Deck 2: The Pattern of Evolution

Question 1

The theory that species do not change over time,are created separately and independently,and that the Earth and life on Earth are young is called the ________.[four words]

Answer 1

theory of special creation.

Question 2

The transitional fossil Archaeopteryx shows a combination of traits consistent with the hypothesis that it shared a common ancestor with ________.

A) dinosaurs and bats
B) hippos and whales
C) reptiles and birds
D) dinosaurs and birds

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Radioactive dating techniques have demonstrated that Earth was formed approximately ________ years ago.

A) 10 billion
B) 46 million
C) 4.6 million
D) 4.6 billion

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The coccyx,a tiny tailbone found in humans,is believed to be a ________ structure.

A) terminated
B) vestigial
C) rudimentary
D) redundant

Question 5

The comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier confirmed the concept of extinction in 1812 when he demonstrated that there were no extant species anatomically related to the fossilized remains of the ________.

A) mastodon
B) Irish elk
C) pygmy armadillo
D) giant vampire bat
E) Arctic lemming

Question 6

Vestigial structures are found in humans,and are thought to be useless or rudimentary body parts that had an important function in ancestral species.Give two examples of vestigial structures in humans.

Question 7

The biological species concept,formalized by Ernst Mayr in 1942,defined a species as a ________.

A) group of individuals that inhabit the same location
B) group of individuals with similar morphological characteristics
C) population within and among which individuals actually or potentially interbreed and outside of which they do not interbreed
D) group of individuals who share similar allelic frequencies
E) population of individuals within and among which reproduction takes place frequently

Question 8

What is the biological species concept put forth by Ernst Mayr in 1942?

Question 9

Explain how microevolution and artificial selection are demonstrated by the wide variety of dog breeds currently in existence.

Question 10

Andrew Hendry and colleagues demonstrated that the process of speciation is gradual by studying the distribution and variation in gill raker length in ________.

A) brook trout
B) aquatic copepods
C) salmonids
D) threespine sticklebacks
E) razorfish

Question 11

The concept of uniformitarianism,articulated by James Hutton in the late 1700s,states that ________.

A) the genetic code is similar among all living and extinct species
B) mutations accumulate at a constant rate in most organisms
C) current geological processes on Earth operate in the same manner as those that operated in the past
D) the rate of extinction has been constant throughout the time life has existed on Earth

Question 12

A useless or rudimentary body part that is thought to have been important in ancestral populations but no longer has a known function is termed a(n)________.

A) evolved structure
B) terminal structure
C) vestigial structure
D) residual structure

Question 13

In response to environmental conditions,the average beak size in a population of birds may change between successive generations.This process of change is referred to as ________.

A) macroevolution
B) sequestration
C) speciation
D) coalescence
E) microevolution

Question 14

After several generations of selectively breeding mice in a laboratory,Ted Garland and his colleagues established populations of mice that voluntarily chose to run great distances on exercise wheels.The process of establishing these populations of mice is termed ________.

A) natural selection
B) artificial selection
C) population selection
D) experimental selection
E) random selection

Question 15

The amount of time it takes for a radioactive element to decay to 50% of its daughter isotope is called ________.

A) decay rate
B) half-life
C) partial decay
D) conversion rate
E) quarter-life

Question 16

Anatomical features that show an underlying structural similarity even though their superficial structure is different are termed ________ structures.

A) homoplasic
B) homologous
C) symplasic
D) dependent

Question 17

Large evolutionary changes that result in the placement of related organisms into different genera or higher-level taxa occur via the process of ________.

A) speciation
B) macroevolution
C) microevolution
D) independent evolution
E) evolutionary differentiation

Question 18

Processed pseudogenes are useful for testing Darwin's theory of descent with modification because they ________.

A) can be utilized for examining phylogenetic relationships among asexually reproducing organisms
B) demonstrate phylogenetic relationships of divergence because they do not accumulate mutations
C) accumulate mutations at a constant rate, and thus older processed pseudogenes should be shared by a greater variety of species
D) are distributed in organisms that are found in similar environments

Question 19

Nonfunctional copies of normal genes,which lack both introns and promoters,and are important in estimating evolutionary ages of phylogenetic relationships,are ________.

A) transgenes
B) retrotransposons
C) processed retrogenes
D) processed pseudogenes
E) duplicated pseudogenes

Question 20

In Dianne Dodd's experiments with Drosophila pseudoobscura,different populations were established that were raised on diets of either maltose or starch.When flies from the different populations were allowed to mate,some flies mated with flies fed on a different food source,but there was a preference for mating with flies raised on the same food source.What does this phenomenon illustrate about the timescale of speciation?

Question 21

Explain the significance of Archaeopteryx as a transitional fossil in our understanding of phylogenetic relationships.

Question 22

The age of the Earth is estimated at 4.6 billion years.When are the first unicellular organisms thought to have evolved on Earth?

Question 23

The radioactive isotope ________ has a half-life of 5,730 years,and has an effective dating range of 100 to 100,000 years.

Question 24

What are structural homologies?

Question 25

Compare and contrast the processes of microevolution and macroevolution.

Question 26

Explain and provide evidence to support uniformitarianism,and how this evidence refutes the theory of special creation.

Question 27

Discuss how the proximal CMT1A repeat that appears near the gene coding for peripheral myelin protein-22 (PMP-22)has been used to examine the phylogenetic relationships between humans,chimpanzees,bonobos,gorillas,orangutans and several other primates,and why this repeat provides evidence that supports the theory of descent with modification and against the theory of special creation.

Question 28

What are two features that characterize processed pseudogenes,and how do these arise?

Question 29

On what basic physical principle does radiometric dating rely?

Question 30

What was the evolutionary significance of Georges Cuvier's analysis of the fossilized Irish elk,published in 1812?