Deck 21: The Origin and Evolutionary History of Life

Question 1

The first cells were most likely heterotrophic anaerobes because:

A) they were dependent upon cyanobacteria for oxygen.
B) they manufactured organic molecules and needed oxygen.
C) they manufactured organic molecules and do not need oxygen.
D) they utilized preformed organic molecules and needed oxygen.
E) they utilized preformed organic molecules and did not need oxygen.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

The atmosphere of early Earth is currently thought to have contained:

A) methane, water, ammonia, nitrogen, and oxygen.
B) carbon dioxide, water, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen.
C) carbon dioxide, ozone, nitric oxide, water, and hydrogen sulfide.
D) carbon dioxide, water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
E) carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, water, hydrogen, and nitric oxide.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Who first proposed the concept that simple organic molecules could form spontaneously from simpler raw materials?

A) Miller and Urey
B) Charles Darwin
C) Thomas Malthus
D) Watson and Crick
E) Oparin and Haldane

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Which of the following suggest that the earliest cells were prokaryotic?

A) Microfossils
B) Stromatolites
C) Mold fossils
D) Cast fossils
E) Ichnofossils

Question 5

What was a significant outcome of the Miller and Urey experiment?

A) They demonstrated natural selection.
B) They were the first to synthesize living cells.
C) They proved that life did not originate on Earth.
D) They proved that the iron-sulfur world hypothesis was false.
E) They synthesized organic molecules from inorganic materials.

Question 6

This period was characterized by the decline of some woody plants and the rise of herbaceous plants:

A) Paleogene period.
B) Neogene period.
C) Quaternary period.
D) Cretaceous period.
E) Jurassic period.

Question 7

One critical requirement for life to arise on Earth was time for which of the following to occur?

A) The salinity of the oceans to stabilize
B) The Earth's various climates to stabilize
C) Molecules to accumulate and react with one another
D) The atmospheric temperature to increase sufficiently
E) The ozone layer to form, so that the level of ultraviolet radiation was reduced

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a requirement for the chemical evolution of life?

A) Carbon dioxide
B) Little or no free oxygen
C) Source of energy
D) The availability of chemical building block
E) Time

Question 9

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Within a boundary, chemical reactions occur among complex molecules.
B) A source of energy is coupled to the chemical reaction sequence.
C) As the pre-cell system continues to evolve, its size and organization decrease.
D) The pre-cell system develops the ability to deduct.
E) RNA often has catalytic properties; such enzymatic RNAs are called lysosomes.

Question 10

Why is it believed that RNA was the first informational molecule to evolve?

A) RNA molecules can replicate into DNA molecules.
B) RNA molecules are more central to modern inheritance than DNA.
C) RNA molecules degrade more slowly in solution than DNA molecules.
D) RNA molecules are much simpler structures than other macromolecules.
E) RNA molecules are able to function as both enzymes and substrates for their own replication.

Question 11

Which hypothesis states that life developed from nonliving matter?

A) Abiotic evolution
B) Natural selection
C) Organic evolution
D) Chemical evolution
E) Inorganic evolution

Question 12

The atmosphere of early Earth did not include:

A) carbon dioxide.
B) water vapor.
C) carbon monoxide.
D) nitrogen.
E) hydrogen.

Question 13

Which scientist worked on the concept of simple organic molecules?

A) Anton van Leeuwenhoek
B) J.B.S. Haldane
C) Alexander Fleming
D) Robert Hooke
E) Francesco Redi

Question 14

The iron-sulfur world hypothesis suggests that organic molecules formed near:

A) volcanoes.
B) sulfur pools.
C) pools of water.
D) hydrothermal vents.
E) low atmosphere clouds.

Question 15

Presently, it is thought that organic polymers may have formed and accumulated on:

A) silt and sand.
B) sand and mud.
C) rocks and clay.
D) water and shells.
E) sand and heavy metals.

Question 16

Which of the following periods occurred during the Paleozoic era?

A) Silurian period
B) Ediacaran period
C) Triassic period
D) Paleogene period
E) Jurassic period

Question 17

At what date were gymnosperms, large dinosaurs, and the first toothed birds common?

A) 201 mya
B) 66 mya
C) 23 mya
D) 359 mya
E) 635 mya

Question 18

Amino acids and other organic molecules were formed in the laboratory of Miller and Urey from which of the following?

A) Hydrogen, methane, water, ammonia, and electrical discharge
B) Heat, ultraviolet radiation, water, carbon dioxide, and amines
C) Heat, infrared radiation, water, carbon dioxide, and free nitrogen
D) Heat, electrical discharge, water, nitric oxide, and carbon dioxide
E) Ultraviolet radiation, electrical discharge, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and ammonia

Question 19

Stromatolites are rocklike columns composed of:

A) protists.
B) dinoflagellates.
C) microbial biofilms.
D) heterotrophic organisms.
E) photosynthetic eukaryotes.

Question 20

What kind of organisms likely perished due to the increase of oxygen in the atmosphere three billion years ago?

A) Heterotrophs
B) Cyanobacteria
C) Obligate aerobes
D) Obligate anaerobes
E) Facultative anaerobes

Question 21

What is the animal in the accompanying figure?

A) Mosasaur
B) Plesiosaur
C) Pterosaur
D) Thecodont
E) Ichthyosaur

Question 22

Which statement about dinosaurs is FALSE?

A) Some species lived in social groups and hunted in packs.
B) Dinosaurs were all slow-moving, with relatively low metabolic rates.
C) Fossils of dinosaurs with feathers suggest that feathers first evolved to provide insulation.
D) Dinosaur social behaviors include courtship rituals and parental nurturing of the young.
E) Dinosaurs underwent an extensive radiation throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Question 23

Why is there very little physical evidence of life from rocks of the Archaean eon?

A) Those rocks have been deeply buried in most parts of the world.
B) Those rocks occupy inaccessible areas of mountainous regions.
C) Those rocks have been greatly eroded in most parts of the world.
D) Those rocks occupy the polar regions and are thus covered by glaciers.
E) Those rocks have been deposited in oceanic trenches deep in the oceans.

Question 24

Figure 21-2
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The ____________ could be called the Age of Mammals, the Age of Birds, the Age of Insects, or the Age of Flowering Plants.

Question 25

One of the most significant steps in the evolution of true cells from macromolecular assemblages was the evolution of:

A) electronegativity.
B) covalent bonding.
C) hydrogen bonding.
D) valence electrons.
E) molecular reproduction.

Question 26

Which are assemblages of abiotically produced polymers?

A) Ribozymes
B) Stromatolites
C) Protobionts
D) Endosymbionts
E) Polyribosomes

Question 27

Human ancestors appeared in Africa during the Late_____________ and Early Pliocene epochs.

Question 28

What feature of a dinosaur determines whether it is a saurischian or an ornithischian dinosaur?

A) Size
B) Habitat
C) Feeding preference
D) Pelvic bone structure
E) Number of feet it walks on

Question 29

The Holocene epoch marks the appearance of:

A) humans.
B) reptiles.
C) amphibians.
D) large mammals.
E) marine vertebrates.

Question 30

Figure 21-1
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During the____________, there was an explosive radiation of birds, which acquired adaptations for different habitats.

Question 31

A significant reduction in the amount of which gas would allow more ultraviolet radiation to reach Earth's surface?

A) Oxygen
B) Methane
C) Ozone
D) Cyanide
E) Carbon dioxide

Question 32

Which were the first organisms to release oxygen by photosynthesis?

A) Algae
B) Cyanobacteria
C) Gymnosperms
D) Flowering plants
E) Green sulfur bacteria

Question 33

Which period would hold the record of the oldest fossils of multicellular animals, found in mountainous areas of South Australia, and parts of Canada and China?

A) Edicarian
B) Devonian
C) Cambrian
D) Cretaceous
E) Ordovician

Question 34

The__________ , buried under the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, is the apparent site of collision and the impact produced giant tidal waves that deposited materials from the extraterrestrial body.

Question 35

Refer to the accompanying figure. Which organelle evolved from the photosynthetic bacteria?

A) Nucleus
B) Chloroplast
C) Food vacuole
D) Mitochondria
E) Endoplasmic reticulum

Question 36

Which is the largest division of the geologic time scale?

A) Eon
B) Era
C) Epoch
D) Period
E) Millennium

Question 37

The mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period was likely the result of:

A) rising seawater.
B) loss of vegetation.
C) extreme predation.
D) a dramatic change in climate.
E) the appearance of new competitors.

Question 38

During the Pleistocene epoch, plant communities changed dynamically in response to which mechanism?

A) A meteor impact
B) Iridium in the soil
C) Fluctuating climates
D) Intense grazing pressure
E) Competition with gymnosperms

Question 39

Which theory states that eukaryotic organelles originated as prokaryotes that survived ingestion by a host cell and ultimately evolved mutualistic relationships with the host cell?

A) Endosymbiont theory
B) Heterosymbiont theory
C) Obligative symbiotic theory
D) Facultative symbiotic theory
E) Autotrophic symbiotic theory

Question 40

What are the protobionts produced by abiotically produced polypeptides?

A) Polybionts
B) Prokaryotes
C) Microspheres
D) Peptidebionts
E) Stromatolites

Question 41

Amphibians evolved directly from which ancestral organisms?

A) Fishes
B) Reptiles
C) Small mammals
D) Soft-bodied animals
E) Marine invertebrates

Question 42

The "Age of Fishes" is an informal name for which period?

A) Silurian period
B) Permian period
C) Devonian period
D) Ordovician period
E) Carboniferous period

Question 43

The first photosynthetic autotrophs used the energy of the sun to split H₂O because it is not very electronegative.

Question 44

Which period of Earth represents when evolution was progressing at the most rapid rate, as evidenced by fossils such as those of the Burgess Shale?

A) Silurian period
B) Cambrian period
C) Devonian period
D) Ordovician period
E) Carboniferous period

Question 45

During which period did shallow seas cover much of the land and another burst of evolutionary diversification occur?

A) Silurian period
B) Permian period
C) Devonian period
D) Ordovician period
E) Carboniferous period

Question 46

The serial endosymbiosis hypothesis states that the origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts was the result of a mutually advantageous symbiotic relationship between two eukaryotic organisms.

Question 47

Identify three ways in which the evolution of photosynthetic autotrophs affected either the atmosphere.

Question 48

The prebiotic soup hypothesis proposes that organic molecules formed from cracks in the ocean floor.

Question 49

Fossil stromatolites are evidence that cells existed 3.5 million years ago.

Question 50

What was the dominant life form of the Mesozoic era?

A) Fish
B) Reptiles
C) Mammals
D) Amphibians
E) Vascular plants

Question 51

Eons are the largest divisions of the geologic timescale.

Question 52

The Devonian period is frequently called the__________, a period that witnessed the explosive radiation of fishes with jaws.

Question 53

Mammal-like reptiles arose during which period?

A) Triassic period
B) Cambrian period
C) Devonian period
D) Cretaceous period
E) Carboniferous period

Question 54

Tiktaalik was a transitional form between fishes and__________, which are vertebrates with four limbs.

Question 55

Clay is considered a possible site for early polymerization because it binds organic monomers and contains zinc and iron ions that may have functioned as ATP.

Question 56

Vascular plants and air-breathing animals first appeared during which time period?

A) Silurian period
B) Permian period
C) Cambrian period
D) Ordovician period
E) Cretaceous period

Question 57

Which type of organisms were likely the first land animals?

A) Birds
B) Reptiles
C) Mammals
D) Amphibians
E) Arthropods

Question 58

The incorporation of DNA into the information transfer system was advantageous because DNA is a catalytic molecule.

Question 59

Place the following organisms in order of appearance in the fossil record, beginning with the earliest.
A. Ferns, algae, flowering plants, gymnosperms

B. Amphibians, reptiles, fish, mammals

Question 60

Briefly explain the prebiotic soup hypothesis and identify two pieces of evidence that support this hypothesis.

Question 62

The first cells were autotrophs.

Question 63

The first photosynthetic organisms to obtain hydrogen by splitting water were the cyanobacteria.

Question 66

Mitochondria and chloroplasts have their own circular DNA and translational components.

Question 68

Provide at least two types of evidence that support the hypothesis of endosymbiosis.

Question 70

Describe the distinguishing organisms and major biological events associated with the following geological time units.
A. Paleozoic era
B. Cenozoic era

Question 71

Describe the four requirements for chemical evolution and why each was essential.