during the Permian
C) what will happen to the human species if a nuclear war occurs
D) the rapid loss of biodiversity due to human degradation of the environment
E) events that occurred just before insects diversified on land

Question 52

The skulls of infant chimpanzees and infant humans are remarkably similar in shape. However, as they mature, they become quite different due to differences in ____.

A) allometric growth
B) paedomorphosis
C) gradualism
D) vicariance
E) heterochrony

Question 53

Scientists hypothesize that the massive Permian extinction was triggered by ____.

A) asteroid impacts that caused atmospheric dust clouds
B) a series of ongoing volcanic eruptions
C) degradation of the environment by humans
D) rising sea levels that covered most landmasses
E) extreme global cooling that made Earth uninhabitable

Question 54

The changing size ratio between an animal's head and the rest of its body during development is an example of ____.

A) allometric growth
B) punctuated equilibrium
C) phyletic gradualism
D) heterochrony
E) paedomorphosis

Question 55

The diversity of terrestrial vascular plants has increased almost continuously since the ____ period.

A) Devonian
B) Ordovician
C) Cambrian
D) Silurian
E) Proterozoic

Question 56

Alan Cheetham observed a punctuated pattern of evolution in the ____ , small ectoprocts from the Caribbean Sea.

A) trilobites
B) arthropods
C) crustaceans
D) Metrarabdotos
E) echinoderms

Question 57

Peter Sheldon found that the number of tail "ribs" in ____ changed over a 3 million year period with no evidence of speciation.

A) horses
B) trilobites
C) insects
D) humans
E) ectoprocts

Question 58

What percentage of the species that have ever existed on Earth are probably now extinct?

A) less than 10%
B) more than 99.9%
C) about 80%
D) about 25%
E) about 75%

Question 59

When scientists examined fossils of Ordovician trilobites, they found that a sample from any given stratum was almost always intermediate in their morphology between samples from strata just above or below it, providing evidence of ____.

A) convergent evolution
B) rapid speciation
C) adaptive radiation
D) punctuated equilibrium
E) phyletic gradualism

Question 60

Fossil evidence from five continents exists for 100 extinct, and one extant, species of ____

A) humans
B) birds
C) trilobites
D) insects
E) horses

Question 63

The punctuated equilibrium hypothesis suggests that speciation usually occurs in isolated populations at the edge of a species' geographical distribution.

Question 64

Most fossils form in sedimentary rocks.

Question 65

Scientists hypothesize that the massive Permian extinction was triggered by an asteroid impact.

Question 66

A trait that is adaptive in one context and later turns out to have adaptive value in a different context is called ____.

A) paedomorphic
B) heterochronic
C) allometric
D) an exaptation
E) endemic

Question 67

Genes in the Hox family of homeobox genes control the body plans of animals along the ____ axis, including where ____ will develop on the animal's body.

A) dorsal-ventral; appendages
B) dorsal-ventral; light-sensing organs
C) internal-external; internal organs
D) anterior-posterior; appendages
E) anterior-posterior; light-sensing organs

Question 68

The appendages in both fishes and tetrapods develop from buds of ____, the middle embryonic tissue layer.

A) ectoderm
B) endoderm
C) mesoderm
D) epiderm
E) hypoderm

Question 69

An adaptive radiation may be triggered after the demise of a successful group.

Question 70

How does today's climate compare to most of the Earth's history? What does this indicate about how human activities can affect climate?

Question 71

Using the geological time scale, scientists can determine the absolute age of rocks and fossils.

Question 72

In some amphibians, including salamanders, paedomorphosis results from mutations that ____.

A) reduce thyroid hormone production only
B) reduce pituitary hormone production only
C) limit the responsiveness of some developmental processes to thyroid hormone concentration only
D) reduce pituitary hormone production, limit the responsiveness of some developmental processes to pituitary hormone concentration, or both
E) reduce thyroid hormone production, limit the responsiveness of some developmental processes to thyroid hormone concentration, or both

Question 73

The narrower and more tubular shape of Delphinium nudicaule flowers, which mature at an earlier stage of development than Delphinium decorum flowers, is the product of ____.

A) allometric growth
B) exaptation
C) paedomorphosis
D) disjunct vicariance
E) continuous vicariance

Question 74

Which characteristic possessed by Archaeopteryx was least likely present in their dinosaurian ancestors?

A) teeth
B) feathers
C) a long tail with many vertebrae
D) three clawed fingers on each hand
E) a forked breastbone

Question 75

Changes in the timing of developmental events is called ____.

A) paedomorphosis
B) homeosis
C) heterochrony
D) homoplasy
E) allometry

Question 76

Some animals have evolved sexual maturity in juvenile body forms. This is called ____.

A) allometric growth
B) vicariance
C) paedomorphosis
D) punctuated equilibrium
E) convergence

Question 77

A ____ gene determines the structure of body parts during embryonic development.

A) homoplasy
B) homeostatic
C) homologous
D) homeobox
E) homogenous

Question 78

The mass extinction of most dinosaurs occurred rapidly as a result of a single cataclysmic event.

Question 79

In marine sticklebacks, the Pitx1 gene is ____, but in freshwater sticklebacks, the Pitx1 gene is ____.

A) not expressed in fin buds of the pelvic region and spines are present; expressed and spines are absent
B) not expressed in fin buds of the pelvic region and spines are absent; expressed and spines are present
C) expressed and spines are present; not expressed in fin buds in the pelvic region and spines are absent
D) expressed and spines are absent; not expressed in fin buds in the pelvic region and spines are present
E) present so spines develop; absent so spines do not develop

Question 80

The most severe mass extinction occurred at the end of the Permian Period.