Deck 4: Macroevolution: First Life to Mammals

Question 1

The principle of contingency claims what life is like at any given time depends on what happened previously.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Derived traits are defined as being inherited from an earlier species.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The authors of this text prefer the words "derived" and "ancestral" to "primitive" and "advanced" because the latter words are subjective and connote inferiority and superiority.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The first hard evidence of life in the form of stromatolites is dated at 3.5 byr ago.

Question 5

Plants and animals apparently evolved at about the same time, suggesting one did not evolve from the other.

Question 6

Stephen Jay Gould tells us that all animals today can trace their ancestry back to the Burgess Shale.

Question 7

The major difference in the anatomy of ray- and lobe-finned fish is that in the former, limb bones were articulated to the backbone and used in locomotion.

Question 8

A description of early amphibians in the evolutionary record would show they were the first animals of any size on land.

Question 9

Homodont toothed animals show several different sized and functioning teeth.

Question 10

Therapsids show transitional status between reptiles and mammals

Question 11

The first nucleated life were the eucaryotes dated to about 2.3 byr ago.

Question 12

The earliest evidence of what has come to be known as the Cambrian Explosions occurred in Alberta Canada.

Question 13

The beginning of the Cambrian shows fossils with skeletons.

Question 14

A tetrapod is known from its four chambered heart.

Question 15

An example of analogy in evolution would be butterfly wings and bat wings.

Question 16

As of now, paleontologists put the origin of Earth at 4.6 BYR ago.

Question 17

The first of our phyla, the Chordata, shows up right after the Cambrian period.

Question 18

The first amniotes were insects.

Question 19

Angiosperms are plants with flowers.

Question 20

Fossil evidence of first mammals is heterodont teeth.

Question 21

An example of the principle of homology is

A) bat and butterfly wings
B) whale flippers and bird wings
C) hair on bodies of chimpanzees and gorillas
D) bipedalism in humans and kangaroos

Question 22

The principle that claims scientists believe populations changed in the past for the same reasons they change today is called

A) inferencing
B) biouniformitarianism
C) natural selection
D) contingency

Question 23

The best estimate for the date of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) of all life is given as

A) 4 byr ago
B) 6 byr ago
C) 5 byr ago
D) 3 byr ago

Question 24

Scientists agree there was a geological separation of the Pre-Cambrian and Cambrian periods, suggesting a major evolutionary happening, but they

A) disagree on why it occurred
B) agree it was caused by increased radiation
C) agree it was caused by internal organization of DNA
D) agree it was caused by world-wide cataclysmic events

Question 25

The first fish-like vertebrates in existence 500 myr ago showed all of the following fossil evidence EXCEPT

A) jaws
B) brains
C) eyes
D) organs of smell

Question 26

Reptiles differ from amphibians in all of the following ways EXCEPT reptiles

A) eventually evolved the ability to lift their bodies off the ground
B) laid shelled eggs
C) show a four appendage pattern
D) did not have to go back to the water for food

Question 27

All of the following hypotheses have been suggested to have caused the Permian extinction some 250 myr ago EXCEPT

A) a comet or asteroid hit the Earth and the resulting ash blocked sunlight
B) severe sunspot radiation caused massive mutations
C) a large upswell of water caused global warming
D) volcanic eruptions so severe as to kill off most species

Question 28

All of the following hypotheses have been suggested as the cause of dinosaur extinction some 65 my ago EXCEPT

A) an asteroid hit Earth and caused photosynthesis to stop
B) mammals ate their eggs and had better eyesight to spot food
C) mammals had more offspring and could outcompete large reptiles
D) the world changed from cold and dry to wet and warm; the dinosaurs could not adjust

Question 29

We know when mammals first evolved because they left fossil evidence in the form of

A) four chambered hearts
B) heterodont teeth
C) warm bloodedness
D) new reproductive strategies

Question 30

Earliest mammals probably showed all of the following traits EXCEPT

A) good sense of smell
B) carnivorous eating habits
C) diurnal activity pattern
D) good sense of hearing

Question 31

The first animals in the Cambrian had

A) a four chambered heart
B) skeletal hard parts
C) bilateral symmetry
D) both A and C are correct

Question 32

The Changjiang Formation is important because it

A) was the first Cambrian era fossil find
B) showed early mammal diversity
C) was excavated exclusively by Chinese scientists
D) shows the first nucleated cell life

Question 33

Which was not in the human lineage?

A) ray-finned fish
B) amphibians
C) tetrapods
D) amniotes

Question 34

Which of these was the first amniote?

A) lobe finned fish
B) amphibians
C) reptiles
D) mammals

Question 35

The first to have heterodont teeth were the

A) sea urchins
B) mammals
C) birds
D) reptiles

Question 36

Prokaroytes can be said to have all of the following traits EXCEPT

A) non-nucleated cells
B) reproducing non-sexually
C) evolving from eukaryotes
D) blue green algae in its present form

Question 37

A tetrapod is defined as an animal with

A) a four chambered heart
B) four limbs
C) four eyes
D) four fingers on each limb

Question 38

Therapsids are transitional between

A) amphibians and reptiles
B) fish and amphibians
C) mammals and birds
D) reptiles and mammals

Question 39

Angiosperms differ from earlier plants because they have

A) encased seeds
B) larger size
C) fruits and flowers
D) cones with seeds

Question 40

Because of the earliest dates of fossil plants and animals, scientists agree

A) they evolved at the same time from an ancestral life form in common
B) though the dates are the same, the place on Earth for each is far away so they must have had separate ancestry
C) they differ so much in time that they must have had separate ancestry
D) to disagree, as they don't know where they came from.

Question 41

If you had fossils from two sibling species, how would you reconstruct their common ancestral group and with what would you to do it?

Question 42

Discuss the importance of the Chengjiang Formation and the Burgess Shale.

Question 43

What is a tetrapod and what is its importance to evolution?

Question 44

What do angiosperms have to do with human evolution?

Question 45

In what ways are mammals generalized animals?
Essay Questions

Question 46

List the major happenings from first life to mammals, describing the change in fossil body plans.

Question 47

What macroevolutionary lessons can be learned by looking at the first 3 byr of life?