Deck 13: How Populations Evolve

Question 1

The first basic idea of evolutionary adaptation can be traced back to _____.

A) ancient Greeks about 2,500 years ago
B) Aristotle
C) Lamarck
D) Darwin

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What did Darwin find in South America that suggested that the Andes mountains had been gradually lifted up over millions of years?

A) bird fossils at the top of mountains in Argentina
B) dinosaur bones in the Amazon basin
C) marine snail fossils high up in the Andes mountains
D) impressions of ocean waves at the top of a mountain

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The fossil record suggests that whales

A) are descended from one branch of marine reptiles.
B) are closely related to land mammals such as pigs, hippos, and cows.
C) are not closely related to dolphins and porpoises, despite a superficial similarity.
D) once had well-developed hind flippers.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Research on flat-tailed horned lizards demonstrated that natural selection favored lizards that ______.

A) ran faster when exposed to bright sunlight
B) buried themselves faster when startled
C) searched for ants hidden under logs
D) had longer horns on the rear of the skull

Question 5

Which of the following statements about the voyage of the Beagle is true?

A) Its purpose was to identify the fastest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
B) It lasted almost two years.
C) It turned into a tremendous opportunity for Darwin to collect fossils, plants, and animals.
D) It ended with the sinking of the ship off of the coast of Australia, almost four years into its journey.

Question 6

Homology is evidence of ______.

A) biogeography
B) convergent evolution
C) natural selection
D) common ancestry

Question 7

The similarity of the embryos of fish,frogs,birds,and humans is evidence of ______.

A) analogy
B) common ancestry
C) genetic drift
D) convergent evolution

Question 8

Which of the following is a component of the fossil record?

A) the distribution of murid rodents in Australia and Asia
B) the similarity of the forelimbs of cats and bats
C) molecular sequences
D) bones of extinct whales

Question 9

Which of the following is not a requirement of natural selection?

A) differential reproductive success
B) overproduction of offspring
C) genetic variation
D) catastrophic events

Question 10

The modern synthesis was a fusion of ______.

A) population ecology and genetics
B) molecular biology and comparative anatomy
C) genetics and evolutionary biology
D) the fossil record and genetics

Question 11

Which of the following are homologous?

A) the forelimb of a dog and the hindlimb of a cat
B) the forelimb of a dog and the forelimb of a cat
C) wings of a butterfly and wings of a sparrow
D) the mouth of a mosquito and the beak of a hummingbird

Question 12

In The Origin of Species,Darwin argued that the mechanism of descent with modification was _____.

A) artificial selection
B) natural selection
C) inheritance of acquired characteristics
D) uniformitarianism

Question 13

Your family is taking a long driving vacation across the midwestern and western United States.As you travel,you notice that the flowers,birds,and trees of the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains are very different.As you ponder why,you remember that such differences in the distribution of species are part of the field of ______.

A) paleontology
B) geology
C) biogeography
D) morphology

Question 14

During his trip on the Beagle,Darwin found that ______.

A) plants and animals living in temperate regions were most similar to each other, regardless of the continent on which they were found
B) plants and animals living on a continent seemed more closely related to each other than to plants and animals living in similar regions on other continents
C) fossils found on a particular continent were clearly not related to the plants and animals living on that continent today
D) plants and animals were similar on every continent and in every type of region

Question 15

Natural selection ______.

A) results in evolutionary adaptation
B) is a very rare phenomenon
C) does not affect allelic frequencies
D) prepares organisms for future changes in the environment

Question 16

Natural selection results in ______.

A) increased genetic variation
B) a population that is better adapted to a future environment
C) a population that is adapted to its current environment
D) an increase in the size of a population

Question 17

Natural selection can be defined as ______.

A) the evolution of a population of organisms
B) a process in which changes in gene frequencies result from evolution
C) the production of more offspring than can survive in a given environment
D) a process in which organisms with certain inherited traits are more likely to survive and reproduce than individuals with other traits

Question 18

Which one of the following statements is true?

A) Natural selection works on variation already present in a population.
B) Natural selection works on non-heritable traits.
C) Individuals evolve through natural selection.
D) Organisms evolve structures that they need.

Question 19

While on the Beagle,Darwin was influenced by a book by Charles Lyell that suggested that Earth was ______ and sculpted by geologic processes that ______ today.

A) old... continue
B) old... no longer occur
C) young... continue
D) young... no longer occur

Question 20

The oldest known fossils are from about ______ years ago.

A) 3.5 billion
B) 6,000
C) 4.0 million
D) 1.0 billion

Question 21

Which of the following is an example of directional selection?

A) The birth weight at which newborn humans are most likely to survive and the average weight of newborn humans are about the same.
B) There is an increase in antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
C) There is an increase in the number of different breeds of dog.
D) Garter snakes with different coloration patterns behave differently when threatened.

Question 22

Genetic drift is the result of ______.

A) natural selection
B) chance
C) a large gene pool
D) environmental variation

Question 23

The presence of freckles is due to a dominant allele.Four percent of the individuals in a particular population lack freckles.Use the Hardy-Weinberg formula to calculate the percentage of individuals in this population who are homozygous dominant for freckles.

A) 32%
B) 4%
C) 64%
D) 80%

Question 24

Which of the following is an example of disruptive selection?

A) The birth weight at which newborn humans are most likely to survive and the average weight of newborn humans are about the same.
B) There is an increase in antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
C) There is an increase in the number of different breeds of dog.
D) Garter snakes with different coloration patterns behave differently when threatened.

Question 25

Which one of the following will prevent significant genetic drift?

A) Gene flow is absent.
B) There is genetic variation.
C) There is mutation.
D) The population size is large.

Question 26

Which of the following is a characteristic of a population at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

A) The population is subject to natural selection.
B) The population is not evolving.
C) Genetic drift is occurring.
D) Gene flow in and out of the population occurs.

Question 27

Which one of the following can create new alleles?

A) natural selection
B) sexual reproduction
C) mutation
D) genetic drift

Question 28

In the Hardy-Weinberg formula,what does p² represent?

A) frequency of the dominant allele
B) frequency of heterozygotes
C) frequency of the recessive allele
D) frequency of the homozygous dominants

Question 29

In the Hardy-Weinberg formula,what does 2pq represent?

A) frequency of the dominant allele
B) frequency of heterozygotes
C) frequency of the recessive allele
D) frequency of the homozygous dominants

Question 30

If the frequency of one allele in a population is 0.7,what is the frequency of the alternate allele?

A) 0.09
B) 0.21
C) 0.30
D) 0.42

Question 31

The total collection of alleles in a population at any one time make up that population's ______.

A) gene pool
B) genotype
C) heterozygosity
D) polymorphic pool

Question 32

The founder effect differs from a population bottleneck in that the founder effect ______.

A) requires a small population
B) is a type of natural selection
C) can only occur on an oceanic island colony
D) involves the isolation of a small colony of individuals from a larger population

Question 33

Gene flow is accomplished by ______.

A) migration
B) sexual recombination
C) mutation
D) natural selection

Question 34

What does evolutionary fitness measure?

A) physical health
B) longevity
C) relative reproductive success
D) population size

Question 35

After surviving a bottleneck,a population recovers to the point where it consists of as many individuals as it did prior to the bottleneck.Which of the following statements is most likely to apply to this population?

A) The postbottleneck population exhibits less genetic variation than the prebottleneck population.
B) The bottleneck subjected the population to stabilizing selection.
C) The postbottleneck population has less of a chance of going extinct than did the prebottleneck population.
D) The postbottleneck population exhibits more genetic variation than the prebottleneck population.

Question 36

The smallest biological unit that can evolve is the ______.

A) species
B) individual
C) population
D) phylum

Question 37

Which of the following is likely to be the result of polygenic inheritance?

A) freckles
B) an extra finger
C) human height
D) ABO blood type

Question 38

The original source of genetic variation that serves as the raw material for natural selection is ______.

A) mutation
B) gene flow
C) sexual recombination
D) random fertilization

Question 39

Which of the following is a population?

A) the termites infesting your house along with the microorganisms living in their guts
B) all of the termites that have ever lived
C) all organisms living in your house
D) the termites infesting your house

Question 40

Which of the following is the most likely explanation for a particular human population with a higher incidence of polydactyly (extra fingers/toes)than the human population as a whole?

A) directional selection
B) diversifying selection
C) founder effect
D) bottleneck effect

Question 41

Examine the relationships between the elephants in the figure below.Which one of the following pairs is most closely related?

A) Deinotherium and Platybelodon
B) Barytherium and Stegodon
C) Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta cyclotis
D) Mammut and Stegodon

Question 42

The figure below shows what happens in insect populations when crops are sprayed with insecticides.This is an example of ______.

A) natural selection
B) genetic drift
C) founder effect
D) gene flow

Question 43

Read the following scenario to answer the following question(s).
Over the past 60 years, many amphibian species have experienced significant population declines and some species have become extinct. Scientists suspected that local human activities such as the destruction of wetlands, regional pollution, and deforestation were the main reasons for these losses. However, research over the past 20 years reveals significant amphibian population declines in protected areas of the world, such as nature preserves and parks. These global declines suggest widespread problems including increased ultraviolet radiation, acid rain, and disease. In Switzerland, for example, 14 of the 20 native amphibian species are threatened with extinction.
Chytridiomycosis is a fungal disease first identified in 1998 as a cause of massive amphibian deaths.In some severely impacted populations,a few individuals have survived,perhaps because of some natural resistance.If these resistant individuals continue to survive and prosper,new resistant populations might emerge.This would be an example of ______.

A) genetic drift
B) natural selection
C) the founder effect
D) sexual selection

Question 44

Which of the following is an example of stabilizing selection?

A) The birth weight at which newborn humans are most likely to survive and the average weight of newborn humans are about the same.
B) There is an increase in antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
C) There is an increase in the number of different breeds of dog.
D) Garter snakes with different coloration patterns behave differently when threatened.

Question 45

Read the following scenario to answer the following question(s).
Over the past 60 years, many amphibian species have experienced significant population declines and some species have become extinct. Scientists suspected that local human activities such as the destruction of wetlands, regional pollution, and deforestation were the main reasons for these losses. However, research over the past 20 years reveals significant amphibian population declines in protected areas of the world, such as nature preserves and parks. These global declines suggest widespread problems including increased ultraviolet radiation, acid rain, and disease. In Switzerland, for example, 14 of the 20 native amphibian species are threatened with extinction.
Some biologists urge the collection of the few remaining individuals of some of the most threatened amphibian species,to preserve them if they become extinct in the wild.If such captive breeding programs could produce thousands of individuals from just a few of the remaining survivors,the species will still be threatened because of ______.

A) a bottleneck effect
B) the founder effect
C) mutations
D) artificial selection

Question 46

Examine the evolutionary tree below.This tree tells us that the amnion is found in ______.

A) lungfishes and amphibians
B) amphibians only
C) mammals, lizards, and snakes only
D) mammals, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, and birds

Question 47

Which of the following is most likely to decrease genetic variation?

A) directional selection
B) mutation
C) stabilizing selection
D) diversifying selection

Question 48

Which of the following is an example of sexual selection?

A) Bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics.
B) Cheetahs experienced a population bottleneck.
C) Peahens choose to mate with peacocks that have the most beautiful tails.
D) Female butterflies have a higher survival rate than male butterflies.

Question 49

The figure below shows the percent of selected DNA sequences that match between a chimpanzee and other primates.These data support the hypothesis that ______.

A) the chimpanzee's closest surviving relative is humans
B) gorillas and orangutans are the most closely related
C) orangutans are the primates least closely related to chimpanzees
D) Old World monkeys and gibbons are the most closely related

Question 50

Read the following scenario to answer the following question(s).
Over the past 60 years, many amphibian species have experienced significant population declines and some species have become extinct. Scientists suspected that local human activities such as the destruction of wetlands, regional pollution, and deforestation were the main reasons for these losses. However, research over the past 20 years reveals significant amphibian population declines in protected areas of the world, such as nature preserves and parks. These global declines suggest widespread problems including increased ultraviolet radiation, acid rain, and disease. In Switzerland, for example, 14 of the 20 native amphibian species are threatened with extinction.
When most populations of a wide-ranging amphibian species are lost and the few remaining populations are widely separated,we expect to see that ______.

A) artificial selection becomes a greater factor in microevolution
B) the founder effect becomes increasingly important
C) gene flow between populations is reduced
D) microevolution no longer occurs