Deck 23: Understanding Diversity: Systematics

Question 1

The scientific study of the diversity of organisms and the evolutionary relationships between them is referred to as:

A) ecology.
B) taxonomy.
C) systematics.
D) evolutionary biology.
E) biological classification.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which classification level contains the greatest number of species?

A) Class
B) Order
C) Family
D) Domain
E) Phylum

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What did R. H. Whittaker base his five kingdom classification upon?

A) DNA sequencing analysis
B) The size and color of cells
C) The biochemical make-up of an organism
D) Cell structure and how an organism derived its nutrition
E) The ability to for an organism to reproduce and develop

Answer 3

D

Question 4

After kingdom, what is the next taxon by which organisms are grouped?

A) Class
B) Order
C) Genus
D) Family
E) Phylum

Question 5

Which of the following taxa would be the most inclusive?

A) Genus
B) Family
C) Species
D) Order
E) Class

Question 6

___________ are organisms that have nuclei and other membrane-enclosed organelles.

A) Anthophyta
B) Plantae
C) Eukarya
D) Monocotyledones
E) Zea

Question 7

Table 23-1 Based on the accompanying table, which of the following characteristics are used to establish the family level of classification for corn?

A) Terrestrial and photosynthetic
B) A grass with hollow stems
C) A flowering plant
D) One-seeded fruit
E) Monocot

Question 8

Linnaeus simplified scientific classification by developing:

A) clades.
B) kingdoms.
C) supergroups.
D) phylogenetic trees.
E) binomial system of nomenclature.

Question 9

Which of the following taxa would be the least inclusive?

A) Genus
B) Family
C) Phylum
D) Order
E) Class

Question 10

Molecular evidence indicating less than 50% shared genes was the basis for:

A) dividing the prokaryotes into two domains, Bacteria and Archaea.
B) separating the kingdom Protista from the kingdom Animalia.
C) including algae and slime molds in the kingdom Protista.
D) the separation of eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
E) placing fungi in a separate kingdom.

Question 11

Poaceae falls under which category/classification of corn?

A) Domain
B) Kingdom
C) Phylum
D) Family
E) Genus

Question 12

Taxonomy is the science of:

A) conserving biodiversity.
B) making new biological species.
C) naming, describing, and classifying organisms.
D) comparing macromolecules to assess evolutionary relationships.
E) generating cladograms that represent evolutionary relationships between organisms.

Question 13

Which of the following are known for their elaborate courtship?

A) Peacock spiders
B) Camel spiders
C) Giant huntsman spiders
D) Brown recluse spiders
E) Black widows

Question 14

___________ is the scientific study of the diversity of organisms and their evolutionary relationships.

A) Evolution
B) Systematics
C) Taxonomy
D) Dogmatism
E) Haphazardism

Question 15

How long age was the time of Aristotle?

A) 1800 years ago
B) 1900 years ago
C) 2000 years ago
D) 2100 years ago
E) 2200 years ago

Question 16

The evolutionary history of a group of organisms from a common ancestor is known as:

A) biohistory.
B) phylogeny.
C) phrenology.
D) phenetics.
E) species origination.

Question 17

How are fungi differentiated from plants?

A) Fungi are heterotrophic.
B) Fungi are photosynthetic.
C) Fungi are all multicellular.
D) Fungi do not bear roots underground.
E) Fungi share characteristics with prokaryotes.

Question 18

Table 23-1 Based on the accompanying table, one characteristic used at the class level of classification for corn is:

A) separate male and female flowers.
B) the presence of a single seed leaf.
C) flower parts in fours or fives.
D) flowering vascular plants.
E) tall annual grasses.

Question 19

Scientific names are typically derived from the root of which language?

A) Latin
B) French
C) English
D) Italian
E) German

Question 20

In the late 1970s, Woese argued that there are two fundamentally different groups of prokaryotes by demonstrating:

A) different DNA sequences in prokaryotes.
B) some prokaryotes carry on photosynthesis.
C) the difference in the appearance of the nuclei.
D) gene codes of ribosomal RNA of different bacteria.
E) some prokaryotes produce methane while others do not.

Question 21

Scientists may compare similarities between nucleotide sequences of organisms to determine their evolutionary history. This is known as:

A) cladistics.
B) phenetics.
C) synapomorphy.
D) molecular systematics.
E) monophyletic grouping.

Question 22

Which is the third kingdom to be established to accommodate bacteria and other microorganisms?

A) Cryptogamae
B) Protista
C) Phanerogame
D) Peteridophyta
E) Angiospermae

Question 23

A study of the genomes of dogs from around the world indicated that:

A) the dogs' closest relative is the gray wolf.
B) all dogs appeared to develop from a mixture of wolf and coyote.
C) some dogs evolved from the coyote and some from the wolf.
D) all dogs appeared to evolve from a mixture of the jackal and the wolf.
E) all dogs appeared to evolve from a mixture of the wolf, jackal, and the coyote.

Question 24

The term "clade" most closely refers to:

A) a class.
B) the binomial system of classification.
C) a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer.
D) a subspecies of organisms does not include a subgenus.
E) a group of organisms that share common characteristics inherited from a common ancestor.

Question 25

Due to our increasing ability to analyze DNA sequences and other molecular data of organisms, scientists are more often classifying organisms by their:

A) structural differences.
B) structural similarities.
C) evolutionary history.
D) selective adaptations.
E) behavioral similarities.

Question 26

The novel traits that evolve and remain present in a descendant organism are referred to as ___________________.

A) common derived characters
B) shared derived characters
C) individual derived characters
D) simply derived characters
E) separately derived characters

Question 27

Humans, as well as all other mammals, have hair. Hair, then, would be considered to be a(n):

A) derived character.
B) cladistic character.
C) ancestral character.
D) analogous character.
E) polyphyletic character.

Question 28

Shared homologous structures would indicate that two taxa are:

A) outgroups.
B) monophyletic.
C) polyphyletic.
D) homoplastic.
E) in different clades.

Question 29

Which type of classification was proposed by R. H. Whittaker in 1969?

A) Four-kingdom classification
B) Five-kingdom classification
C) Kingdom classification
D) Three-kingdom classification
E) Two-kingdom classification

Question 30

How many domains form the three main branches of the tree of life?

A) Two
B) Three
C) Four
D) Five
E) Nine

Question 31

A monophyletic group is defined by:

A) clades.
B) DNA sequences.
C) shared derived characters.
D) shared ancestral characters.
E) most common recent ancestor.

Question 32

Which is not one of the characteristics of a population?

A) Made up of same species
B) Dimension in space
C) Geographic range
D) Dimension in time
E) Demographic range

Question 33

In _________________, gene swapping takes place between one genome and another within one taxon or between genomes in different taxa.

A) circular gene transfer
B) vertical gene transfer
C) horizontal gene transfer
D) straight gene transfer
E) dotted gene transfer

Question 34

What is considered a fundamental evolutionary divergence?

A) Distinction between spices
B) Distinction between Plantae and Animalia
C) Distinction between genes
D) Distinction between prokaryotes and eukaryotes
E) Similarity between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

Question 35

___________ are terrestrial, multicellular, photosynthetic organisms.

A) Plantae
B) Anthophyta
C) Poaceae
D) Zea
E) Eukarya

Question 36

Phylogenetic systematics produce branching diagrams called:

A) cladograms.
B) phenograms.
C) cladistic trees.
D) molecular clocks.
E) phylogenic trees.

Question 37

The evidence suggests that some ___________ years ago, a population of early fishlike vertebrates evolved.

A) 3 to 4 million years ago
B) 30 to 40 million years ago
C) 60 to 80 million years ago
D) 150 to 170 million years ago
E) 380 to 400 million years ago

Question 38

_________ is tall annual grass with separate female and male flowers.

A) Zea
B) Poaceae
C) Monocotyledones
D) Anthophyta
E) Commelinales

Question 39

An example of homologous structures is the wing of a bat and the:

A) arm of a human.
B) wing of a beetle.
C) tail of a whale.
D) leg of a chimpanzee.
E) dorsal fin of a shark.

Question 40

Sea snakes, which are reptiles, are similar in body form to eels, which are fish. Sea snakes and eels therefore demonstrate:

A) role reversal.
B) ancestral traits
C) homologous traits.
D) divergent evolution.
E) convergent evolution.

Question 41

The similarity between the bodies of sharks and dolphins is an example of convergent evolution.

Question 42

Mammalia is a class the contains many phyla.

Question 43

Scientists are now grouping reptiles with birds and mammals because they are all vertebrates that have a(n):

A) divided brain.
B) amniotic egg.
C) mammary gland.
D) jointed appendage.
E) epidermal covering.

Question 44

Membership in a clade cannot be established by shared ancestral traits alone.

Question 45

A taxon that diverges earlier than the other taxa being considered in cladistic analysis is a(n):

A) clade.
B) outgroup.
C) shared taxon.
D) derived taxon.
E) homologous taxon.

Question 46

What does CBOL stands for?

A) Committee for the Barcode of Life
B) Community for the Barcode of Life
C) Community for the Barcode for Living
D) Consortium for the Barcode for Living
E) Consortium for the Barcode of Life

Question 47

An example of homoplastic structures is the wing of a butterfly and:

A) wing of a moth.
B) wing of a bird.
C) antenna of a moth.
D) legs of the butterfly.
E) antenna of the butterfly.

Question 48

Which one of these is not a mammal?

A) Dog
B) Goat
C) Dolphin
D) Opossum
E) Amphibian

Question 49

MIT and Harvard have sequenced the genome of domestic _________.

A) dogs
B) goats
C) dolphins
D) pigs
E) fishes

Question 50

In vertical gene transfer, genes move from one species to another species in the same generation.

Question 51

The number of similarities in certain DNA or RNA nucleotide or amino acid sequences may be used as a molecular clock to indicate how much time has passed since the groups branched from a common ancestor.

Question 52

Scientists using evolutionary systematics to construct a phylogenetic tree would use:

A) the number of shared characters the organisms possess.
B) a combination of ancestral and derived characters.
C) primarily polyphyletic groupings.
D) only derived characters.
E) only ancestral characters.

Question 53

Which example illustrates how "maximum likelihood" is used by systematists?

A) Assigning humans and chimpanzees to a less inclusive taxon
B) Using the simplest explanation necessary to interpret the data
C) Establishing the membership in a clade using the phenetic approach
D) Distinguishing shared ancestral characteristics and shared derived characters
E) Using probability to determine that the nucleotide sequences in DNA and RNA change at a constant rate over time

Question 54

HIV is a ___________.

A) lentivirus
B) retrovirous
C) archeal virus
D) DNA virus
E) viral genome

Question 55

A taxon that includes all the descendants of an ancestor is called:

A) phenetic.
B) homophyletic.
C) monophyletic.
D) paraphyletic.
E) polyphyletic.

Question 56

Dolphins share synapomorphies with mammals.

Question 57

Define and provide one example for each of the following terms: monophyletic, paraphyletic, and polyphyletic.

Question 58

Systematists use phylogenetic trees to graphically represent hypothesized evolutionary relationships among organisms.

Question 59

A characteristic that is independently acquired by reversal or convergent evolution exhibits homology.

Question 60

Arrange the appropriate names for each Linnaean categories in hierarchical fashion from the most inclusive to the least inclusive, starting at the level of domain, for a particular organism, such as corn or cats.

Question 61

A paraphyletic group consists of several evolutionary lines that do not share a common ancestor.

Question 62

Describe the relationship of the genus and species taxa. Explain why this system helps scientists in their research.

Question 63

Construct a table with the five kingdoms listed. Include several diagnostic features of each kingdom and an important ecological role of organisms found in each kingdom.

Question 64

Outgroup analysis looks for features that are shared derived characters in a given group of organisms.

Question 68

A new species of beetle is discovered. Explain how you would classify this beetle (for example, what steps would you take to classify the new species).