Download Quiz #5

QUIZ #5
Evolutionary Theory
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Answer the following questions of this ‘open book, open notes and free access instructor
website’ quiz and mark it on a Scantron 882-E answer sheet.
All questions must be answered by the student without help by class mates, friends or
other human beings. Please read the following statement below carefully and sign it if you
satisfy the guidelines outlined in this statement. This signed take home exercise sheet
must be turned in with your answer sheet to receive full credit for this assignment. This
assignment is due at the first class meeting the following week.
I HAVE ANSWERED THE QUESTIONS IN THIS EXERCISE ON MY OWN. I DID NOT CONSULT OTHERS
OR IN ANY CONDUCT IN ANY ACTIVITITES THAT COULD BE CONSTRUED AS CHEATING IN THIS
ASSIGNMENT. I DID NOT MAKE ANY COPIES OF THIS ASSIGNMENT.
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Q. 1: Which of the following conclusions is/are part of C. Darwin’s theory of natural selection?
A) populations produce more offspring than their environment can support
B) organisms show a high degree of variation
C) certain life forms pass on acquired traits
D) organisms compete for limited resources
E) all of the above, except c
Q. 2: The often cited and wrongly interpreted phrase, evolution is “survival of the fittest” ,
actually refers to one part of the evolutionary theory and means:
A) the physically strongest individuals within a population will grow oldest
B) the physically most vital individuals of a population will have the most offspring
C) only the physically most healthy individuals of a population will have a chance to find a
mating partner
D) within a population, the individuals with the most favorable genotypic variation and
best phenotypic adaptation to their environment have the best chance to reproduce and
leave the most descendants
E) none of the above
Q. 3: Which of the following books Darwin read during his journey on the HMS Beagle lead him
to doubt the church’s position that the Earth was static and only a few thousand years old?
A) Principles of Geology by A. R. Wallace
B) Principles of Geology by Lyell
C) Catastrophism theory by Cuvier
D) Scala naturae by Aristotle
Q. 4: Central to Darwin’s view of the evolution of life was the idea that all present day organisms
are related through descent from unknown ancestors in the past. This idea is better known as
A) Transmutation
B) descent with modification
C) adaptive radiation
D) artificial selection
E) adaptive descent
Q. 5: The earliest discovered fossils represent _______, which date back _______ years.
A) cnidarians, such as jellyfishes … 600 million
B) marine invertebrates … 600 million
C) plants … 1 billion
D) microorganisms, such as cyanobacteria … 3.5 billion
E) hominids … 4 million
Q. 6: The ordered arrays of fossils of biological organisms within layers of sedimentary rock are
called
A) stromatolites
B) strata
C) fossil records
D) amber
E) castings
Q. 7: Survival in the struggle for existence (survival) is a _________ process, while creation of
variation due to mutations and/or recombination events is a __________ process.
A) directed …. Non-random
B) non-random … random
C) non-random … impossible
D) random … non-random
Q. 8: Human have modified a variety of domesticated plants and animals over many generations
by selecting individuals of a population with the desired traits as breeding stock. Darwin termed
this fact
A) transmutation
B) directed mutations
C) natural selection
D) artificial selection
E) human intervention
Q. 9: The change in the relative frequencies of alleles in the gene pool of a population over time
is called
A) genetic drift
B) genetic recombination
C) mutation
D) natural selection
E) micro-evolution
Q. 10: Which of the following supplied (and continue to supply) compelling evidence in support
of the evolutionary theory/
A) Fossil records
B) Biogeography
C) Comparative anatomy
D) Molecular biology, i.e. DNA sequencing
E) all of the above
Q. 11: Long-legged cheetahs are well adapted to catching prey. The ancestor of the cheetah is
believed to have had relatively short legs. Accounting to Darwinian views, the evolution of longlegged cheetahs is best explained by the theory of use and disuse.
A) True
B) False
Q. 12: In the evolutionary theory, a localized group of individuals that belong to the same species
is called a(n)
A) community
B) ecosystem
C) population
D) phylum
E) none of the above
Q. 13: The fossil findings of which whale-like animal document the transition of four-legged land
mammals into whales some 55 million years ago?
A) Hadrosaurus
B) Basilosaurus
C) Seymuria
D) Archeopterix
E) Pterodon
Q. 14: The evolution of new species is often triggered by separation or immigration events.
Which of the following geological forces on our planet can lead to the separation of continents,
formation of new islands or mountain ranges?
A) continental drift
B) volcanism
C) biogeography
D) rotational tilt
E) both, a and b
Q. 15: A structure of or within an animal’s body that was once functional in an evolutionary
distant ancestor but is no longer functional in the present-day organism and that supports the
common descent hypothesis is called a(n):
A) homologous structure
B) vestiges
C) living fossil
D) atavism
E) rudiment
Q. 16: Genetic drift resulting from a natural or human-caused disaster that drastically reduces
population size, e.g. earthquake, volcanic eruption, oil spill, over-fishing, viral or bacterial
epidemic, etc., is called:
A) natural selection
B) gene flow
C) bottle neck effect
D) nonrandom mating
E) founder effect
Q. 17: Which of the following processes and/or events lead(s) to change in genetic information to
the gene pool of a species and ultimately to species variation?
A) crossing over events during meiosis
B) deletions, e.g. caused by certain viruses
C) translocations, e.g. caused by “jumping genes” or viruses
D) point mutations, e.g. caused by mistakes during DNA replication or radiation
E) all of the above, except a
Bonus Q.: A change in the frequency of alleles in the gene pool of a species over time is evolution
in its smallest scale or also referred to as:
A) mutation
B) micro-evolution
C) macro-evolution
D) genetic drift
E) speciation