Deck 1: An Overview of Evolutionary Biology

Question 1

The vast branching tree of historical relationships for all known species that live or ever have lived

A)connects evolutionary history to the current diversity of life on Earth.
B)is a map that reflects the process of descent with modification.
C)is known as a phylogenetic tree.
D)A and C
E)All of the above

Answer 1

E

Question 2

According to the phylogenetic tree above,fungi are more related to

A)land plants.
B)amoebozoa.
C)red algae.
D)metazoans.
E)bacteria.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Darwin realized that changes that have occurred in species over time are the result of

A)transformational processes.
B)natural selection.
C)ongoing processes easily observable during a lifetime.
D)traits acquired during a lifetime passed on to progeny.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

If chimpanzee and human genomes differ only about 1.3% at the level of DNA base pairs,how can we explain the dramatic differences in appearance,behavior,cultures,etc.,between humans and chimps?

A)There is a correlation between increased rates of divergence with known functions of alleles in humans and chimps.
B)Natural selection has been acting on clusters of genes associated with both survival and reproduction in humans and chimps.
C)Important differences exist in the expression of genes in humans and chimps.
D)Two of the above can explain the differences.

Question 5

Considering the table above,which of the following statements is likely true?

A)Antibiotic resistance will not evolve to newer antibiotics.
B)Eventually, pharmaceutical companies will need to come up with new categories of antibiotics that work in ways not yet conceived.
C)Physicians will need to work in locally and globally coordinated ways to assure that newly developed antibiotics are not overprescribed.
D)A and B
E)B and C

Question 6

Charles Darwin was the first person to suggest that

A)the present forms of all existing species are the result of natural selection.
B)species have changed over long periods of time.
C)traits acquired during a life time were passed on to subsequent generations.
D)A and B

Question 7

The primary,but not only,process responsible for the modifications that occur in organisms over geological time is

A)genetic mutation.
B)natural selection.
C)morphological (phenotypic) modification.
D)increase in fitness.

Question 8

The loss of which species on the figure above would represent the loss of the most significant phylogenetic diversity?

A)A
D)D
B)B
E)D and E
C)C

Question 9

Which source(s)of data do evolutionary biologists use to test their hypotheses?

A)Molecular data
C)Morphological and behavioral data
B)Data from the fossil record
D)All of the above

Question 10

Each time a species goes extinct

A)there are evolutionary consequences.
B)part of the evolutionary history of life on Earth is lost.
C)a twig on the tree of life is lost forever.
D)All of the above

Question 11

Each tip of the phylogenetic tree above represents

A)an extinction.
C)a living or extant taxon.
B)a domain.
D)Any of the above

Question 12

Looking at the table above,predict what will happen if a new antibiotic to the food poisoning bacteria Campylobacter jejuni is developed and prescribed heavily by physicians beginning in 2012.

A)Campylobacter jejuni will be effectively treated for the next 2-3 decades.
B)Campylobacter jejuni will be effectively treated for the next 2-5 years.
C)The new antibiotic will make all former antibiotics for treating Campylobacter jejuni obsolete.
D)B and C

Question 13

In the figure above,branching points closer to the center of the phylogenetic tree represent

A)an extinction.
B)important speciation events in the history of life.
C)a domain.
D)recently discovered fossils.

Question 14

In which of the following scenarios are models being used to make predictions and plan for the future?

A)A policeman clocks the speed of a motorist with a radar gun.
B)Someone checks the weather forecast for the weekend.
C)An evolutionary biologist estimates fitness by measuring gene frequencies over time.
D)All of the above

Question 15

The study of evolutionary biology has influenced the techniques used by the health and livestock industries in which of the following ways?

A)Physicians often prescribe antibiotics in combination.
B)Livestock producers have entirely eliminated the use of antibiotics in animal feed.
C)Pharmaceutical companies now recommend that physicians prescribe the highest safely tolerated doses of new antibiotics.
D)A and C
E)All of the above

Question 16

More than 100 years ago,Charles Darwin and his colleague Thomas Huxley hypothesized that humans share a common ancestor based on

A)anatomical evidence.
B)fossil evidence gathered during Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle.
C)manipulative experiments.
D)All of the above

Question 17

If you could protect from extinction only the lineages derived from two of the nodes in the figure above,which pair would you save to yield the greatest phylogenetic diversity?

A)Nodes E and F
C)Nodes C and D
B)Nodes D and E
D)All of the above choices are equivalent.

Question 18

Which of the following statements is (are)true in the absence of competition from other males?

A)Female chickens mated more often with the male present.
B)The quantity of sperm a male used to inseminate a female decreased.
C)Once a male has inseminated a female, additional sperm may do little to increase the probability of fertilization.
D)B and C

Question 19

The figure above indicates that as the number of male competitors for a single female chicken increased,

A)female chickens stored more sperm.
B)female chickens mated with more males.
C)the quantity of sperm a male used to inseminate the female increased.
D)aggression increased in male chickens.

Question 20

Manipulative experiments

A)allow scientists to directly assess how changes in one component of a system influence the other components.
B)allow scientists to examine not only correlations among data, but also causality.
C)ideally alter only one variable at a time.
D)All of the above

Question 21

Given the fact that humans are the ones producing and distributing pesticides,why do we call the development of pesticide resistance natural selection rather than artificial selection?

Question 22

Fisher's sex ratio model was put to test with a species of blue moon butterflies on the Samoan islands of Upolu and Savaii.Which of the following statement regarding that study are true?

A)Originally, 99% of the butterflies were female and only 1% were male.
B)By 2006, the male:female sex ratio had returned to the expected 1:1.
C)By 2006, only the males were infected with the Wolbachia bacterium.
D)A and B

Question 23

Fisher developed his model partly because so much observational data suggested that the 1:1 sex ratio was common to nature and he wanted to understand why.Is there any natural ordering when it comes to empirical and theoretical approaches?

A)Good theory should postdate data collecting.
B)Good theory should precede data collecting.
C)Good theory can either precede or postdate data collecting.
D)Good theory should precede hypothesis collecting.

Question 24

The archeological record indicates when people began using various grains and legumes and when these food plants were domesticated.Looking at the figure above,estimate how long humans have been selectively breeding grains.(Note that the gaps in the figure represent periods when no evidence of that crop was found.)

Question 25

Describe an evolutionary arms race,other than the ones effecting the development of pesticides and antibiotic resistance,that has a practical application.

Question 26

As conservation biologists try to slow the rate of human-caused extinctions,they often have to make hard choices about which habitats and species to save with their limited resources.The textbook presented the case of the cichlid fishes of Lake Victoria in Africa.Argue that the recent loss of 200 of the 400 species of recently evolved (during the last 14,000 years)fish due to the introduction of the Nile perch as a food fish is a minor phylogenetic loss or that it is a tragic loss at an evolutionary hotspot.

Question 27

Good theory can either precede or postdate data collecting and hypothesis testing.Describe an example,from a discipline of your choice,in which observation or experiment prompted the development of a model,and provide a second example in which already existing theory encouraged experimental research.

Question 28

During the observations of a species of blue moon butterflies on the Samoan islands of Upolu and Savaii,99% of the butterflies were originally female and only 1% were male,but in only five years the male:female sex ratio had returned to nearly the expected 1:1.What caused this?

A)Wolbachia lost the ability to kill male butterflies.
B)Evolutionary changes in the butterflies allowed the butterflies to suppress the male-killing effect of Wolbachia.
C)All of the above
D)None of the above

Question 29

The five photographs above illustrate some of the sources for the data that evolutionary biologists use to test their hypotheses.Make a short list of other types of data that would be useful for evolutionary biologists to use in their studies,and explain how they would be useful to evolutionary biologists.

Question 30

Darwin's theory of natural selection is considered a paradigm shift-a theory that has wide-ranging effects.Describe another paradigm shift that has occurred in biology.Make a case for why this shift has fundamentally changed the way scientists see the world and the sorts of questions they ask.

Question 31

How has artificial selection been used to shape the characteristics of food producing plants?

Question 32

Darwin's theory of natural selection is considered a paradigm shift-a theory that has wide-ranging effects.Describe some of the advantages that this theory offered scientists once it was developed.

Question 33

Artificial selection has been used to shape the behavior of farm animals such as the chicken and domestic animals such as the dog.Evolutionary behaviorists believe that natural selection also has affected the appearance and behavior of the domestic dog.Provide a short explanation of how this may have happened.

Question 34

Sources for the data that evolutionary biologists use to test their hypotheses are derived from many subdisciplines of the biological sciences.Identify the five data sources illustrated in the photographs above.

Question 35

Describe Darwin's theory of natural selection.

Question 36

Suppose that you find the sex ratio in a population you are studying is different from what you predicted in your model.Using simple proportions of male and female offspring,show how natural selection should move the sex ratio to the value you predicted in your model over a few generations.

Question 37

How does the sex ratio study on butterflies in the Samoan Islands demonstrate that important work in science often involves a sound theoretical base,good observational skills,good experimental design,and sometimes a bit of luck?

Question 38

Fisher's sex ratio model predicts a 1:1 female:male sex ratio.Why has this ratio evolved?

Question 39

Do you believe that natural selection could have affected the behavior of humans towards dogs over time? Why or why not? Provide a short explanation of how this might have happened.

Question 40

Fisher's sex ratio model was put to test in a species of blue moon butterflies on the Samoan islands of Upolu and Savaii,where which of the following conditions existed?

A)The male:female sex ratio was the expected 1:1.
B)99% of the butterflies were female and only 1% were male.
C)Only the males were infected with the Wolbachia bacterium.
D)A and C