Deck 32: Evolution and Our Heritage

Question 1

Which of the following would you expect to have the least similar embryological development to that of humans?

A) whales
B) parrots
C) fish
D) salamanders

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following is a correctly written scientific name?

A) Australopithecus afarensis
B) Homo sapiens
C) musca domesticus
D) Acer pensylvanicum

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following refers to the ability of early hominids to walk on two feet?

A) bipedalism
B) digitigrade
C) plantigrade
D) tetrapedalism

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following is most likely to be the source of most of the oxygen in the atmosphere?

A) weathering of rocks
B) UV radiation
C) photosynthesis
D) macroevolution

Question 5

Changes that occur at the genetic level in populations are classified as ________.

A) chemical evolution
B) microevolution
C) gradualism
D) macroevolution

Question 6

Which of these trends occurred first in hominid evolution?

A) large brain
B) bipedalism
C) tool use
D) writing

Question 7

You, as a cell biologist, discover that there is strong evidence that chloroplasts, found in plant and algal cells, are descended from bacteria but not eukaryotes. What theory would explain this finding?

A) macroevolution
B) endosymbiont
C) back to front
D) bottleneck

Question 8

Which of the following refers to the different rates at which various traits evolve?

A) natural selection
B) adaptation
C) mosaic evolution
D) molecular clock

Question 9

Which of the following is true of chimpanzees compared with humans?

A) Chimps have larger patellae.
B) Chimps have S-shaped spines.
C) Chimps have smaller shoulder blades.
D) Chimps have opposable big toes.

Question 10

A protein similar to the human Rh blood factor (which is due to a specific set of genes) can be found in many animals. In which of the following is it least likely to be found?

A) chimpanzees
B) goats
C) dogs
D) parrots

Question 11

Linda discovered a virus new to humans and called it Zeta 1. Which other of the animals on this list is most likely to be infected with it too?

A) orangutan
B) mouse
C) potto
D) kangaroo

Question 12

Today's atmosphere on Earth is made up of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water. According to all models, which of these was largely absent 3.8 billion years ago?

A) oxygen
B) nitrogen
C) carbon dioxide
D) water

Question 13

Which suggests that life evolved from chemicals slowly increasing in complexity over a period of millions of years?

A) natural selection
B) creationism
C) gradualism
D) chemical evolution

Question 14

Almost all cacti are native to the Americas, but there is a small, relatively uncommon group of plants closely related to cacti native to tropical western Africa. How can we explain this given the information in this chapter?

A) The plants might have floated across the Atlantic.
B) This might have been caused by divergent evolution.
C) The continents were once connected.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 15

Which of the following is not a primate characteristic?

A) rotating shoulders
B) stereoscopic vision
C) large litter size
D) flattened nails instead of claws

Question 16

The adult human jawbone, or mandible, arises embryonically from a gill arch. The arch and the mandible are said to be ________.

A) homologous structures
B) analogous structures
C) convergent structures
D) coevolved structures

Question 17

Which of the following is one method in which a change in the DNA leads to genetic changes in a population?

A) genetic drift
B) mutation
C) founder effect
D) bottleneck effect

Question 18

The relative number of reproductively viable offspring produced by individuals is called ________.

A) homology
B) immigration
C) fitness
D) taxonomy

Question 19

Which of these types of animals would you expect to find in the deepest rock layers?

A) whales
B) fish
C) parrots
D) frogs

Question 20

Given the problems related to fossilization listed in the text, which of these creatures would be least likely to be successfully fossilized?

A) turtle
B) rose flower
C) rhinoceros
D) clam

Question 21

If you hear a friend call someone a "Neanderthal," why might it conceivably be a compliment?

A) Neanderthals were more lightly built than modern people and therefore physically more attractive.
B) Neanderthals cared for the old and sick.
C) Neanderthals were more creative than modern people.
D) Neanderthals had better tools than the modern species.

Question 22

The order of mammals to which humans belong is the ________.

Question 23

If an average female A. afarensis weighed 24 kg, what would you estimate the weight of an average male to be?

A) 24 kg
B) 18 kg
C) 36 kg
D) 66 kg

Question 24

Imagine that you are an archaeologist on a dig somewhere on an East Asian island and than you begin to excavate an area littered with stone tools that also has the remains of an ancient fire. Subsequent carbon dating of the charcoal from the fire yields a date of 100,000 years before the present. Given these circumstances, which species would you expect most likely set that fire?

A) Australopithecus afarensis
B) Homo erectus
C) Homo ergaster
D) Ardipithecus ramidus

Question 25

Plants from the genus Solanum include such common vegetables as potatoes and eggplants. The many species include some plants native to tropical West Africa as well as closely related species native to tropical South America. What might you reasonably conclude?

A) The trunks of the plants were used as canoes to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
B) Convergent evolution occurred.
C) The group must have mutated twice.
D) West Africa and South America were once joined.

Question 26

Astronomers have detected the presence of various chemicals in deep space similar to those thought to have been synthesized in Earth's early atmosphere. The environments where those deep space molecules originated would be most likely to contain ________.

A) low oxygen, ultraviolet light, methane, nitrogen, and hydrogen
B) oxygen, no ultraviolet light, and carbon monoxide
C) abundant oxygen, ultraviolet light, methane, nitrogen, and hydrogen
D) abundant oxygen, no ultraviolet light, methane, nitrogen, and hydrogen

Question 27

________ dating uses ratios of potassium to argon and can be used to determine absolute age.

Question 28

________ can behave as an enzyme and may have been the first macromolecule leading to the first cells.

Question 29

Before contact with Europeans, a tiny, isolated group of South Pacific islands had a population of about 50,000 people. Because of poor management of their own resources, the population fell to around 5000 by about the year 1750. When Europeans finally arrived, they brought smallpox, and after the ensuing epidemic, only about 800 islanders were left alive. The unusual genetic makeup of the native population is due to what phenomenon?

A) genetic drift
B) bottleneck effect
C) gene flow
D) speciation

Question 30

Broadly defined, ________ is descent with modification from a common ancestor.

Question 31

________ is the study of the geographic distribution of organisms.

Question 32

The Euphorbia of desert parts of Africa and India are succulent and have thorns but are superficially very similar to the unrelated cacti native to the deserts of the Americas. This pair of plant groups represents an example of ________.

A) convergent evolution
B) apostatic selection
C) homology
D) divergent evolution

Question 33

Scientists now believe that comets falling to early Earth played a role in the evolution of life. What role did these comets play?

A) They brought CO2 and H2O.
B) They brought ammonia ions (NH4).
C) They generated a lot of energy when they hit Earth.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 34

A group of living things whose members can successfully breed with one another is called a(n) ________.

Question 35

The Abuja family had 10 children by 1950, but because of ill health, there is now only one surviving grandchild. The Bacchus family had three children in 1950 and now has six grandchildren. Which statement about these families is correct?

A) The Abuja family had greater gene flow.
B) The Abuja family had more gene drift.
C) The Bacchus family exhibits the bottleneck effect.
D) The Bacchus family has greater fitness.

Question 36

One result of natural selection is that populations become better suited to their particular environment by a process called ________.

Question 37

Many living and fossil species of camelids, a mammal family containing camels, llamas, and alpacas, can be found in the Americas, but only two species can be found in Asia and one can be found in Africa. The part of the world in which the camelids probably evolved is ________.

Question 38

Which of the following groups has the most species?

A) kingdom
B) order
C) phylum
D) domain

Question 39

________ is the relative number of reproductively viable offspring left by an individual.

Question 40

A difference in appearance between males and females in a species is called ________.

Question 41

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
Whales appear to be most closely related to cows based on the presence of a specifically shaped ________ in the feet of ancient whale ancestors.

Question 42

Some scientists suggest that organic molecules were introduced into Earth's atmosphere when ________ crashed into Earth.

Question 43

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
The Amish are a small, isolated group of people who came from Europe and settled in the United States. There is a set of unusual genetic conditions among them. This type of genetic drift is called ________.

Question 44

DDT was first used as an insecticide in 1942. Resistance genes existed before this time in houseflies and other insects. By 1970, no farmer would bother using this chemical. Why?

Question 45

What is the evidence that supports evolution?

Question 46

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
According to the text, this is the earliest member of the genus Homo to appear in the fossil record.

Question 47

A(n) ________ is a group of individuals of the same species that live in a particular area.

Question 48

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
The "Upright Man" who possibly evolved in East Africa, first appears in the fossil record about 1.6 million years ago, and was a wanderer or nomad.

Question 49

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
These slender, or gracile, australopithecines are found later in the fossil record than A. afarensis.

Question 50

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
The two-part name that consists of the genus followed by the species name first developed by Carl Linnaeus.

Question 51

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
The group of hominids living in the colder climates of Europe who had larger brains than modern humans.

Question 52

Explain the basic ideas of natural selection proposed by Charles Darwin.

Question 53

Genetic drift that occurs in small, new colonies is called ________.

Question 54

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
A hominid thought to have displayed facultative bipedalism.

Question 55

________ occurs when allele frequencies within a population change randomly because of chance alone.

Question 56

Discuss the major trends in hominid evolution.

Question 57

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
This living primate is most likely to share the most diseases with humans, given that the more closely related two things are, the more likely they are to suffer from the same infectious diseases.

Question 58

What factors contribute to genetic variation in populations?

Question 59

The proposition that the mitochondria in our cells descended from engulfed bacteria is called the ________ theory.

Question 60

Match each definition in the first column to the correct term in the second column.

A) Founder effect
B) Homo habilis
C) Latin binomial
D) Australopithecus africanus
E) Convergent evolution
F) Ardipithecus ramidus
G) Neanderthals
H) Chimpanzees
I) Homo erectus
J) Astragalus
Sugar gliders from Australia and flying squirrels from North America are not closely related mammals, but they do resemble one another in appearance and locomotion. This would illustrate the phenomenon of ________.

Question 61

As you visit the high desert of southeastern Arizona, you come to a flowing stream that disappears into the sand. You notice that insects are flying up to the moist sand for a drink, but as the flow varies and waves of muddy water wash over the animals, fine soil particles cover them and entomb them. The beginnings of what process have you just witnessed, and what might the next steps be?

Question 62

How does fitness relate to family size?

Question 63

What anatomical features help primates to live in trees?

Question 64

Recently, the bones (not fossils) of a possible new species of humans (in the genus Homo) have been found on an island in Indonesia (an island nation southeast of Asia). Using radiometric dating, scientists can show that these people were alive as recently as 17,000 years ago. According to the information in this chapter, why do you think they probably used tools?

Question 65

A set of regulator genes is known to be very similar in both humans and flies. This fact is used to indicate what about the two species?