Deck 15: The Evolution of Microbial Life

Question 1

Variation among pre-cells was due to ______.

A) genetic drift
B) natural selection
C) the bottleneck effect
D) mutation

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following prokaryotes aid digestion in cattle,deer,and other animals that obtain nutrition from cellulose?

A) halophiles
B) dinoflagellates
C) methanogens
D) cocci

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Based on fossil evidence,eukaryotes evolved about _____ years ago.

A) 500,000
B) 1.5 billion
C) 2.1 billion
D) 3.5 billion

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The first organisms to colonize land were

A) animals
B) plants and fungi
C) bacteria
D) protists and fungi

Question 5

Why is RNA thought to have been the first genetic material?

A) RNA is structurally simpler than DNA.
B) RNA has been found on meteorites; DNA has not.
C) RNA is capable of self-replication; DNA is not.
D) Primitive organisms, such as some viruses, have RNA as their genetic material.

Question 6

The prokaryotic group that tends to inhabit extreme environments belongs to the ______.

A) Protista
B) Archaea
C) Monera
D) Bacteria

Question 7

RNAs that can act as enzymes are called ______.

A) ribozymes
B) ATPs
C) lysosomes
D) prokaryotes

Question 8

Large amounts of oxygen gas appeared in Earth's atmosphere about ______ years ago.

A) 200 million
B) 1.7 billion
C) 2.7 billion
D) 4.5 billion

Question 9

What was the first stage of the process that led to the abiotic origin of life?

A) abiotic synthesis of monomers, such as amino acids and nucleotides
B) origin of self-replicating molecules
C) abiotic synthesis of polymers
D) abiotic formation of pre-cells

Question 10

The idea that life regularly arises from nonliving matter is referred to as ______.

A) speciation
B) spontaneous generation
C) endosymbiosis
D) biogenesis

Question 11

Which prokaryotic group is most closely related to eukaryotes?

A) Bacteria
B) Protista
C) Archaea
D) Bacteria and Archaea are equally closely related

Question 12

Spherical bacteria that occur in clusters are ______.

A) streptococci
B) bacilli
C) spirilla
D) staphylococci

Question 13

Under what abiotic conditions can monomers spontaneously form polymers?

A) in the presence of oxygen gas
B) when ribozymes are present to catalyze the reaction
C) by biogenesis
D) when water evaporates from a hot surface

Question 14

Land was first colonized about ______ years ago.

A) 100 million
B) 500 million
C) 1.7 billion
D) 2.5 billion

Question 15

Which of the following is NOT true?

A) The great diversification of animals occurred during the Cambrian explosion.
B) For most of biological history, life was confined to aquatic habitats.
C) The evolution of multicellularity took place after the origin of the eukaryotes.
D) The first organisms to colonize land were animals.

Question 16

Whose experiments demonstrated that,given the conditions on the primitive Earth,biological monomers could arise spontaneously?

A) Miller and Urey
B) Darwin
C) Watson
D) Margulis

Question 17

Animal life underwent its greatest diversification during the ______,which began about ______ million years ago.

A) Permian... 290
B) Cambrian... 540
C) Carboniferous... 363
D) Mesozoic... 245

Question 18

Bacilli are ______ prokaryotes.

A) spherical
B) comma-shaped
C) rod-shaped
D) spiral

Question 19

The absence of ______ in the primitive atmosphere was essential to the origin of life on Earth.

A) N₂
B) CO₂
C) CH₄
D) O₂

Question 20

Eukaryotes arose about ______ years after the first prokaryotes.

A) 3.0 million
B) 1.5 billion
C) 3.5 billion
D) 4.0 billion

Question 21

You discover a prokaryote that can make its own food in the absence of light. Nutritionally,you would classify this prokaryote as a ______.

A) chemoautotroph
B) photoheterotroph
C) photoautotroph
D) chemoheterotroph

Question 22

______ is an example of bioremediation.

A) Cyanobacteria converting atmospheric nitrogen to a form that plants can use
B) The use of an autoclave to kill endospores
C) The use of prokaryotes to treat sewage
D) A dinoflagellate bloom causing massive fish kills

Question 23

You discover a unicellular organism that moves by what appear to be pseudopodia. You conclude that this organism is ______.

A) either a type of amoeba or a type of slime mold
B) a type of bacterium
C) a type of alga
D) either a type of ciliate, or a type of amoeba, or a type of flagellate, or a type of apicomplexan

Question 24

In the soil,some ______ convert nitrogen to a form that can be used by plants.

A) protists
B) animals
C) protozoans
D) prokaryotes

Question 25

______ are responsible for toxic red tides.

A) Plasmodial slime molds
B) Dinoflagellates
C) Red algae
D) Diatoms

Question 26

Which protozoan group consists solely of parasitic forms?

A) apicomplexans
B) ciliates
C) flagellates
D) amoebas

Question 27

Which of the following include the two classes of poisons produced by pathogenic bacteria?

A) exotoxins and endotoxins
B) chemoautotrophs and chemoheterotrophs
C) protozoans and fungi
D) bacilli and cocci

Question 28

Prokaryotes reproduce by means of ______.

A) mitosis
B) binary fission
C) budding
D) meiosis

Question 29

Eukaryotes that are not fungi,animals,or plants are classified in a "catch-all" category called ______.

A) archaea
B) bacteria
C) seaweeds
D) protists

Question 30

All organisms that photosynthesize fit into which nutritional category?

A) chemoautotrophs
B) photoheterotrophs
C) photoautotrophs
D) chemoheterotrophs

Question 31

According to the theory of endosymbiosis,which organelles evolved from small prokaryotes that established residence within other,larger prokaryotes?

A) vacuoles and lysosomes
B) Golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum
C) centrioles and ribosomes
D) mitochondria and chloroplasts

Question 32

Which of the following would likely be the most difficult to kill were you to can your own food?

A) microspores
B) endospores
C) sporophylls
D) megaspores

Question 33

Food poisoning from Salmonella occurs because of

A) an exotoxin secreted by the bacteria.
B) an endotoxin found in the outer membrane of Salmonella bacteria.
C) easy transmission between people living in close contact.
D) extremophile conditions.

Question 34

Which of the following is a colonial form of green algae?

A) Volvox
B) Giardia
C) Paramecium
D) Plasmodium

Question 35

What accounts for the similarity between seaweeds and plants?

A) Plants are the ancestors of seaweeds.
B) Convergent evolution caused their similarity.
C) Seaweeds are the ancestors of plants.
D) Seaweeds are aquatic plants.

Question 36

Which of the following are most closely related to plants?

A) brown algae
B) red algae
C) cellular slime molds
D) green algae

Question 37

Flagellates,amoebas,apicomplexans,and ciliates are all what type of protist?

A) slime molds
B) protozoans
C) dinoflagellates
D) seaweeds

Question 38

Under ideal conditions,prokaryotes are capable of reproducing at a(n)______ rate.

A) hypergeometric
B) exponential
C) infinite
D) arithmetic

Question 39

______ include cells that can function either independently or as a single unit.

A) Dinoflagellates
B) Forams
C) Seaweeds
D) Cellular slime molds

Question 40

A photoautotrophic unicellular organism with a shell made of silica is most likely a(n)______.

A) apicomplexan
B) foram
C) dinoflagellate
D) diatom

Question 41

Read the following scenario to answer the following question(s).
Malaria is a disease caused by parasitic protists in the genus Plasmodium. The parasite is transmitted to humans by female Anopheles mosquitoes. The Plasmodium parasite feeds on human red blood cells, eventually destroying them. Humans infected with malaria can exhibit many symptoms. Depending on the severity of the infection, these can range from fever, chills, sweating, and headaches to anemia and kidney failure. Ultimately, malaria can result in death. However, if time and money permit, once a person is infected, they can be treated with different antimalarial drugs. The two most commonly used drugs are artemisinin and quinine. In addition, one way to prevent the spread of malaria is to treat areas with Anopheles mosquitoes with pesticides. The National Malaria Eradication Program began work in 1947 with the goal of eliminating malaria from the southern United States. In 1947, 15,000 cases of malaria were reported nationwide. By 1950, only 2,000 cases were reported, and by 1951, malaria was considered eradicated from the United States. Today, the disease is most common in Africa and South America. About one million people die from malaria every year, many of them children. In Africa, it is estimated that one in every five childhood deaths is due to malaria.
Why do so many children in developing countries die of malaria?

A) The costs of treatment and prevention are too high.
B) They are more susceptible to the disease.
C) There is no cure for malaria.
D) Malaria is only found in developing countries today.

Question 42

Read the following scenario to answer the following question(s).
Malaria is a disease caused by parasitic protists in the genus Plasmodium. The parasite is transmitted to humans by female Anopheles mosquitoes. The Plasmodium parasite feeds on human red blood cells, eventually destroying them. Humans infected with malaria can exhibit many symptoms. Depending on the severity of the infection, these can range from fever, chills, sweating, and headaches to anemia and kidney failure. Ultimately, malaria can result in death. However, if time and money permit, once a person is infected, they can be treated with different antimalarial drugs. The two most commonly used drugs are artemisinin and quinine. In addition, one way to prevent the spread of malaria is to treat areas with Anopheles mosquitoes with pesticides. The National Malaria Eradication Program began work in 1947 with the goal of eliminating malaria from the southern United States. In 1947, 15,000 cases of malaria were reported nationwide. By 1950, only 2,000 cases were reported, and by 1951, malaria was considered eradicated from the United States. Today, the disease is most common in Africa and South America. About one million people die from malaria every year, many of them children. In Africa, it is estimated that one in every five childhood deaths is due to malaria.
A vector is an organism that transfers a pathogen to a host. In the case of malaria,the vector(s)is(are)______.

A) humans only
B) humans and Anopheles mosquitoes
C) Anopheles mosquitoes only
D) humans, Plasmodium, and Anopheles mosquitoes

Question 43

What kind of prokaryotes are these?

A) bacilli
B) spirochetes
C) cocci
D) ciliates

Question 44

Endosymbiosis explains the origin of the ______ of eukaryotes.

A) chloroplasts and mitochondria
B) endomembrane system
C) nuclear envelope
D) membrane-bound organelles

Question 45

Read the following scenario to answer the following question(s).
Malaria is a disease caused by parasitic protists in the genus Plasmodium. The parasite is transmitted to humans by female Anopheles mosquitoes. The Plasmodium parasite feeds on human red blood cells, eventually destroying them. Humans infected with malaria can exhibit many symptoms. Depending on the severity of the infection, these can range from fever, chills, sweating, and headaches to anemia and kidney failure. Ultimately, malaria can result in death. However, if time and money permit, once a person is infected, they can be treated with different antimalarial drugs. The two most commonly used drugs are artemisinin and quinine. In addition, one way to prevent the spread of malaria is to treat areas with Anopheles mosquitoes with pesticides. The National Malaria Eradication Program began work in 1947 with the goal of eliminating malaria from the southern United States. In 1947, 15,000 cases of malaria were reported nationwide. By 1950, only 2,000 cases were reported, and by 1951, malaria was considered eradicated from the United States. Today, the disease is most common in Africa and South America. About one million people die from malaria every year, many of them children. In Africa, it is estimated that one in every five childhood deaths is due to malaria.
Which of the following statements is true?

A) There may be environmental impacts from trying to prevent the spread of malaria.
B) Malaria has never been a problem in the United States.
C) There is no cure for malaria.
D) Today, malaria is most common in Africa and Asia.

Question 46

Read the following scenario to answer the following question(s).
Malaria is a disease caused by parasitic protists in the genus Plasmodium. The parasite is transmitted to humans by female Anopheles mosquitoes. The Plasmodium parasite feeds on human red blood cells, eventually destroying them. Humans infected with malaria can exhibit many symptoms. Depending on the severity of the infection, these can range from fever, chills, sweating, and headaches to anemia and kidney failure. Ultimately, malaria can result in death. However, if time and money permit, once a person is infected, they can be treated with different antimalarial drugs. The two most commonly used drugs are artemisinin and quinine. In addition, one way to prevent the spread of malaria is to treat areas with Anopheles mosquitoes with pesticides. The National Malaria Eradication Program began work in 1947 with the goal of eliminating malaria from the southern United States. In 1947, 15,000 cases of malaria were reported nationwide. By 1950, only 2,000 cases were reported, and by 1951, malaria was considered eradicated from the United States. Today, the disease is most common in Africa and South America. About one million people die from malaria every year, many of them children. In Africa, it is estimated that one in every five childhood deaths is due to malaria.
What type of protist is Plasmodium?

A) slime mold
B) dinoflagellate
C) apicomplexan
D) amoeba

Question 47

Which of the following has an organization that may be similar to an evolutionary stage between unicellularity and multicellularity?

A) Thiobacillus
B) Volvox
C) Amoeba
D) Plasmodium

Question 48

According to this evolutionary tree,the archaea and eukaryotes last shared a common ancestor ______.

A) 1.0 billion years ago
B) 1.75 billion years ago
C) 2.5 billion years ago
D) 3.5 billion years ago

Question 49

Inward folds of the plasma membrane of a prokaryotic cell produced the _____ of eukaryotic cells.

A) nuclear envelope and DNA.
B) endomembrane system
C) mitochondria
D) chloroplasts