Deck 15: Tracing Evolutionary History

Question 1

How can a phylogenetic tree be used to make predictions?

A)Features found in one clade are likely to be found in other clades inhabiting different environments.
B)Features shared between two groups are likely to have been present in their common ancestor.
C)Current trends of evolution will continue into the future.Complex models can be used to accurately predict future branching patterns and the nature of future adaptations.
D)An existing organism's characteristics can be confidently assumed to fit the patterns in the tree.This procedure eliminates the need to collect data about organisms through direct observation or sampling.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Scientists believe that a major factor promoting the adaptive radiation of mammals was probably

A)their development of fur.
B)internal fertilization.
C)the mass extinction of most dinosaurs,an event that opened up new ecological opportunities.
D)the origin and diversification of flowering plants.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Molecular data can be used to assess relationships among the major groups of living organisms whose common ancestors lived millions or billions of years ago.Similar techniques can be used to assess relationships among populations within a species.How can molecular techniques be useful for such varied comparisons?

A)The same data can be used for any comparison with equal efficiency.
B)Faster- evolving gene sequences provide better data for comparisons among close relatives,whereas very slowly evolving sequences work best for distantly related taxa.
C)The relationships between very different groups such as bacteria and whales are assessed using mtDNA sequences,whereas rRNA sequences are used for very closely related groups.
D)Studying the relationships among different populations of a single species can be just as effective as studying the relationships of major biological groups if you look at a lot more genes.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

If an isotope has a half- life of 4 million years,and a fossil is 16 million years old,how much of the original isotope will be found in the fossil?

A)one- eighth of the original amount
B)one- quarter of the original amount
C)one- sixteenth of the original amount
D)half the original amount

Question 5

Which of the following statements regarding genetics is false?

A)The more recently two species have branched from a common ancestor,the more similar we expect their DNA sequences to be.
B)Gene duplication helps to explain how mammals can detect and discriminate among such a wide range of odors.
C)In keeping with our greater complexity,the human genome has about 100 times more genes than that of yeast.
D)About 99% of the genes of humans and mice are related by descent from a common ancestor.

Question 6

The model of species selection is analogous to natural selection.In this analogy,are like individuals within a population,and is analogous to reproduction.

A)species ...speciation
B)genes ...gene duplication
C)families ...interbreeding
D)major groups of organisms ...extinction

Question 7

Over the past 400 years,humans have documented the extinction of more than species.This modern rate of species extinction is estimated to be the normal extinction rate seen in the fossil record.

A)400 ...about double
B)1,000 ...over 100 times greater than
C)100 ...about the same as
D)10,000 ...at least 1 million times greater than

Question 8

The Mesozoic era is often called the age of reptiles.Which of the following also occurred during this era?

A)the first plants appeared on land
B)the first animals (tetrapods and insects)appeared on land
C)the first mammals and flowering plants appeared on land
D)the origin of animals in the oceans

Question 9

The earliest known land plants date to the

A)Jurassic (Mesozoic era).
B)Precambrian.
C)Carboniferous (late Paleozoic era).
D)Ordovician (early Paleozoic era).

Question 10

At the end of the ,over 96% of marine species and many terrestrial species became extinct,possibly because intense volcanic activity warmed Earth's climate.

A)Cretaceous
B)Permian
C)Precambrian
D)Mesozoic

Question 11

How is the merging of continents to form Pangaea believed to have altered Earth's environments at the end of the Paleozoic era?

A)Shallow coastal areas were drained,leading to the extinction of many marine species.
B)It eliminated all multicellular eukaryotes,allowing evolution to start anew.
C)It made the climate warmer and moister for terrestrial organisms in the center of the new land mass.
D)It prompted an immediate increase in Earth's biodiversity.

Question 12

Geological evidence indicates that two land masses became separated by a deep ocean channel 45 million years ago and have been moving apart ever since.You are studying a group of organisms that is widespread as a native part of the biota on both of the land masses.What can you conclude about the group's evolutionary history?

A)The group's ancestors cannot have been present on the original land mass before it broke up.
B)The group's ancestors must have independently colonized each of the land masses from a third location within the past 45 million years.
C)The group's ancestors were definitely present on the original land mass before it broke up.
D)It depends on the dispersal abilities of the organism.If the organism cannot move across the open ocean,it is very likely that the group's ancestors were present on the original land mass before it broke up.

Question 13

and mean the same thing.

A)Clade ...parsimony
B)Derived ...ancestral
C)Parsimony ...analogy
D)Clade ...monophyletic taxon

Question 14

Which of the following options correctly lists the varieties of life in the order that they appear in the geologic record,from earliest to most recent?

A)reptiles; land arthropods; plants and fungi on land; flowering plants
B)land arthropods; plants and fungi on land; flowering plants; reptiles
C)plants and fungi on land; land arthropods; flowering plants; reptiles
D)plants and fungi on land; land arthropods; reptiles; flowering plants

Question 15

The findings of Pasteur and others have established that

A)living organisms do not arise from nonliving matter today,nor did they arise from nonlife in the past.
B)advanced organisms cannot arise from nonliving matter,but simple microbial life often does arise from nonlife today.
C)life does not arise from nonliving matter today,but in the conditions of early Earth,such an event could have occurred.
D)living organisms regularly self- assemble (arise spontaneously)from nonliving matter.

Question 16

Cave- dwelling catfish and cave- dwelling salamanders share striking similarities: both organisms lack pigmentation and their eyes are reduced or absent.The most recent common ancestor to these organisms had normal pigmentation and fully developed eyes.The similarities between cave catfish and cave salamanders are an example of

A)analogy (convergent evolution).
B)homology.
C)exaptation.
D)convergent homology.

Question 17

If all of Earth's history were compressed into an hour,humans would first appear less than

A)1 minute ago.
B)10 minutes ago.
C)10 seconds ago.
D)1 second ago.

Question 18

Which of the following options lists major events in the history of life on Earth in the proper order,from earliest to most recent?

A)first prokaryotes; photosynthesis; colonization of land by plants and fungi; first eukaryotes
B)first prokaryotes; first eukaryotes; photosynthesis; colonization of land by plants and fungi
C)first eukaryotes; photosynthesis; colonization of land by plants and fungi; first prokaryotes
D)first prokaryotes; photosynthesis; first eukaryotes; colonization of land by plants and fungi

Question 19

You compare homologous nucleotide sequences between several pairs of species with known divergence times.A pair of species that diverged 1 million years ago has two nucleotide differences,a pair that diverged 2 million years ago has four nucleotide differences,and a pair that diverged 3 million years ago has six nucleotide differences.You have sequence data for another pair of species where the divergence time is unknown.There are five nucleotide differences between them.Based on your clock,when did their line of ancestry diverge?

A)3.5 million years ago
B)2 million years ago
C)2.5 million years ago
D)3 million years ago

Question 20

According to this figure,during what time frame was there an adaptive radiation of eutherians?

A)from 100 million years ago to the present
B)about 170 million years ago
C)about 200 million years ago
D)from 140 to 100 million years ago

Question 21

Potassium- 40 can be used to date that are _ _ old.

A)carbon- containing materials ...up to 75,000 years
B)potassium- rich fossils ...millions of years
C)volcanic rocks and associated fossils ...hundreds of millions of years
D)fossils ...thousands of years

Question 22

In the three- domain system,the eukaryotes are represented

A)only within the kingdom Protista.
B)only within the domain Eukarya.
C)only within the domain Archaea.
D)in all three domains.

Question 23

Which of the following options lists taxonomic categories in the correct order from most specific to most general?

A)family,genus,class,order,phylum
B)family,genus,order,phylum,class
C)genus,family,class,order,phylum
D)genus,family,order,class,phylum

Question 24

How can the success of one group of organisms promote the adaptive radiation of a second group?

A)by providing new food resources,habitats,etc.for the second group
B)by filling most of the available niches,which forces the second group to evolve greater diversity
C)by competing with the second group,promoting its adaptive radiation
D)by preying on the second group,which hastens its adaptation

Question 25

Anti- evolutionary thinkers sometimes argue that natural selection could not produce a complex structure like the vertebrate eye.They claim that all of the parts of the eye must have arisen at once,asking why natural selection would favor the development of part of an eye that is not yet capable of forming a focused image.Which of the following statements is consistent with a survey of eye structure in the molluscs?

A)The vertebrate eye works in a way that is completely different from the eyes found in molluscs and other invertebrates.
B)There are many intermediate stages of eye complexity that fulfill different adaptive functions.
C)The vertebrate eye is the ancestral form,and other types of organisms have degenerate eyes that have lost most of their original structure and function.
D)The argument has a great deal of merit.Only full- blown image- forming eyes are present in modern organisms.

Question 26

The "big bang" that produced the universe is thought to have occurred

A)4 million years ago.
B)4.6 billion years ago.
C)40 to 50 billion years ago.
D)12 to 14 billion years ago.

Question 27

It is estimated that the modern continents began to take shape

A)650 million years ago.
B)65 million years ago.
C)1.3 million years ago.
D)6,000 years ago.

Question 28

Which of the following environments is thought to have promoted the dehydration synthesis of polypeptides and other macromolecules from smaller organic monomers on a prebiotic Earth?

A)hot sand,clay,or rock along the seashore
B)sediments at the bottom of the world's oceans
C)deep- sea hydrothermal vents
D)freshwater swamps and marshes

Question 29

The 14C:12C ratio can be used to date fossils that are up to approximately how old?

A)100 million years
B)7,500 years
C)7 million years
D)75,000 years

Question 30

One of the strongest lines of evidence of a meteor or comet impact in the late Cretaceous is

A)a thin layer of potassium- 40 in late Cretaceous fossil strata.
B)a thin layer of iridium- enriched clay in late Cretaceous fossil strata.
C)the extinction of the dinosaurs.
D)the warming of Earth's climate in the late Cretaceous.

Question 31

What was the probable role of oxygen gas in the early stages of life's appearance on Earth?

A)Oxygen promoted the formation of complex organic molecules through physical processes.
B)Oxygen gas tends to disrupt organic molecules,so its absence promoted the formation and stability of complex organic molecules on the early Earth.
C)Abundant atmospheric oxygen would have created an ozone layer,which blocked out ultraviolet light and thereby protected the earliest life forms.
D)Cellular respiration,which depends on oxygen availability,provided abundant energy to the first life forms.

Question 32

Over the past 500 million years,there have been mass extinctions and each time,at least of the species on Earth became extinct.

A)twelve ...96%
B)five ...50%
C)two ...25%
D)five ...25%

Question 33

Feathers are an example of an ; they originally evolved .

A)adaptation ...for flight
B)exaptation ...in anticipation of future use in the development of flight
C)exaptation ...for some other function and only later became adapted for flight
D)adaptation ...for some other function and only later became adapted for flight

Question 34

The similarities in function of hummingbird wings and the wings of a butterfly reflect

A)analogy and homology.
B)homology but not analogy.
C)analogy but not homology.
D)homology through convergent evolution.

Question 35

The existence of nest- building in crocodiles and birds led to a prediction that this behavior was also present in .

A)fossil dinosaurs
B)invertebrates
C)fossil lizards
D)Komodo dragons

Question 36

A current leading hypothesis about the first system of inheritance in the earliest life forms involves

A)self- replicating RNA molecules aided by ribozymes.
B)proteins that served as templates for RNA molecules,leading to the formation of DNA.
C)self- replicating DNA molecules (the "DNA world" hypothesis).
D)self- replicating polypeptides aided by ribosomes.

Question 37

The Himalayas are an example of a mountain range formed as a result of

A)the separation of two continental plates.
B)volcanic eruptions.
C)the buildup of sediments and conversion to rock.
D)the collision of two continental plates.

Question 38

Scientists evaluating the Cretaceous mass extinction have concluded that

A)only an extraterrestrial impact could have caused such a big extinction event.
B)climate change would not have been involved in producing the extinctions.
C)ecological factors such as disease and competition probably caused the dinosaurs to go extinct.
D)the asteroid impact was probably the triggering event for the extinction.

Question 39

According to this figure,if a species were found only in Laurasia 135 million years ago,on which modern continents would its descendants most likely be found today?

A)North America,Europe,and Asia
B)Africa and South America
C)Europe and Asia only
D)North America only

Question 40

Divergence time estimates based on molecular clocks are

A)likely to be correct plus or minus a few decades.
B)more reliable than divergence dates that are based on analysis of the fossil record.
C)best interpreted with caution,since they depend on assumptions that are difficult to test.
D)usually worthless since we cannot directly observe divergence times unless we invent a time machine.

Question 41

Earth's continents and seafloors together form a thin outer layer of the planet called the

A)strata.
B)Pangean supercontinent.
C)crust.
D)biosphere.

Question 42

How do scientists calibrate a molecular clock for a group of organisms with known nucleotide sequences?

A)They analyze fossilized DNA of known age and compare its nucleotide sequences to modern DNA sequences.
B)They graph the number of nucleotide differences against the dates of evolutionary branch points known from the fossil record.
C)They use radioactive isotopes to measure the age of DNA material directly.
D)They measure protein differences.Evolutionary rates in proteins are well- known and can be used to check results obtained using nucleotide sequences.

Question 43

The three- domain system

A)subdivides the eukaryotes into two different domains.
B)subdivides the prokaryotes into two different domains.
C)no longer recognizes eukaryotes as a monophyletic group.
D)separates plants,animals,and fungi into domains.

Question 44

Which highly reactive gas was probably absent from the Earth's primitive atmosphere?

A)O2 (oxygen gas)
B)methane
C)water vapor
D)carbon dioxide

Question 45

Some RNA molecules can function like enzymes.These particular enzymatic RNA molecules are called

A)enzoRNA.
B)renzymes.
C)eRNA.
D)ribozymes.

Question 46

In accordance with the principle of parsimony,scientists prefer

A)the Linnaean system of nomenclature to the use of common names.
B)phylogenetic trees with many small clades to those with a few major clades.
C)phylogenetic trees that minimize the number of evolutionary changes.
D)phylogenetic trees in which adaptations repeatedly arise,disappear,and reappear.

Question 47

You find the frozen remains of a woolly mammoth in an Alaskan glacier.You analyze a bit of the tusk and find that its 14C:12C ratio is about one- fourth (25%)of the baseline level typically found in living organisms.Given that the half- life of 14C is 5,730 years,when did the mammoth die?

A)at least 25,000 years ago
B)almost 12,000 years ago
C)approximately 75,000 years ago
D)5,730 years ago

Question 48

The earliest discovered fossils are of dating back to years ago.

A)algae ...1 billion
B)single- celled eukaryotes 4.5 billion
C)prokaryotes ...3.5 billion
D)fish 600 million

Question 49

Plants and fungi first became established on land during the

A)Paleozoic.
B)Cenozoic.
C)Proterozoic.
D)Archaean.

Question 50

A spot where two continental plates are sliding past one another may be prone to

A)earthquakes.
B)volcanoes.
C)tsunamis.
D)wildfires.

Question 51

Structures that evolved from the same structure in a common ancestor are

A)convergent adaptations.
B)analogous.
C)homologous.
D)heterologous.

Question 52

Which of the following lines of evidence suggests that lungfishes evolved while Pangaea was intact?

A)Lungfishes are restricted to Australia and neighboring islands.
B)Fossil lungfishes have been found on every continent except Antarctica.
C)Modern lungfishes on different continents show similar patterns of behavior.
D)Lungfishes are found today in Africa,Australia,and South America.

Question 53

Geologists have evidence that over the past 1.5 billion years,

A)Earth's land masses have been entirely submerged in water on three occasions.
B)Earth's land masses have joined into a single continent and split back apart again on three occasions.
C)Earth's land masses have moved about extensively but have remained separate.
D)Earth's continents have remained essentially in their current shape and positions.

Question 54

The branching "tree of life" analogy

A)does not describe ecological interactions between species,so it should be replaced by the web of life.
B)has been discredited because it does not help us understand evolutionary relationships among organisms.
C)accurately reflects evolution.Once a split occurs,species on different branches evolve absolutely independently.
D)fails to account for horizontal gene transfer,in which species on different branches exchange genes.

Question 55

The example of ocean and lake stickleback fishes indicates that morphology can be altered

A)by altering the expression of a developmental gene in some parts of the body but not others.
B)by environmental factors (in this case,pollution).
C)by the elimination of a gene (Pitx1)from a population,which leads to loss of the trait (body armor and spines).
D)only by changing the sequences of protein- coding genes.

Question 56

Ever since Darwin,systematics has tried to

A)organize species into groups based on logical categories.
B)classify species in groups that reflect evolutionary relationships.
C)keep classification and naming as a practical science,separate from controversies involving evolution.
D)prove the existence of evolution using laboratory experiments.

Question 57

A systematist includes a lizard in a phylogenetic analysis of relationships among bird families.In this analysis,the lizard would be treated as

A)the ingroup.
B)a derived group.
C)an analogous group.
D)the outgroup.

Question 58

The earliest known flowering plants date to the

A)Cretaceous (late Mesozoic era).
B)Triassic (early Mesozoic era).
C)Paleozoic.
D)Cenozoic.

Question 59

Over a span of several thousand years,a number of species show adaptations to climate change: drier,warmer conditions select for succulent vegetation and deep taproots in plants,burrowing in mammals and amphibians,and other similar adaptive changes.What will happen if the climate shifts in the opposite direction and becomes progressively wetter and cooler?

A)Adaptation will cease because cool,wet conditions are generally favorable for life.
B)Current adaptive trends will continue but organisms will now also have to add on adaptations to deal with cool,wet conditions.
C)Different adaptive trends will probably be favored in the new climatic environment.
D)Ongoing processes of adaptation will continue because of evolutionary inertia.

Question 60

makes it possible to trace phylogenies among microbial groups for which there is no fossil record.

A)Molecular systematics
B)Convergent evolution
C)Horizontal gene transfer
D)Comparison to vertebrate outgroups

Question 61

Mass extinctions

A)remove many species,but they are usually replaced within a million years or less by an even greater diversity of life.
B)are caused by human activity and did not occur prior to the expansion of the Earth's human population.
C)remove well- adapted species and groups from the Earth,so that it may take millions of years for species diversity to recover.
D)mainly serve to "weed out" poorly adapted organisms and make room for new,better adapted species.

Question 62

In the axolotl,development is altered.Adult axolotls retain features (external gills and aquatic life)that were juvenile in its ancestors,a phenomenon known as

A)"evo- devo."
B)delinquent evolution.
C)homology.
D)paedomorphosis.

Question 63

The process through which species not closely related may come to resemble one another if they live in a similar environment is known as

A)convergent evolution.
B)paedomorphosis.
C)coevolution.
D)homology.

Question 64

A(n)has been used to estimate that HIV- 1 M first spread to humans in the 1930s.

A)epidemiological study
B)parsimony analysis
C)outgroup comparison
D)molecular clock

Question 65

The technique called radiometric dating is based on

A)the use of fossils of known age to determine how fast carbon- 14 decays.
B)the assumption that radioactive isotopes accumulate in fossils at a constant rate.
C)the steady,clocklike decay of certain radioactive isotopes over time.
D)the formation of radioactive molecules in rocks after they are laid down.

Question 66

According to "evo- devo" thinking,an organism's body form can be substantially changed

A)through mutations that change sexually selected traits.
B)only through multiple mutations that produce a large number of new proteins.
C)through mutations or changes in the expression of one or a few genes that regulate development.
D)only when changes in the environment directly alter the major protein- coding genes in the organism's genome.

Question 67

Miller- Urey- type experiments have shown that

A)complex organic molecules can be produced by physical processes from inorganic components.
B)simple cells could be produced in the laboratory using a "soup" of small organic molecules.
C)living cells could survive in primitive Earth's atmosphere.
D)given the conditions of early Earth,the formation of life would still require additional materials from meteorites and asteroids.

Question 68

In mammals,the presence of four limbs is and hair is .

A)a shared derived character ...a shared ancestral character that places mammals in the tetrapod clade
B)monophyletic ...parsimonious
C)a homologous feature ...an analogous feature
D)a shared ancestral character ...a shared derived character unique to mammals

Question 69

Miller was the first to show that

A)the earliest forms of life were photosynthetic.
B)eukaryotic life evolved from early prokaryotes.
C)the earliest forms of life had an RNA genome.
D)amino acids and other organic molecules could have formed under conditions thought to resemble those of early Earth.