Deck 2: Evolution: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory

Question 1

While at the gorilla exhibit at the zoo you notice that the sign reads Gorilla gorilla gorilla.You recall that this is a scientific name and is part of a naming system known as

A)binomial nomenclature, which was developed by Carolus Linnaeus as a classification system for plants and animals.
B)natural selection, because you know that Carolus Linnaeus was a proponent of evolutionary change.
C)independent assortment, developed by Gregor Mendel.
D)none of the above.

Answer 1

binomial nomenclature, which was developed by Carolus Linnaeus as a classification system for plants and animals.

Question 2

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

A)was studied during Darwin's lifetime.
B)is the "recipe" for all biological characteristics and functions.
C)was discovered by Mendel.
D)is stored in the cells as ribosomes.

Answer 2

is the "recipe" for all biological characteristics and functions.

Question 3

The evolutionary synthesis

A)occurred in 1900 immediately after Mendel's work was rediscovered.
B)emphasized the important role of mutation and macromutation in evolutionary change.
C)emphasized theoretical differences between diverse scientific fields.
D)accepted Darwin's theory of evolution and Mendel's theory of heredity as explaining most evolutionary change.

Answer 3

accepted Darwin's theory of evolution and Mendel's theory of heredity as explaining most evolutionary change.

Question 4

Which of the following is true?

A)Organisms classified in two different biological orders can still belong to the same genus.
B)Organisms classified as two different species can still belong to the same genus.
C)Organisms classified in two different families can still belong to the same genus.
D)Organisms classified in two different kingdoms can still belong to the same genus.

Question 5

Darwin's theory of evolution by means of natural selection was supported by which leading scientist of the time?

A)Gregor Mendel
B)Thomas Malthus
C)Thomas Henry Huxley
D)Charles Lyell

Question 6

Why is the work of Alfred Russel Wallace considered when discussing the theory of evolution?

A)He was an English naturalist who had arrived at many of the same conclusions as Darwin.
B)His work is not considered as he was mistakenly credited with the theory of natural selection.
C)He was a British dog-breeder who worked on artificial selection experiments.
D)Wallace was well-known and gathered even more evidence to support evolution than Darwin.

Question 7

________ is most powerful as an evolutionary cause when operating on small populations.

A)Genetic flow
B)Mutation
C)Genetic drift
D)Natural selection

Question 8

James Hutton's research in the mid-18th century demonstrated that the earth was

A)4.6 billion years old.
B)millions of years old.
C)a few thousand years old.
D)100 billion years old.

Question 9

Darwin's theory of evolution drew from all of the following scientific disciplines except

A)demography.
B)geology.
C)genetics.
D)systematics.

Question 10

What is the only source of new genetic material?

A)genetic drift
B)gene flow
C)evolution
D)mutation

Question 11

How is the concept of catastrophism different from the concept of uniformitarianism?

A)Catastrophism is the idea that the shape of the earth's surface gradually shifts over time.
B)Catastrophism is only the result of human-induced changes.
C)Catastrophism is the idea that geologic changes are the result of single cataclysmic events.
D)None of the above.

Question 12

Mendel's discrete units responsible for the characteristics in his pea plants are now known as

A)chromosomes.
B)DNA.
C)genes.
D)RNA.

Question 13

Like most of his contemporaries, Charles Darwin believed

A)that physical traits were passed from the father to the offspring.
B)that physical traits were acquired in an individual's lifetime.
C)that physical traits were passed down from each parent and then blended together in the offspring.
D)that physical traits were passed from the mother to the offspring.

Question 14

What decreases the number of genetic differences between populations?

A)genetic drift
B)mutation
C)DNA
D)gene flow

Question 15

Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species (1859) was considered an important contribution to modern science because

A)it coined the concept of evolution.
B)it synthesized information from diverse scientific fields in order to document evolutionary change.
C)it was immediately and widely accepted by the scientific community as the mechanism for evolutionary change.
D)none of the above.

Question 16

James Hutton is associated with

A)adaptation.
B)catastrophism.
C)uniformitarianism.
D)principles of heredity.

Question 17

Whose efforts helped explain how chromosomes are replicated?

A)Rosalind Franklin
B)James Watson
C)Francis Crick
D)all of the above

Question 18

According to Darwin, natural selection operates at the level of

A)individuals.
B)genes.
C)populations.
D)species.

Question 19

Natural selection

A)works on preexisting variation in a population.
B)works on traits acquired through an organism's lifetime.
C)works only on deleterious traits.
D)works only on advantageous traits.

Question 20

Among the first scientists to conceive of evolutionary change was

A)Charles Darwin.
B)Georges Cuvier.
C)Erasmus Darwin.
D)Alfred Wallace.

Question 21

Different versions, or subunits, of the same gene are

A)chromosomes.
B)gemmules.
C)alleles.
D)blenders.

Question 22

Cuvier's work on fossil elephants in France supported the then controversial notion of

A)extinction.
B)evolution.
C)natural selection.
D)genetics.

Question 23

The scientist who coined the name Homo sapiens for human beings and placed them in a higher taxonomic group (primates) was

A)Charles Darwin.
B)Georges Cuvier.
C)Carolus Linnaeus.
D)Robert Hooke.

Question 24

The only possible source of new genetic material is

A)natural selection.
B)mutation.
C)gene flow.
D)gene drift.

Question 25

Thomas Hunt Morgan

A)demonstrated that chromosomes carry genetic material in the form of genes.
B)studied mutations in Homo sapiens.
C)thought change was gradual and occurred over long time periods.
D)none of the above.

Question 26

The individual genotypes in a breeding population, taken as a whole, are the

A)gene pool.
B)DNA.
C)genome.
D)polygene.

Question 27

Which of the following is false regarding populations of living organisms?

A)Parents often produce many offspring.
B)Population size is limited by the food supply.
C)Individuals in populations actively compete for scarce resources.
D)Individuals in populations show little or no variation.

Question 28

Recessive alleles will be expressed if they are inherited

A)from either parent.
B)from neither parent.
C)from both parents.
D)along with a dominant allele.

Question 29

The English demographer whose work on population growth greatly influenced Darwin's thinking was

A)Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck.
B)Georges Cuvier.
C)Thomas Malthus.
D)Charles Lyell.

Question 30

How did Lamarck contribute to the theory of evolution?

A)He discovered genetic mutation through experiments with pea plants.
B)He proposed the concept of natural selection after his voyage to the Galapagos Islands and his study of finches.
C)He did not but instead proposed an erroneous evolutionary mechanism known today as inheritance of acquired characteristics.
D)He did not but instead proposed a concept known today as gene flow.

Question 31

You're watching a show on TV about the history of scientific thought in Europe prior to 1800.The narrator correctly states that at that time

A)all species were believed to have evolved from a common ancestor.
B)all forms were thought to have been created by God and to remain constant over time.
C)most species were thought to go extinct over time.
D)evolution was attributed to natural selection acting upon genetic variation.

Question 32

How was Darwin influenced by Thomas Malthus's work on population growth?

A)Darwin was interested in Malthus's examinations of population changes in pea plants.
B)Darwin was influenced by Malthus's work on demography and population responses to food availability.
C)Darwin liked the concept of Latin taxonomic classification as it pertained to human groups.
D)Darwin was greatly influenced by research on acquired characteristics.

Question 33

Darwin observed that adaptations

A)resulted from supernatural forces.
B)did not vary among Galápagos finches living in different habitats.
C)were physical traits that enhanced survival and reproduction.
D)were peripheral to evolutionary change.

Question 34

The scientist whose work provided the foundation for later understandings of genetics was

A)John Ray.
B)Gregor Mendel.
C)Charles Darwin.
D)Robert Hook.

Question 35

All of the following are formal taxonomic categories except

A)kingdom.
B)population.
C)order.
D)family.

Question 36

The geneticist who studied the workings of fruit flies' chromosomes was

A)Charles Darwin.
B)Gregor Mendel.
C)Thomas Hunt Morgan.
D)Thomas Huxley.

Question 37

The English scientist who independently codiscovered the theory of natural selection was

A)Charles Lyell.
B)Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck.
C)Alfred Russel Wallace.
D)Carolus Linnaeus.

Question 38

Mendel's plant hybridization experiments demonstrated that

A)inherited traits from each parent blended together in the offspring.
B)DNA was the molecule carrying the genetic code.
C)peas were a poor choice for understanding basic hereditary principles.
D)traits inherited from each parent remained distinct in the offspring.

Question 39

The Human Genome Project (a massive collaboration to decode and study the human genome) is most likely to contribute to an understanding of which disease?

A)cancer
B)influenza
C)tuberculosis
D)smallpox

Question 40

The physical expression of an organism's genetic constitution is called its

A)karyotype.
B)phenotype.
C)stereotype.
D)genotype.

Question 41

Gene flow differs from genetic drift because

A)it is the random change in the frequency of alleles.
B)it is the random change in a gene or chromosome.
C)it is the guiding force of evolution.
D)it is the spread of new genetic material from one gene pool to another.

Question 42

What are some of the important scientific discoveries that laid the groundwork for Darwin's theory of evolution?

Question 43

Why is Linnaeus's taxonomic system called a "nested hierarchy"? Considering that Linnaeus was not an evolutionist, why is his system still used today by evolutionary biologists?

Question 44

In your textbook, the lesser frequency of sickle-cell anemia among present day American blacks as compared to West African blacks is attributed to

A)genetic drift.
B)gene flow.
C)new mutations.
D)none of the above.

Question 45

Why was Darwin's 1859 published theory of natural selection not widely accepted by his peers? What later scientific advance was critical to the subsequent broad acceptance of natural selection as a major force in evolutionary change?

Question 46

Why are Darwin's finches considered good examples of natural selection?

A)They are found on every continent.
B)There is fossil evidence that they originated in North America.
C)They embody the idea of descent with modification.
D)They did not differ between populations.

Question 47

Darwin was a crew member on ________ , a ship whose voyage informed his later theory of natural selection.

A)the HMS Labrador
B)the HMS Beagle
C)the HMS Papillon
D)the HMS Elizabeth

Question 48

Detail Darwin's major contribution to the theory of evolution.

Question 49

Linnaeus's taxonomic system is referred to as a "hierarchy" because

A)each species has a "higher level" genus and "lower level" species.
B)species are placed in a ranked list called "The Great Chain of Being."
C)humans are considered the most evolved species.
D)none of the above.

Question 50

How do Darwin's finches demonstrate the concept of adaptive radiation?

A)They are closely related species that have branched from one species.
B)They are no different than ancient species of lemurs.
C)They have radiated from ancient species of monkeys.
D)They show great cultural flexibility.

Question 51

By the mid-twentieth century, the causes of evolution were seen as all of the following except

A)natural selection.
B)macromutation.
C)gene flow.
D)genetic drift.

Question 52

What is the significance for evolutionary theory of Darwin's analysis of the Galápagos finches? Provide at least one example in your answer.