Deck 3: Principles of Biological Evolution

Question 1

All forms of life today, including humans, use a variant of the same DNA code.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Mendel established the principles of heredity using peas rather than humans because humans vary from other animals in their DNA base.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Anthropologists are as interested in the biology of individual humans as in groups of them.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

"Descent with modification" means change through time.

Question 5

Evolution is fact because change in populations can often be observed.

Question 6

All life is composed of the same amino acids, thus pointing at a common origin of all life.

Question 7

Although most Greek philosophers believed in essentialism, Plato was an early believer in evolution.

Question 8

Until the 19th century, geological knowledge suggested the earth was only 6-7 thousand years old.

Question 9

Linnaeus was the first scientist to wholly believe in change through time.

Question 10

Lamarck used giraffes to demonstrate his belief that okapi-like animals changed to giraffes.

Question 11

The three cornerstones to explain evolution are inheritance, natural selection, and mutations.

Question 12

If there are two and only two forms of a gene for a trait, each is called an allele.

Question 13

Mendel's principle of segregation claims that genes for different traits are inherited independently as long as they are on different chromosomes.

Question 14

PTC is often used to illustrate Mendelian genetics because no one cares if they can taste it or not.

Question 15

By definition, dominant forms of alleles occur more often than recessive forms.

Question 16

Someone who receives one taster gene from mom and one non-taster gene from dad is considered to be heterozygous for the taster trait.

Question 17

Cells are the smallest genetic units that perform all necessary life functions.

Question 18

Chromosomes are segments of DNA on genes that give instructions for traits.

Question 19

Adaptation to an existing environment is usually easy to see.

Question 20

Zygotes never have the same genotype as either parent.

Question 21

Mutations must occur in the body cells for them to have evolutionary significance.

Question 22

The geneticist Sewall Wright discovered that populations can change from one generation to the next just because they are small in size.

Question 23

Hybridization between two species is the third way new species can be formed.

Question 24

Of the following, all are inherent problems in studying humans rather than other species EXCEPT

A) human generations are very long
B) it is difficult for scientists to control human matings
C) the human genetic code is different from all other animals in basic DNA
D) humans have relatively small numbers of offspring

Question 25

Geneticists traditionally use fruit flies in experiments because

A) they always breed true and do not show blending
B) they have large, easily observed, chromosomes
C) their generation length is so short that scientists can do long-term studies
D) B and C are correct

Question 26

All of the following are evidence of evolution EXCEPT

A) finding older and older fossils in the same lineage
B) the numerous examples of natural selection as observed in nature
C) cloning of sheep
D) the large percent of shared DNA of humans, bonobos, and chimpanzees

Question 27

Aristotle's Great Chain of Being contends that

A) all animals evolved in a straight line (chain) of lineages
B) ideal types were created in perfect form and did not change
C) scientists can trace modern living forms back to primal times
D) though most species were fixed in their present state, there was change in the near past

Question 28

Ideas about evolution could not take root until

A) the Catholic church stopped insisting that God created perfect species
B) the mechanisms (mutations and selection) of evolution were understood
C) a long Earth existence was acknowledged
D) all of the above are correct

Question 29

Lamarck believed all of the following EXCEPT

A) selection favored the strongest individuals in any population
B) change occurred in populations from simple to complex
C) what happens to an organism during its lifetime can be passed on to its offspring
D) change occurs in organisms based on their own wills and desires

Question 30

Uniformitarianism refers to

A) the geological principle that catastrophes like earthquakes uniformly affect the world
B) the almost identical passing of genetic materials from one generation to the next
C) the almost identical passing of genetic materials from one individual to its offspring
D) the processes of Earth formation and change are the same now as in the past

Question 31

The combined contribution of Dobzhansky, Mayr, and Simpson in the 1940s to 1950s was to

A) rewrite Darwin from anecdotal to scientific terms
B) explain mathematical predictions of earlier scientists so others could understand them
C) note that body cell mutations cannot be passed on to subsequent generations
D) emphasize the role of chance in mutations and selection as well as in drift

Question 32

Mendel discovered all of the following principles of heredity EXCEPT

A) pairs of chromosomes separate during sex cell replication.
B) chromosomes from parents blend when they are not too dissimilar
C) genes for different traits are inherited independently as long as they are on different chromosomes
D) some genes are dominant over others, thus masking their effects

Question 33

Mendel published his genetic findings in 1866 and shortly thereafter, he

A) became too ill to test his original findings with another plant species
B) died
C) became the head of his monastery and stopped being a scientist
D) ran off with a female member of his congregation and was never heard of again

Question 34

An exception to Mendel's genetic principles would result if

A) individuals are heterozygous for a trait if a sibling is homozygous
B) two traits are found on the same chromosome
C) both parents had two dominant genes for a trait
D) both parents had two recessive genes for a trait

Question 35

Watson and Crick discovered there were only four in DNA strands, no matter what the species.

A) bases
B) proteins
C) molecules
D) amino acid

Question 36

The name of the genes that control the timing of certain events in a person's biological life is

A) timing genes
B) structural genes
C) regulatory genes
D) proteins

Question 37

Darwin's thinking that resulted in his theory of natural selection included all of the following EXCEPT

A) knowledge that mutations were the ultimate source of variation
B) all species can produce more offspring than present resources can feed
C) variation exists among all species and is inherited
D) competition results from too many offspring for too few resources

Question 38

A particular animal has positive reproductive differential based on its

A) genotype
B) genetic endowment
C) total phenotype
D) sexual selection strategy

Question 39

The raw material of evolution is

A) mutations
B) natural selection
C) genetic shifts
D) chromosomes

Question 40

Women produce sex cells

A) twice as much during ovulation as between any two menstrual periods
B) less often than males but they are more fertile
C) and store them long before a baby is born
D) starting before they are teenagers, but the cells are not fully formed

Question 41

Current knowledge about the tempo of evolution concludes that

A) all species follow the phyletic gradualism mode
B) all species follow the punctuated equilibrium mode
C) at the speciation level, evolution is almost always gradual
D) considering all species and long periods of time, both tempos were operating

Question 42

Directional selection works

A) to stabilize a species' variability
B) on the existing variability in a species
C) only when the population is small
D) only when the environment remains the same

Question 43

Genetic drift

A) can only operate when a population has more than l0,000 individuals
B) causes two populations that normally don't interbreed to become more similar
C) causes two populations that normally interbreed to become more similar
D) may allow a very beneficial mutation to cause a speciation event

Question 44

African baboons

A) form one species, but there is gene flow on the borders of all subspecies
B) form one genus and five species, with little or no interbreeding on their borders
C) form five distinct species that differ in many traits and never interbreed
D) are one single species so similar to each other that they can not be said to form subspecies

Question 45

Comparing the two models of speciation and the biggest difference is in the role of

A) natural selection
B) mutations
C) genetic drift
D) gene flow

Question 46

Why do anthropologists find it difficult to study their own species relative to studying other species of animals?

Question 47

What does the fact that anthropologists study groups, not individuals, affect what and how they study humans?

Question 48

What is the modern synthesis and why did it take two phases to produce?

Question 49

Differentiate between genotype and phenotype in terms of causation.

Question 50

Discuss the role of chance in mutations, gene flow, and genetic drift.

Question 51

Discuss several problems that exist when scientists try to establish the notion of paleospecies.

Question 52

Discuss individual reproductive differential and genetic contribution on the individual level and adaptation on the group level of natural selection.

Question 53

What three conditions must be met for mutations to become established in the evolutionary record?

Question 54

Discuss the similarities and differences of the two major models of speciation.

Question 55

What changes in knowledge occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries that led to a better climate for Mendel and Darwin's work in the mid 1800s?