Download Evolution Review Questions

Chapter 15-17 Review Questions
Chapter 15
Section 15-1: The Puzzle of Life’s Diversity:
1. The process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms is
called ______________
2. A well-supported explanation of phenomena that have occurred in the natural world is
a(an) _____________
3. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about Charles Darwin.
a. He was born in 1809.
b. He was an English naturalist.
c. He was 42 when he began the voyage on the Beagle.
d. The voyage lasted 5 years and took him around the world.
4. True or False: Darwin was looking for a scientific explanation for the diversity of life on
Earth. ___________
5. Circle the letter of each observation that Darwin made:
a. An enormous number of species inhabit Earth.
b. Many organisms seem to be poorly suited to their environment.
c. The same sorts of animals are always found in the same ecosystems in different
parts of the world.
d. Some species that lived in the past no longer live on Earth.
6. The preserved remains of ancient organisms are called _____________.
7. How did Darwin explain differences in shell shape of tortoises from Hood Island and
Isabela Island? _______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
8. Darwin observed that small brown birds on the Galapagos Islands differed in the shape
of their _______________.
Section 15-2: Ideas that Shaped Darwin’s Thinking:
1. Two scientists who helped Darwin and others recognize how old Earth is were
_______________________ and ________________________
2. Circle the letter of each idea that was proposed by James Hutton:
a. Earth is a few thousand years old.
b. Layers of rock are moved by forces beneath Earth’s surface.
c. Most geological processes operate extremely slowly.
d. The processes that changed Earth in the past are different from the processes
that operate in the present.
3. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about Lyell’s work:
a. His book, Principles of Geology, was published after Darwin returned from his
voyage.
b. His work explained how awesome geological features could be built up or torn
down over long periods of time.
c. His publications helped Darwin appreciate the significance of the geological
phenomena that he had observed.
d. He stressed that scientists must explain past events in terms of processes that
they can actually observe.
4. True or False: Lamarck was among the first scientists to recognize that living things
have changed over time. _____________
5. True or False: Lamarck proposed that all organisms have an innate tendency toward
complexity and perfection. ____________
6. How did Lamarck propose that species change over time? _________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
7. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about Thomas Malthus:
a. He was an important influence on Darwin.
b. He was an English naturalist.
c. He believed that war, famine, and disease limit the growth of populations.
d. His views were influenced by conditions in 20th century England.
8. True or False: The overwhelming majority of a species’ offspring survive. ___________
Section 15-3: Darwin Presents His Case:
1. True or False: When Darwin returned to England he rushed to publish his thoughts
about evolution. _____________
2. The naturalist whose essay gave Darwin an incentive to publish his own work was
_______________________________.
3. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about Darwin’s book On the Origin of
Species:
a. It was published in 1869.
b. It was ignored when it was first published.
c. It contained evidence for evolution.
d. It described natural selection.
4. Differences among individuals of a species are referred to as ______________________.
5. True or False: Genetic variation is found only in wild organisms in nature. ___________
6. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about artificial selection.
a. It is also called selective breeding.
b. It occurs when humans select natural variations they find useful.
c. It produces organisms that look very different from their ancestors.
d. It is no longer used today.
7. Match each term with its correct definition:
_____ fitness
a. any inherited characteristic that increases an
_____ adaptation
organism’s chance of survival
_____ natural selection
b. survival of the fittest
c. the ability of an individual to survive and
reproduce in its specific environment
8. What does the phrase struggle for existence mean? _________________________
______________________________________________________________
9. True or False: Adaptations can by physical characteristics but not more complex
features such as behavior. ______________
10. Explain what Darwin meant by the phrase survival of the fittest. ____________________
___________________________________________________________________________
11. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about natural selection:
a. It selects traits that increase fitness.
b. It takes place without human control.
c. It can be observed directly in nature.
d. It leads to an increase in a species’ fitness.
12. The principle that living species descend, with changes, from other species over time is
referred to as ________________________________________________.
13. The principle that all species were derived from common ancestors is known as
____________________.
14. True or False: Darwin argued that living things have been evolving on Earth for
thousands of years. ______________________
15. Circle the letter of the way Darwin explained the distribution of finch species on the
Galapagos Islands:
a. They had descended with modification from a common mainland ancestor.
b. They had descended with modification from several different mainland ancestors.
c. They had remained unchanged since arriving on the Galapagos from the
mainland.
d. They had become more similar to one another after arriving on the Galapagos.
16. Structures that have different mature forms but develop from the same embryonic
tissues are called ___________________________________________.
17. True or False: Homologous structures provide strong evidence that all 4-limbed
vertebrates have descended, with modifications, from common ancestors. ___________
18. Organs that are so reduced in size that they are just vestiges, or traces, of homologous
organs in other species are called _______________________.
19. Circle the letter of each idea that is part of Darwin’s theory of evolution:
a. There is variation in nature.
b. Fewer organisms are produced that can survive.
c. There is a struggle for existence.
d. Species change over time.
20. According to Darwin’s theory, what happens to individuals who characteristics are not
well suited to their environment? ______________________________________________
21. Darwin believed that all organisms on Earth are united into a single tree of life by
_____________________________
Chapter 16
Section 16-1: Genes and Variation:
1. A group of individuals of the same species that interbreed is a (an) ________________.
2. All of the genes in a population are called a (an) _______________________.
3. True or False: A gene pool typically contains just one allele for each inheritable trait.
_____________
4. The number of times that an allele occurs in a gene pool compared with the number of
times other alleles for the same gene occur is called the _________________________ of
the allele.
5. What is a mutation? ________________________________________________________
6. Why do mutations occur? ____________________________________________________
7. Circle the letter of each choice that is true about mutations;
a. They do not always change an amino acid.
b. They always affect lengthy segments of a chromosome.
c. They always affect an organism’s phenotype.
d. They always affect an organism’s fitness.
8. True or False: Most heritable differences are due to gene shuffling that occurs during
the production of gametes. ___________
9. Circle the letter of each choice that is true about sexual reproduction:
a. It is a major source of variation in many populations.
b. It can produce many different phenotypes.
c. It can produce many different genetic combinations.
d. It can change the relative frequency of alleles in a population.
10. True or False: The number of phenotypes produced for a given trait depends on how
many genes control the trait. _______________
11. True or False: Most traits are controlled by a single gene. ________________
Section 16-2: Evolution as Genetic Change:
1. True or False: Natural selection on single-gene traits cannot lead to changes in allele
frequencies. ______________
2. If a trait made an organism less likely to survive and reproduce, what would happen to
the allele for that trait? _______________________________________________________
3. Match the type of selection with its correct description:
a. individuals at the upper and lower ends of the curve have
_____ Directional
higher fitness that individuals near the middle
_____ Stabilizing
b. individuals at one end of the curve have higher fitness that
_____ Disruptive
individuals in the middle or at the other end
c. individuals near the center of the curve have higher fitness
than individuals at either end
4. True or False: Natural selection is the only source of evolutionary change. ___________
5. Random change in allele frequencies in small populations is called _________________.
6. A situation in which allele frequencies change as a result of the migration of a small
subgroup of a population is known as the ___________________________.
7. What does the Hardy-Weinberg principle state? __________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
8. The situation in which allele frequencies remain constant is called __________________.
9. List the 5 conditions required to maintain genetic equilibrium:
a. ________________________
d. __________________________
b. ________________________
e. __________________________
c. ________________________
Section 16-3: The Process of Speciation:
1. What is speciation? ________________________________________________________
2. True or False: Individuals in different species can have the same gene pool. __________
3. What does it mean for two species to be reproductively isolated from each other? _____
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
4. List 3 ways that reproductive isolation occurs:
a. ________________________________
b. ________________________________
c. ________________________________
5. When does behavioral isolation occur? _____________________________________
________________________________________
6. True or False: Eastern and Western meadowlarks are an example of behavioral
isolation. ____________
7. When does geographic isolation occur? ________________________________________
_______________________________
8. True or False: Geographic barriers guarantee the formation of new species. __________
9. True or False: The basic mechanisms of evolutionary change cannot be observed in
nature. __________
Chapter 17
Section 17-1: The Fossil Record:
1. Scientists who study fossils are called __________________.
2. What is the fossil record? ___________________________________________________
______________________________________________
3. Species that died out are said to be _____________.
4. True or False: About ½ of all species that have ever lived on Earth have become extinct.
___________
5. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about fossils:
a. Most organisms that die are preserved as fossils.
b. Fossils can include footprints, eggs, or other traces of organisms.
c. Most fossils form in metamorphic rock.
d. The quality of fossil preservation varies.
6. List the 2 techniques paleontologists use to determine the age of fossils.
________________ and _______________________
7. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about relative dating:
a. It determines the age of a fossil by comparing its placement with that of fossils in
other layers of rock.
b. It uses index fossils.
c. It allows paleontologists to estimate a fossil’s age in years.
d. It provides no information about absolute age.
8. True or False: Older rock layers are usually closer to Earth’s surface than more recent
rock layers. _____________
9. True or False: Scientists use radioactive decay to assign absolute ages to rocks. ______
10. The length of time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay is
called a (an) ___________________.
11. The use of half-lives to determine the age of a sample is called ____________________.
12. How do scientists calculate the age of a sample using radioactive dating? ____________
___________________________________________________________________________
13. True or False: All radioactive elements have the same half-life. ________________
14. Circle the letter of the choice that lists the eras of the geologic time scale in order from
the most recent to the oldest:
a. Mesozoic, Paleozoic, Cenozoic
b. Cenozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic
c. Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Paleozoic
d. Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic
15. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about the geologic time scale:
a. The scale is used to represent evolutionary time.
b. Major changes in fossil organisms separate segments of geologic time.
c. Divisions of the scale cover standard lengths of 100 million years.
d. Geologic time begins with the Cambrian Period.
16. After Precambrian time, what are the two basic divisions of the geologic time scale?
_________ and _________
17. During which era did dinosaurs roam the Earth? _______________
18. During which era did mammals become common? ______________
Section 17-2: Earth’s Early History:
1. List 6 components of Earth’s early atmosphere:
a. ________________
b. ___________________
d. ________________
e. ___________________
c. _______________
f. ________________
2. True or False: Liquid water first occurred on Earth more than 4 billion years ago. ______
3. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about Miller and Urey’s experiments;
a. Their purpose was to determine how the 1st organic molecules evolved.
b. They led to the formation of several amino acids.
c. They accurately simulated conditions in Earth’s early atmosphere.
d. The results were never duplicated in experiments by other scientists.
4. What are proteinoid microspheres? ___________________________________________
5. True or False: Scientists know how DNA and RNA evolved. ______________
6. Microscopic fossils are called __________________.
7. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about the earliest life forms on Earth:
a. They resembled modern bacteria.
b. They were eukaryotes.
c. They relied on oxygen.
d. They were not preserved as fossils.
8. How did early photosynthetic bacteria change Earth? ___________________________
__________________________________
9. True or False: The rise of oxygen in the atmosphere drove some life forms to extinction.
__________
10. True or False: The ancestor of all eukaryotic cells evolved about 2 billion years ago.
____________
11. What does the endosymbiotic theory propose? _________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
12. Circle the letter of each choice that provides support for the endosymbiotic theory:
a. The membranes of mitochondria and chloroplasts resemble the plasma
membranes of free-living prokaryotes.
b. Mitochondria and chloroplasts do not have DNA.
c. Mitochondria and chloroplasts have ribosomes that are similar in size and
structure to those of bacteria.
d. Mitochondria and chloroplasts reproduce by binary fission, as bacteria do.
13. True or False: Sexual reproduction evolved after the first multicellular organisms
appeared. __________
Section 17-4: Patterns of Evolution:
1. The large-scale evolutionary changes that take place over long periods of time are
referred to as ________________________.
2. What are 6 patterns of macroevolution?
a. ______________________
b. ______________________
c. ______________________
d. _____________________
e. _____________________
f. _____________________
3. What are possible causes of mass extinction? ___________________________________
___________________________________
4. The process of a single species or a small group of species evolving into diverse forms
that live in different ways is called ______________________________________.
5. What led to the adaptive radiation of mammals? __________________________________
6. The process by which unrelated organisms come to resemble one another is called
________________________.
7. Circle the letter of each choice that is an example of convergent evolution:
a. Bird’s wing and fish’s fin
b. Shark’s fin and dolphin’s limb
c. Human’s arm and bird’s wing
d. Human’s leg and dolphin’s limb
8. The process by which 2 species evolve in response to changes in each other over time
is called ___________________.
9. The idea that evolution occurs at a slow, steady rate is called _____________________.
10. The pattern of long, stable periods interrupted by brief periods of more rapid change is
called __________________________.
11. True or False: Evolution has often proceeded at different rates for different organisms.
___________