The theory of natural selection states that:
individuals that live the longest are best adapted and selected for survival in the next generation.
individuals that mutate in response to their environment will survive at the expense of those individuals who are genetically stable
only the largest and strongest individuals survive
the best-adapted individuals survive and reproduce, contributing the most genes to the next generation.
A population of deer was threatened with overpopulation until cheetahs were imported. After a couple of years, there were fewer deer, but the average running speed of the deer had increased. This is an example of:
natural selection.
mutation
inheritance of acquired characteristics
genetic drift.
What mechanism did Charles Darwin discover as the driving force behind evolution?
the inheritance of acquired characteristics
common descent with modification
natural selection
artificial selection
Who believed the species on Earth changed over time as a result of periodic great catastrophes?
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
Georges Cuvier
Alfred Russel Wallace
Charles Lyell
The long neck of a giraffe has developed over a long period of time because giraffes have needed to stretch their necks to reach food high in trees, and that quality has been passed on through the generations. This view of evolution would correspond with the ideas of:
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck.
Charles Lyell.
Georges Cuvier.
Alfred Russel Wallace.
Many commercial pesticides become less effective after two to three years because:
pests with resistant genes will survive and reproduce.
new pests invade the area
pests without resistant genes will ignore any plant coated with pesticide
the chemicals mutate.
A population is:
a group of organisms that can successfully interbreed in nature but do not interbreed with other such groups
all the members of a species that live in a defined geographic region at the same time.
all the different species that live in a defined geographic area at the same time.
a group of different species that share common features.
The gene pool for a particular gene would include:
the sum of all the alleles for all the traits in the population.
all the alleles for a given trait in a particular individual organism of the population.
the sum of all the phenotypes in the population.
all the alleles for a particular gene in all the individuals in the population.
What is the difference between microevolution and macroevolution?
Microevolution is hypothetical because changes are too small to be observed, whereas macroevolution is detectable
Microevolution deals with microscopic organisms, whereas macroevolution deals with larger ones.
Microevolution describes what happens in small populations, whereas macroevolution deals with large populations
Microevolution describes changes within a population over a short period of time, whereas macroevolution describes larger changes such as the formation of new species over longer periods of time.
As world travel becomes easier and human populations intermix, the occurrence of what phenomenon will probably decrease?
sexual selection
immigration
founder effect and genetic drift
Shrews have been documented to travel across frozen lakes and establish populations on previously uninhabited islands; thus, the shrews have a limited gene pool. If this limited gene pool has allele frequencies that are very different from the allele frequencies found in the original population, then this would be an example of:
population bottleneck
divergent evolution
founder effect
Imagine a population of monkeys in South America whose habitat has been reduced to the point where only 25 monkeys survive. This is an example of:
genetic drift
How successful an individual is at passing on its genes to the next generation is known as:
microevolution
adaptation
fitness
The biological species concept cannot be applied to bacteria because:
their DNA is too similar.
their features are too small to be able to distinguish one kind from another.
they do not reproduce sexually
they never exchange genes that would allow for speciation.
Which of these definitions of species most closely fits the biological species concept?
For asexually reproducing organisms, members of the same species are based on DNA and RNA base sequence analysis.
Members of the same species look almost exactly alike.
Members of the same species are all morphologically similar
Members of the same species can mate and produce fertile offspring.
A population of mountain-dwelling salamanders migrates and splits into two populations separated by a valley they can not cross. The speciation process that may occur is:
allopatric
temporal
behavioral
sympatric
A population becomes isolated from other populations of the same species, and then genetic divergence occurs that prevents them from breeding with other populations. What has happened?
speciation
formation of genetic drifts
directional selection
mechanical incompatibility
The many species of tree frogs that inhabit forests in the eastern United States maintain their genetic isolation from other species by several mechanisms, including "singing" slightly different songs. Which type of isolating mechanism does this represent?
temporal isolation
behavioral isolation
ecological isolation
mechanical isolation
Pollen of one plant species will not germinate on the flower of another species. This is an example of:
temporal isolation.
hybrid inviability
hybrid infertility.
gametic isolation
When a species invades a new habitat and evolves rapidly into several new species, what has occurred?
divergent speciation
polyploidy
adaptive radiation
phyletic speciation
In an organism's binomial scientific name, the first of the two names is the
species
family
order
genus
Analogous features in different organisms have nothing to do with common descent. These are produced by:
convergent evolution.
divergent evolution.
reproductive isolation.
adaptive radiation.
You discover a single-celled organism that does not have a nucleus, and you also notice that the culture is producing methane. In which group would you place this organism?
Domain Bacteria
Domain Archaea
Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Protista
The evolution of land organisms was not possible until enough ________ had been made by the early forms of aquatic life.
oxygen gas
carbon dioxide
ammonia
organic food
Which aquatic vertebrates are thought to be the ancestors of the amphibians?
skates and rays
tadpoles
lobe-finned fish
sharks
Primates first appear in the fossil record in the:
Mesozoic era.
Cambrian period.
Paleozoic era
Cenozoic era.
The amniotic egg first appeared in which group of animals?
amphibians
reptiles
birds
mammals
