Deck 1: An Overview of Evolutionary Biology

Question 1

A branching tree showing historical relationships among species is known as a(n)

A) species network.
B) natural selection tree.
C) phylogenetic tree.
D) extinction chart.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution resulted in a ________ because it changed the way we understand how all living things came to be and how they function.

A) paradigm shift
B) null hypothesis
C) physical theory
D) static discovery

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Darwin realized that the often exquisite fit of species to their environment is primarily the result of

A) paradigm shifts.
B) natural selection.
C) supernatural events.
D) empirical research.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In what way is artificial selection different from natural selection?

A) Artificial selection cannot result in changes in traits.
B) Artificial selection relies on humans choosing which traits are beneficial.
C) Artificial selection is only applied to plants.
D) Artificial selection results in organisms that cannot survive and reproduce.

Question 5

The loss of which species on the figure would represent the loss of the most significant phylogenetic diversity?

A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D

Question 6

What are the two major types of empirical research in evolutionary biology?

A) mutation and natural selection
B) observation and manipulation
C) empirical and theoretical
D) experiments and research

Question 7

Antibiotic resistance evolves quickly because

A) antibiotics impose strong selection for resistance.
B) antibiotics cause new mutations in bacteria that result in antibiotic resistance.
C) natural selection causes evolution to slow down.
D) bacterial infections should not be treated with antibiotics.

Question 8

To understand the evolution of a species, we need to know about its ancestors and what changes have occurred along the way. Darwin called this process

A) natural selection.
B) descent with modification.
C) genetics.
D) changes in fitness.

Question 9

Darwin's theory of evolution provided explanations for all of the following EXCEPT

A) the diversity of life on the planet.
B) why the vast majority of species are extinct.
C) why Earth is not the center of the universe.
D) the similarities and differences among species.

Question 10

Looking at the figure, predict what will happen if a new antibiotic to the food poisoning bacteria Campylobacter jejuni is developed and prescribed heavily by physicians, beginning this year. Date introduced-date resistance first observed

A) Campylobacter jejuni will be effectively treated for the next two to three decades.
B) Campylobacter jejuni will be effectively treated for the next two to five years.
C) The new antibiotic will make all former antibiotics for treating Campylobacter jejuni obsolete.
D) The new antibiotic will never work to treat Campylobacter jejuni.

Question 11

If you could protect from extinction only the lineages derived from two of the nodes in the figure, which pair would you save to yield the greatest phylogenetic diversity?

A) Nodes E and F
B) Nodes D and E
C) Nodes C and D
D) All of the choices are equivalent.

Question 12

Which process is demonstrated in the figure shown?

A) artificial selection
B) natural selection
C) genetics
D) paradigm shift

Question 13

According to the phylogenetic tree shown, fungi are most closely related to which of the following?

A) plants
B) amoebas
C) animals
D) bacteria

Question 14

In describing the importance of Darwin's theory of evolution, Theodosius Dobzhansky argued that

A) nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.
B) this theory of evolution changes the way we think of Earth in the universe.
C) evolution can now be used to control our destiny.
D) we no longer need to invoke the supernatural for any cause.

Question 15

What is evolutionary biology?

A) a description of the fossil record
B) the field of science that deals with matter and its motion through space and time
C) the study of interactions among organisms and their environment
D) the study of the origin, maintenance, and diversity of life

Question 16

Which of the following best summarizes the process of evolution by natural selection?

A) Most mutations have harmful effects and therefore increase in frequency over time.
B) Mutations that do not affect the fitness of individuals are selected to decrease in frequency over time.
C) Natural selection results in mutations that disrupt finely tuned processes.
D) Mutations that improve the fitness of individuals will tend to increase in frequency over time.

Question 17

If we are interested in conserving phylogenetic diversity, the extinction of which group of species in the figure shown is a greater loss?

A) B and I
B) E, F, and I
C) G and J
D) B and C

Question 18

Why do physicians often prescribe antibiotics in combination?

A) to decrease the rate at which antibiotic resistance evolves and spreads
B) to prevent common side effects to the patient
C) to increase the likelihood that resistance mutations will arise in the bacteria
D) in case an infection is caused by both bacteria and viruses

Question 19

Which of the following is an example of artificial selection?

A) selection for pests resistant to pesticides
B) selection for weeds that can grow in the presence of herbicides applied by farmers
C) selection for cows that produce more milk
D) selection for insects that transmit disease more efficiently

Question 20

In what way are natural selection and artificial selection similar?

A) Both result in increased frequency of beneficial traits.
B) Both rely on human intervention to prevent deleterious mutations from increasing in frequency.
C) Both have been occurring for the past 3.5 billion years.
D) Neither are able to produce dramatic changes in traits.

Question 21

How has artificial selection been used to shape the characteristics of food-producing plants?

Question 22

Sir Ronald A. Fisher developed a sex ratio model partly because so much observational data suggested that the 1:1 sex ratio was common in nature and he wanted to understand why. What is the natural ordering when it comes to empirical and theoretical approaches?

A) Good theory should postdate data collecting.
B) Good theory should precede data collecting.
C) Good theory can either precede or postdate data collecting.
D) Good theory should precede hypothesis collecting.

Question 23

Sir Ronald A. Fisher's prediction that sex ratios should be 1:1 relies on the principle that

A) the genetic basis of sex is chromosomal.
B) total reproductive success of males is higher than that of females.
C) male births are less common than female births.
D) the rarer sex will have better mating prospects than the more common sex.

Question 24

Which of the following is an example of observational research?

A) removing all of the bee pollinators from a field and watching what happens to the other pollinators
B) calculating the predicted effect of different species of pollinators
C) measuring the behavior of different pollinators visiting flowers in a field
D) adding new flowers to a field and recording the effect on pollinators

Question 25

In the figure below, the lighter gray circles represent single-male breeding systems in primates and the darker gray circles indicate multi-male systems. Which of the following statements is consistent with these data?

A) Single-male breeding systems select for smaller testes size because sperm are not needed to increase reproductive success.
B) Body weight does not influence testes size because selection only favors large testes in multi-male systems.
C) Species with multi-male systems evolve larger testes because they have higher body weights.
D) Selection favors large testes relative to body weight when a male's sperm must compete directly with other males.

Question 26

In which of the following scenarios are models being used to make predictions and plan for the future?

A) A policeman clocks the speed of a motorist with a radar gun.
B) Someone checks the weather forecast for the weekend.
C) An evolutionary biologist estimates fitness by measuring gene frequencies over time.
D) A scientist changes the number of males and females in a population and observes the evolutionary response.

Question 27

Charles Darwin used the process of artificial selection during domestication as an analogy to explain natural selection. In what ways are artificial and natural selection similar? In what ways do they differ?

Question 28

Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection is considered a paradigm shift-a theory that has wide-ranging effects. Describe another paradigm shift that has occurred in biology. Make a case for why this shift has fundamentally changed the way scientists see the world and the sorts of questions they ask.

Question 29

If testes size is correlated with number of sperm produced, under what condition is larger testes size more likely to be evolutionarily advantageous?

A) Females mate with a single male.
B) Males mate with a single female.
C) Females mate with multiple males.
D) Males mate with multiple females.

Question 30

Describe Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

Question 31

Mathematical models are useful for

A) disproving the theory of evolution by natural selection.
B) providing observations of the natural world.
C) manipulating experimental conditions in the laboratory.
D) helping us understand how complicated systems work.

Question 32

Manipulative experiments

A) allow scientists to directly assess how changes in one component of a system influence the other components.
B) allow scientists to examine only correlations among data.
C) require altering multiple variables at the same time.
D) must be performed under laboratory conditions.

Question 33

Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes and chimps have 24 pairs. How has this difference best been explained?

A) Humans and chimps are not related.
B) Chimps gained a chromosome during their evolution, which explains why they differ from humans.
C) Humans and chimps share very little genetic material.
D) Humans have one chromosome that is the result of a fusion of two chromosomes in our ancestors.

Question 34

In developing his sex ratio theory, Sir Ronald A. Fisher assumed that sex ratio is under genetic control. Why is this an important assumption?

A) Only traits under genetic control can evolve by natural selection.
B) Sex ratio is under genetic control in humans.
C) Fisher wanted to include every possible variable in his model.
D) Traits that are not under genetic control cannot affect an individual's reproductive success.

Question 35

Imagine a population that has 50 males and 25 females. Which of the following parental sex ratio strategies will be most successful?

A) produce all sons
B) produce all daughters
C) produce half sons and half daughters
D) produce 2/3 sons and 1/3 daughters

Question 36

In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin brought together two ideas that resulted in a paradigm shift in biology. What were these two ideas?

Question 37

Sources for the data that evolutionary biologists use to test their hypotheses are derived from many subdisciplines of the biological sciences. Identify the five data sources shown in the photographs.

Question 38

If chimpanzee and human genomes differ only about 1.3% at the level of DNA base pairs, how might we explain the dramatic differences in appearance, behavior, cultures, and so on between humans and chimps?

A) There is a correlation between increased rates of divergence with known functions of alleles in humans and chimps.
B) Natural selection has been acting on clusters of genes associated with both survival and reproduction in humans and chimps.
C) Important differences exist in the expression of genes in humans and chimps.
D) Humans and chimps have been diverging from each other for much longer than they have with other primates.

Question 39

During the observations of a species of blue moon butterflies on the Samoan island of Upolu, 99% of the butterflies were female and only 1% were male. Only five years later the male:female sex ratio was 1:1. What caused this?

A) Wolbachia lost the ability to kill all male butterflies.
B) Genetic changes in the Upolu butterflies resulted in suppression of the male-killing effect of Wolbachia.
C) Upolu butterflies evolved to become resistant to Wolbachia infection.
D) Upolu was recolonized by butterflies from the nearby island Savali, where sex ratios were closer to 1:1.

Question 40

More than 100 years ago, Charles Darwin and his colleague Thomas Huxley hypothesized that humans share a common ancestor, based on

A) anatomical evidence.
B) fossil evidence gathered during Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle.
C) manipulative experiments.
D) mathematical modeling.

Question 41

The majority of antibiotic use in the United States is for agriculture, primarily in livestock. Why is this a problem?

Question 42

Given the fact that humans are the ones producing and distributing pesticides, why do we call the development of pesticide resistance natural selection rather than artificial selection?

Question 43

If you are interested in preserving phylogenetic diversity as part of a conservation strategy, would you be more concerned about the loss of all of the species labeled with an X or of the one species labeled with a Y?

Question 44

In comparing pairs of genes in the human and chimp genomes, Tarjei Mikkelsen and his colleagues first determined the expected degree of divergence between the two genomes based on the accumulation of neutral mutations. Why is this an important first step in understanding how evolution is occurring in these species?

Question 45

In performing manipulative experiments, scientists usually try to alter only one variable at a time. Why do they do this?

Question 46

Evolutionary biologists, like most scientists, use two empirical approaches to study evolution, observation and manipulation. What is the difference between these approaches?

Question 47

In a population with 50 males and 25 females that produce a total of 100 offspring, calculate how many grandoffspring per child a parent will have if (a) the parent produces half sons and half daughters, or (b) the parent produces 1/4 sons and 3/4 daughters. Which strategy will be favored by natural selection in this population?

Question 48

A comparison of gene clusters in humans and chimps from Tarjei Mikkelsen and colleagues revealed that some types of genes were evolving particularly rapidly. Name one type of gene cluster that they found to evolve rapidly and explain why you think it shows this type of evolution.

Question 49

Sir Ronald A. Fisher's sex ratio model predicts a 1:1 female:male sex ratio. Under what conditions might you expect a different ratio to evolve?