Deck 18: Organic Evolution The Theory and Its Supporting Evidence

Question 1

Briefly explain how the concept of punctuated equilibrium is compatible with the fossil record.

Answer 1

The fossil record is incomplete by virtue of the process of fossilization.Organisms that exist over long periods of time have a much greater chance of being preserved than the transitional species which developed and lived during a very short time span,as small geographically isolated populations.

Question 2

Evolution by natural selection is a two step process.What are those two steps?

Answer 2

Variation must be present or must arise in a population.The variations that are favorable in the environment in which the organism lives will survive and those that are not favorable will ultimately be eliminated.

Question 3

What is cladistics? How does cladistics group organisms?

Answer 3

Cladistics is a type of biological analysis in which organisms are grouped together based on derived characteristics.Evolutionary novelties,which are unique,are used to differentiate a group.

Question 4

Describe allopatric speciation.

Question 5

Describe divergent evolution.

Question 6

What is punctuated equilibrium?

Question 7

How can traits in organisms evolve over time?

Question 8

Briefly explain how the phylogeny of an extinct group can be determined.

Question 9

In addition to fossils,what are other types of evidence for evolutionary theory?

Question 10

What is a mass extinction?

Question 11

What are body fossils?

Question 12

When was the greatest extinction of all time and what was the consequence of that extinction?

Question 13

What are vestigial structures?

Question 14

What role does the process of extinction play in the evolution of life?

Question 15

If the offspring of the above situation with Aa mates with an individual with the makeup aa,what are the chances that an offspring will express the recessive trait? Explain.

Question 16

Describe the DNA molecule.

Question 17

What is phyletic gradualism?

Question 18

Briefly state the factors that entered into the modern view or modern synthesis of the concept of evolution by natural selection.

Question 19

Briefly explain why critics did not readily accept the Darwin-Wallace theory of natural selection.What possibilities did they ignore?

Question 20

If Parent 1 has the genetic makeup AA,meaning that he carries the dominant gene for trait A twice,and parent 2 has the genetic makeup aa,meaning that she carries the recessive gene for trait A twice,what is the chance that the offspring of these two parents will have the recessive form of trait A? Explain.

Question 21

The process that involves changes in the genetic makeup of a population is ____________________.

Question 22

Who demonstrated that many plants and animals had become extinct through time and that fossils differed through time?

A) Thomas Malthus
B) Georges Cuvier
C) Jean Baptiste de Lamarck
D) Charles Darwin
E) Carolus Linnaeus

Question 23

Cell division that results in cells containing only one chromosome from each pair is ____________________.

Question 24

The type of cell division in which resulting cells contain one chromosome from each pair is called ____________________.

Question 25

____________________ are the only record of prehistoric life.

Question 26

The process in which changes occur in genes passed from one generation to another is called ____________________.

Question 27

Genes controlling the same trait are called ____________________.

Question 28

Complex,double-stranded,helical molecules of DNA are called ____________________.

Question 29

The Linnaean classification scheme from broadest to most specific is ____________________,____________________,____________________,____________________,____________________,____________________,____________________.

Question 30

Parallel evolution is the development of ____________________ characteristics in ____________________ related organisms.

Question 31

If in a cell,R is the dominant allele and represents blue flowers and r is the recessive allele and represents yellow flowers,what color flower will an organism which inherits the pair Rr have? ____________________

Question 32

The number of chromosomes is ____________________ for a given species but ____________________ among different species.

Question 33

Two types of evolution that occur because organisms develop similar evolutionary paths are ____________________ and ____________________.

Question 34

According to the concept of ____________________,an ancestral species changes gradually and continuously and grades imperceptibly into a descent species.

Question 35

What led Darwin to change his beliefs about fixity of species?

A) renewed interest in the biblical account of creation
B) observation of language variation in human populations in the British Isles
C) observations of no documentable difference in plant and animal population over wide geographic areas
D) observations that distinct but closely related groups of plants and animals inhabited isolated islands
E) none of these

Question 36

Lamarck's theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics was based on what?

A) discovery of DNA
B) discovery of genes
C) discovery of mitochondria
D) observation and interpretation
E) experiments

Question 37

The fossil record is biased because of selective preservation of organisms with ____________________ parts.

Question 38

____________________ evolution is the development of ____________________ characteristics in distantly related organisms.

Question 39

DNA is an abbreviation for ____________________.

Question 40

Name some types of trace fossils.

Question 41

If in a pea plant,R is the dominant allele and represents a red flower and r is the recessive allele and represents a white flower,an organism that inherits the pair Rr will have which color flower?

A) red
B) pink
C) white
D) red and white
E) It's impossible to know.

Question 42

The important aspects of Mendel's genetic studies include which of the following?

A) Chance is the most important factor in change.
B) Genes controlling traits do not blend during inheritance but are transmitted as discrete entities.
C) The traits which an organism inherits are the average of the end member alleles.
D) If particular traits do not appear within two generations, they are lost from the species.
E) all of these

Question 43

Features that serve the same purpose on very dissimilar organisms are called ____.

A) heterologous
B) exogenous
C) homologous
D) analogous
E) vestigial

Question 44

Which of the following is not a component of the Darwin-Wallace theory of natural selection?

A) All populations contain heritable variations.
B) Some variations are more favorable than others.
C) Not all young survive to maturity.
D) Those with favorable variations are most likely to survive and pass those variations on to their offspring.
E) All organisms can knowingly select their genetic direction.

Question 45

Who proposed the modern biological classification scheme?

A) Thomas Malthus
B) Georges Cuvier
C) Jean Baptiste de Lamarck
D) Charles Darwin
E) Carolus Linnaeus

Question 46

Whose original concept of inheritance did Lysenko's ideas reflect?

A) Thomas Malthus
B) Georges Cuvier
C) Jean Baptiste de Lamarck
D) Charles Darwin
E) Carolus Linnaeus

Question 47

The science of genetics was developed based on experimental studies using fruit flies.

Question 48

Linnaeus devised his classification scheme to provide a ____.

A) basis for the theory of evolution
B) basis for understanding the biblical creation theory
C) means to refute the theory of biblical creation
D) means to refute the theory of evolution
E) means to categorize organisms with like characteristics

Question 49

What are populations that have similar individuals that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring called?

A) mating pairs
B) families
C) breeding stock
D) species
E) none of these

Question 50

What led to changes in scientific thought in the 17ᵗʰ and 18ᵗʰ centuries?

A) development of radiometric age dating techniques
B) discovery of fossils
C) lesser influence of the church in all matters
D) opening of universities specifically dedicated to sciences
E) all of these

Question 51

The Lysenko affair shows the absurdity of basing scientific theories on philosophic or political beliefs.

Question 52

Lysenko and his colleagues increased food production significantly.

Question 53

All of the following are trace fossils except ____.

A) trails
B) bones
C) burrows
D) coprolites (fossil feces)
E) nests

Question 54

The father of modern genetics is Alfred Wallace.

Question 55

A clade is

A) a group of organisms and its most recent common ancestor.
B) a group of organisms on a phylogenetic tree.
C) a group of organisms that can interbreed and have fertile offspring.
D) a group of organisms in an evolutionary line from ancestor to descendent.

Question 56

With the Linnaean classification scheme,as one moves down the hierarchy,the categories become more ____.

A) exclusive
B) poorly defined
C) inclusive
D) general
E) broad

Question 57

The important aspect(s)of mutation is(are)that they ____.

A) only occur because of outside influences on an organism
B) occur in sex cells that are inheritable
C) only occur in the weakest organisms
D) are random in terms of fitness of organisms
E) occur in sex cells that are inheritable AND are random in terms of fitness of organisms

Question 58

Lysenko's research was endorsed by the Soviet government because it seemed compatible with Marxist-Leninist philosophy.

Question 59

Structures which are superficially dissimilar but have the same structure in terms of bones,muscles,nerves,and blood vessels are ____.

A) heterologous
B) homologous
C) vestigial
D) analogous
E) exogenous

Question 60

The fossil record shows a sequence of variations based on what?

A) density of organisms
B) shape of organisms
C) size of organisms
D) different life forms
E) none of these

Question 61

Whether a mutation is harmful or beneficial can only be judged in respect to the conditions in which the organism lives.

Question 62

All mutations are either harmful or beneficial.

Question 63

Vestigial structures are those that have only small pieces remaining on an organism.

Question 64

The controlling factor in variation in organisms is based on the presence or absence of genes.

Question 65

Cladistics and cladograms work well for constructing relationships among fossil organisms.

Question 66

The only factor necessary for evolution to occur is that there must be variation in organisms in a population.

Question 67

Alleles are the pair of controlling factors in genes,and both have equal dominance.

Question 68

Homologous structures probably indicate descent with modifications from a common ancestor.

Question 69

Populations that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring are called species.

Question 70

For evolution to occur,variation must occur and favorable conditions must exist for the variations to survive.