Deck 9: Evolution

Question 1

Dairy products are generally nutritious but most human adults cannot digest them. This is because

A) They generally stopped drinking milk when they were toddlers.
B) Milk sugar is called lactase and most adults have the genetic disease "lactase-intolerance."
C) Most adult human stomachs have a different chemical composition than children's stomachs.
D) Most adult humans don't produce lactase, the enzyme necessary to digest the dairy sugar lactose.
E) Most adult humans simply don't have access to dairy products and gradually lose the ability to digest them.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Why does it make sense that most adult humans are lactose intolerant?

A) Historically, people never drank that much milk.
B) Historically, people generally stopped drinking milk at a young age.
C) Most people are not dairy farmers.
D) Lactase is a very rare enzyme.
E) There are drugs one can take to prevent lactose intolerance.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Mammal testes hang outside the body. This is necessary because

A) They don't fit anywhere inside the body.
B) They need to be very near the penis.
C) Sperm cells need to be kept in motion to survive.
D) All vertebrate testes hang outside the body.
E) Sperm cells need to be kept a bit cooler than a mammal's body temperature.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Scurvy is a disease in humans caused by lack of vitamin C. It only occurs in humans and other primates, not other mammals. Why?

A) Other mammals eat plenty of fruit.
B) Other mammals don't need vitamin C.
C) Humans and primates can't make their own vitamin C
D) Humans and primates can't digest vitamin C.
E) Other mammals have a genetic mutation that produces vitamin C.

Question 5

If you were an engineer charged with designing vertebrate eyes, would you make them just like they are, or could they be better? Why or why not?

A) Vertebrate eyes are very good, so I would make them just like they are.
B) Vertebrate eyes are pretty good but they are set up such that they have a blind spot. I'd make them better.
C) Nothing else has a better eye than a vertebrate so they are perfect as is and that's how I'd make them.
D) Vertebrate eyes mostly don't see well so I'd make them better.
E) There's no way to know whether vertebrate eyes have any structural problems so this can't be answered.

Question 6

There is a huge amount of evidence showing that organisms have changed through time, convincing scientists that evolution definitely occurs.

Question 7

Darwin always believed that species evolved, and he set out on the Beagle voyage to prove it.

Question 8

Biogeography supports the idea of evolution because

A) Related species can be found in similar habitats worldwide.
B) Fossils in one area are often completely unrelated to the living organisms in that area.
C) Closely related species can live far apart from each other.
D) Closely related species tend to live near each other rather than on separate continents.
E) Endemic species all tend to live on the same continent.

Question 9

Darwin's finches supported the idea of evolution because

A) Even though they changed over time, they were all still the same finch species.
B) Every continent has its own species of finch.
C) They were clearly all finches but they had adapted and changed to suit different environments on different islands.
D) They were clearly different finch species that had settled separately on different islands.
E) The finches supported the idea of natural selection, but not evolution.

Question 10

What is an endemic species?

A) A species at risk of going extinct
B) A species found worldwide
C) A species found in huge numbers
D) A species found in one place and nowhere else
E) A species that has gone extinct

Question 11

Natural selection requires three facts of nature. These are

A) Species endemic to islands, individual variation, and not all offspring survive
B) Individual variation, variations are inherited, and not all offspring survive
C) Individual variation, parental variation, and not all offspring survive
D) Individual variation, variations are inherited, offspring reproduce
E) Individuals do not vary, inheritance or traits, and not all offspring survive

Question 12

The Modern Synthesis refers to our current understanding of how evolution by natural selection works. Darwin couldn't explain it at the time he was working on the idea. What was he missing?

A) He didn't see that individuals varied.
B) He didn't have access to enough species to test his ideas.
C) He didn't understand how the inheritance of genes provides the necessary variation.
D) There was no way to look at genes back then.
E) He didn't understand Mendel's work with pea plants.

Question 13

According to Darwin, how did "descent with modification" occur?

A) Genetics and heredity
B) An Intelligent Designer at work
C) Natural selection
D) Randomly
E) Sexual reproduction

Question 14

What is it called when a particular environmental condition results in a population's characteristics changing over time in order to better deal with it.

A) Endemic trait
B) Adaptation
C) Mutation
D) Biogeography
E) Synthesis

Question 15

Why would dairy farming result in the spread of a gene allowing adults to digest lactose, when prior to that, only infants could?

A) Being able to get nutrition from cow's milk as an adult would keep individuals better fed and therefore healthier and able to produce more children who would then also have that trait.
B) Keeping cows would tend to trigger any mutations related to being able to drink milk since that would be make individuals healthier and able to produce more children who would have the same trait.
C) Farming is a harder way of life, so to survive, an individual would need to be able to digest milk and so would gradually gain that ability.
D) Being able to get nutrition from cow's milk as an adult would keep individuals better fed and therefore healthier and better able to feed their children.
E) Prior to this, hunter gatherer societies didn't keep cows, so there was no reason to adapt to drinking milk.

Question 16

Why is the ability to digest lactose in adults most prevalent in Northern Europe, North America, and Australia?

A) Today, most of the world's dairy farming goes on in these locations.
B) The populations in these locations consume the most dairy products.
C) Populations in temperate climates are more likely to adapt to use dairy products.
D) Many of the people in populations in these areas are descendants of hunter-gatherers.
E) Many of the people in these areas are descendants of the first dairy farmers in human history.

Question 17

Oxidizing drugs are an effective treatment for malaria, but in some areas where the disease is especially prevalent, these drugs can be lethal. Why?

A) The mosquitoes that carry malaria in these areas have adapted to the drugs, are attracted by them, and so are more likely to infect and kill those people who take the drugs.
B) The parasite that causes malaria has become resistant to these drugs in some places, so is more likely to infect the people and kill them if they take the drugs.
C) People in these areas have adapted to resisting the malarial mosquitoes and the drugs compromise their resistance rather than helping.
D) People in these areas have adapted such that they naturally resist malaria using the same strategy as the drugs, so when they take the drugs, the extra oxidizing effect can kill them.
E) People in these areas have adapted to resist the effects of the malarial drug because they are already somewhat resistant to malaria as a result of being exposed to it a lot.

Question 18

Which of the following is an example of natural selection.

A) Rabbits run faster when they're chased by wolves than by foxes.
B) Deer learn to avoid the section of forest open for hunting.
C) As the climate warms over time, the fur coats on a population of black bears get thinner.
D) Turtles swim over whenever people come near a pond because they've adapted to being fed.
E) As the climate cools during the winter, birds eat more to maintain their temperature and energy level.

Question 19

The Grants' study of finches has been going on for 40 years. Why is that important in studying natural selection?

A) Natural selection and adaptation take a long time.
B) Scientific research takes a long time.
C) It took them awhile to determine the correct measurements to make.
D) Sometimes natural selection doesn't work in a particular place and it took awhile to determine that it was working in this case.
E) The finches take a long time to mature and produce offspring.

Question 20

Which three factors were necessary for natural selection to occur among the finches on Daphne Major in the Grants' study?

A) The birds reproduced easily, the climate was constant, and the study went on for a long time.
B) The bird beak lengths varied, beak length was a heritable trait, and the drought limited the food supply so there was competition for food.
C) The bigger beaked birds survived the drought better, small beaked birds could produce big beaked offspring, there was plenty of food available.
D) There was a drought that limited food, the birds were adaptable, the study went on for a long time.
E) Finches reproduce quickly, finches can eat any kind of seed, the climate stayed mostly constant.

Question 21

Figure 9.22 shows what happened to finch beak size as a result of a drought on the island of Daphne Major. Which best explains this?

A) Smaller beaked finches produced fewer offspring during the drought.
B) Finch beaks got bigger due to natural selection for bigger seeds.
C) Finches cannot adapt to changes in their environment when they happen very quickly like this drought did.
D) Droughts result in bigger beaks on finches due to natural selection for bigger birds.
E) Droughts result in fewer smaller seeds, so there is selection for larger beaked finches who can eat the larger seeds.

Question 22

Natural selection works to improve the fitness of organisms by making them better adapted to their environment. What do scientists mean by fitness in this context?

A) Fitness refers to how strong an organism is relative to its neighbors.
B) Fitness means well-adapted to conditions.
C) The most fit organism is the one that survives.
D) The most fit organism passes the most genes to the next generation
E) Fitness means having the best genes or traits for conditions.

Question 23

Why does it make evolutionary sense that not only the elephant mom but also all her female relatives will help her look after her baby?

A) This is kin selection. Families work together for the benefit of all their shared genes.
B) Elephants are known to be very smart, so it makes sense that they would cooperate with each other since they know it benefits everybody.
C) It is too hard to raise a baby elephant for one individual to do it by herself. The herd benefits by gaining another member if everyone cooperates.
D) This is kin selection where the males do not cooperate because for them it is more important to go off and mate more in order to spread their genes around.
E) Actually, it doesn't make sense because those relatives should be more interested in their own offspring according to natural selection.

Question 24

Natural selection has been working on most organisms for a really long time, so why isn't everything perfectly designed to suit the environment by now?

A) Mutations keep messing up the good designs.
B) Natural selection can only select for traits the organism already has, and those are not always perfect for the job they need to do.
C) Natural selection sometimes works to perfect a trait for an upcoming environmental change, so it's not perfect right away, but it should be later on.
D) Natural selection might select the perfect trait but then the organism behaves in some way that makes it not work as well as it could.
E) Sexual reproduction mixes up traits no matter how carefully they get selected initially.

Question 25

The only way a population can evolve is by natural selection.

Question 26

How is it possible for a mutation to be beneficial and what happens to it if it is?

A) A beneficial mutation will result in a trait that is helpful to the organism and if the environment changes to suit it, the trait will expand in the population.
B) A mutation is, by definition, not beneficial.
C) A mutation can result in a trait that is beneficial to an individual or its offspring and it will stay within that family.
D) It is not possible for a mutation to be beneficial and so the mutated gene will be selected against and disappear from the population.
E) A mutation that results in a trait that improves an organisms fitness is beneficial and because it has improved fitness that mutated gene will spread in the population.

Question 27

Genetic drift is a type of evolution that occurs randomly, without any sort of natural selection.

Question 28

The fact that the Eastern Pennsylavania Amish have a higher incidence of the Ellis-van Crevald syndrome than the U.S. population at large is an example of

A) The mutation effect
B) The founder's effect
C) The random effect
D) The drift effect
E) The dangers of immigration

Question 29

When a small subset of a larger population gets separated into a different environment from the main population, which of the following is likely to occur

A) The new small population will have a different set of traits and may experience different environmental conditions than the larger one and so will evolve differently.
B) The new small population will eventually regain all the traits of the original large population by natural selection.
C) Since the original population will always be better adapted, the new population is likely to die off.
D) Since the new population will eventually be better adapted as a result of experiencing a new environment, they will eventually overtake the original population.
E) Nothing will happen since the new, isolated population is unlikely to survive.

Question 30

New species evolve from older ones. Why is it difficult to demonstrate this process?

A) In the grand scheme of things, there are not that many species, so this is a rare event.
B) There are none of the older species left.
C) The process typically takes a very, very long time, so it's difficult to see it reach completion, even in a lifetime.
D) New species don't evolve anymore, so we can't see it happen.
E) New species simply don't evolve from older ones, so it's impossible to demonstrate it in the real world.

Question 31

What is the Biological Species Concept, and what is one problem with it?

A) It defines a species as being genetically isolated, but scientists can't determine that.
B) It defines a species as being unable to interbreed with any other species, but all species can interbreed if given the opportunity, so it doesn't apply to the real world.
C) It defines a living species as mostly able to interbreed but doesn't work with fossils.
D) It defines a species as being unable to interbreed with every other species, but a few species can interbreed to some degree so it's not clear-cut.
E) It defines a species as being genetically isolated from every other species, but some organisms, like bacteria, are all genetically isolated all the time, so it doesn't work for them.

Question 32

How does an evolutionary tree provide evidence of speciation, or the idea that one species arises from another?

A) The tree's branches are interconnected and organized with one branching from the next, and there are fewer branches as you move back in time.
B) Evolutionary trees are pretty much made up by scientists so they don't really provide evidence of anything.
C) The DNA on the branches changes in a consistent manner over time, suggesting constant change.
D) The tree represents generations just like a human family tree.
E) Organisms lower on the tree branches clearly evolved from organisms higher on the tree branches.

Question 33

What is one way scientists determine how closely related one organism is to another?

A) By comparing the age at which they originated based on fossils
B) By comparing their DNA sequences; the more similar the DNA the more closely related the organisms.
C) By building an evolutionary tree based on estimated traits
D) By using carbon-dating to compare them
E) By putting them together to see if they can communicate

Question 34

What happened to make the shrimp living around the border of the Americas diverge into twice as many species as there were originally?

A) The Panama canal allowed them to move into the same environment, and competition led to speciation.
B) The Panama Isthmus sank below sea level, allowing the Pacific and Caribbean oceans to mix, and the shrimp mixed too, resulting in speciation.
C) The Pacific ocean and Caribbean sea changed with the climate, and this selected for a wider variety of shrimp species.
D) Nobody knows how this happened, they only know that the shrimp are closely related to each other.
E) The Panama Isthmus rose above sea level, separating the Pacific and Caribbean oceans and isolating shrimp in both oceans, where they evolved separately and speciated.

Question 35

If one species is split into two populations in two different places, natural selection may drive them to become two different species. How?

A) They are isolated and adapting to two different environments.
B) It won't actually, because one species never splits into two.
C) Because everything evolves over time.
D) A single species is never perfected so it will always eventually branch off.
E) Natural selection makes every population perfectly suited to its environment.

Question 36

If a single species gets split onto two similar islands-separate, but similar habitat-the two groups will evolve identically.

Question 37

When a population is said to be "genetically isolated," what does that mean?

A) Its DNA is unique.
B) It has no living relatives in any other populations.
C) It does not interbreed with any other population.
D) It's probably going extinct.
E) It lives alone on an island.

Question 38

If two populations are re-introduced after being genetically isolated for a long time, how could you tell if they've become two different species?

A) If they fight with each other, they must be two different species.
B) If they are unable to interbreed successfully, they must be two different species.
C) If they avoid each other completely, they must be two different species.
D) If they were genetically isolated for a long time, they must be two different species.
E) There's no way to determine whether they've become two separate species.

Question 39

Why would natural selection tend to select against hybrids?

A) They aren't really natural so they can't be well adapted.
B) Natural selection only works on species.
C) Hybrids can't evolve since they have different parents who are better adapted to their own habitats.
D) Hybrids tend not to be as well adapted as their parents because they haven't been in their environment for as long, so they're less fit.
E) Natural selection always tends to favor older, established species over new ones.

Question 40

More U.S. citizens accept evolution as a fact of nature than reject the idea outright.

Question 41

Why do the vast majority of scientists accept evolution as a fact of nature?

A) Scientists are normally not religious so they have no conflict with their personal beliefs.
B) Scientists believe everything other scientists have to say.
C) Scientists are not very skeptical of ideas.
D) Scientists make up whole fields of study in order to get grant money and keep their jobs.
E) There is a century's worth of data from all fields of science that support the idea of evolution.

Question 42

One could argue that if "survival of the fittest" is how the world works, it's acceptable to exploit your fellow humans for personal gain. Obviously this is morally questionable, but does it make sense scientifically?

A) Yes, natural selection applies to human society just like everything else.
B) Yes, scientists tend to be immoral.
C) No. Nothing about evolution applies to humans at all.
D) No. Human society is too complex to be explained by biology alone.
E) No. Natural selection doesn't apply to anything.
Biology in Perspective (Becoming an informed Citizen)

Question 43

Which of the following best explains how natural selection works?

A) Organisms are variable and those traits that allow an individual to reproduce most successfully are selected for, and therefore passed along into the population.
B) Organisms are variable and compete against each other, and those that are the strongest are selected for and the population acquires their traits.
C) Survival of the fittest.
D) Organisms are variable and natural selection randomly selects for certain traits which are then passed along to the population.
E) Natural selection works by changing an individual traits so that they are best suited to their environment.
Scientist Spotlight: Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890-1962)

Question 44

R.A. Fisher is known for his abilities combining and advancing what two fields of science?

A) Evolution and biology
B) Biology and statistics
C) Mathematics and statistics
D) Eugenics and mathematics
E) Biology and eugenics

Question 45

R.A. Fisher felt that genetics was the key to improving the human race. How did he propose to accomplish this?

A) Genetic engineering
B) Education
C) Encouraging quality people to have children
D) Preventing defective people from having children
E) Improved medical care
How Do We Know: Constructing evolutionary trees

Question 46

In evolutionary trees, more closely related species are grouped more closely together. These days, how do scientists determine where to put species when they are constructing evolutionary trees to map evolutionary history?

A) They guess based on the physical traits of the species.
B) They use a computer to determine relatedness based on the physical traits of the species.
C) They use a computer to determine relatedness based on DNA sequences.
D) More distantly related species are grouped together.
E) Groups more closely related to each other are put closest to the common ancestor.

Question 47

What is at the base of any evolutionary tree?

A) The most recent species
B) The first living thing
C) The common ancestor of all species
D) The common ancestor of the species further up the tree
E) The root of the tree
Technology Connection: GenBank

Question 48

Scientists don't always want to share their data. Why do you think they are willing to put DNA and protein sequences in a national database open to everyone?

A) The government makes them do it.
B) Because these data come from living things, none of it is private anyway.
C) There is so much information there, the odds of anyone actually using anyone else's data are remote.
D) There is so much information in one DNA sequence that it would be impossible for a single scientist to store it all him- or herself.
E) There is so much information there that the more people are free to investigate questions using it, the more useful answers we will find.

Question 49

It's possible to compare DNA sequences for many proteins in different organisms online. Where is that information stored?

A) A secret government storage facility
B) A database called GenBank
C) Google
D) The National Institutes of Health
E) University libraries

Question 50

What is one reason evolution is less well accepted in the United States than most other countries?

A) People in the United States don't believe anything scientists say.
B) People in the United States are less well educated than people in other countries.
C) There isn't as much evidence for evolution in North America
D) Evolution has become highly politicized in the United States.
E) People in other countries are not very religious.

Question 51

In general, courts in the United States have repeatedly struck down efforts to include creationism or intelligent design in public school classrooms. Why?

A) Creationism and intelligent design are both religious interpretations and there is a legal separation of religion and the state in the United States.
B) The U.S. judicial system is anti-religion.
C) Religious views in U.S. society are actively discouraged.
D) Science teachers are not in a position to teach religion.
E) Judicial activism

Question 52

If an adult is unable to digest dairy products, what enzyme are they not producing?

Question 53

What is one characteristic of our genomes that suggests that primates and humans share a common ancestor?

Question 54

Why don't most mammals get the disease scurvy, even though they don't all eat fruit?

Question 55

How did fossils convince Darwin that evolution occurs?

Question 56

Based on Darwin's evidence, evolution was quickly accepted by scientists, but natural selection was not. What other experimental work finally explained how natural selection worked?

Question 57

Why did the mutation allowing for continued lactase production in adults spread in the population around 10,000 years ago?

Question 58

Why does the prevalence of malaria in an area often result in changes in a population's genes?

Question 59

A drought on the Galapagos Island of Daphne Major led to an increase in the beak size of the finch population there. This is an example of what?

Question 60

Lion cubs are cared for by their mothers but often also by their aunts. This is an example of what?

Question 61

What does "fitness" mean in terms of natural selection and evolution?

Question 62

If a mutation results in a trait that is somehow beneficial to the organism, what happens to the trait?

Question 63

A subset of a large population which becomes isolated from the large population is likely to be genetically different just by chance. What is this type of evolution called?

Question 64

How does the Biological Species Concept define a species?

Question 65

What characteristics do scientists use to develop evolutionary trees? How do they determine relatedness?

Question 66

What is the first step toward splitting one species into two?

Question 67

When one species has been split into two separate groups and they've diverged, why is it necessary that they have secondary contact in order to determine whether they've become separate species?

Question 68

Why do the vast majority of scientists accept evolution as a fact of nature?

Question 69

About what percentage of the U.S. population completely rejects the idea of evolution?

Question 70

What explains the variation we see in humans from one region to another?

Question 71

R.A. Fisher is a scientist known for promoting what extreme view related to eugenics?

Question 72

When scientists construct evolutionary trees for species, what data do they use to determine relatedness?

Question 73

What is stored in the database GenBank and who can use the information?

Question 74

What is likely to improve public acceptance of evolution in the United States?