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What is the branch of biology called taxonomy primarily concerned with? |
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| evolution | ||
| the classification of life forms by their similarities | ||
| genetics | ||
| the history of the field of biology | ||
| the environment | ||
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Fossils are most likely to be found in _____. |
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| the continental shelves | ||
| unglaciated terrain | ||
| sedimentary rock | ||
| igneous rock | ||
| volcanic archipelagos, such as the Galápagos and Hawaiian Islands | ||
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The scientific study of the diversity of organisms and their evolutionary relationships is called __________. |
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| systematics | ||
| evolution | ||
| taxonomy | ||
| binomial nomenclature | ||
| periodic table | ||
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Which one of the following methods to establish phylogenetic relationships among organisms has been developed most recently? |
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| comparing morphology (shape and structure) | ||
| comparing physiology (the functioning of structures and systems) | ||
| comparing the component sequences of proteins and nucleic acids | ||
| comparing behavioral patterns | ||
| comparing embryonic development | ||
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Three or four of the following statements describe part of the current, widely accepted explanation of why the fossil record is incomplete. Which statement, if any, does NOT help explain the incompleteness of the fossil record? If all the statements help to explain the incomplete fossil record, choose answer (5) |
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| Soft body parts and soft organisms rot and seldom fossilize. | ||
| Some species live where sediments rarely accumulate and don't fossilize. | ||
| Species go extinct and leave gaps in the record. | ||
| Speciation occurred only occasionally and even then, fairly rapidly, so individuals exhibiting transitions seldom fossilized. | ||
| All of the above. | ||
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The fauna and flora of Australia are very different from those of the rest of the world. Why might this be true? |
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| They have become different by convergent evolution. | ||
| The climate of Australia is unlike that of any other place in the world. | ||
| Australia was never in close proximity to the other continents. | ||
| Life in Australia was wiped out by ancient volcanic eruptions. | ||
| Australia has been isolated for about 50 million years. | ||
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Many obvious characteristics, such as color and size, are not useful in classification because they ____________. |
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| do not indicate evolutionary relationships | ||
| have changed extensively over evolutionary time | ||
| are analogous rather than homologous | ||
| all of the above | ||
| none of the above | ||
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If species A and species B are in the same family, and species C is in a different family, then you can infer that _____. |
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| C is more closely related to A than A is to B. | ||
| A and B have a more recent common ancestor than do A and C. | ||
| A and C have a more recent common ancestor than do A and B. | ||
| A is more closely related to C than B is to A. | ||
| None of the above | ||
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All the members of which one of the following groups have the greatest number of characteristics in common? |
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| class | ||
| genus | ||
| kingdom | ||
| phylum | ||
| species | ||
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The scientific system of binomial nomenclature ensures that _________. |
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| each species is assigned a unique name | ||
| each species has a name that is understandable in any country | ||
| systematists can easily specify the closest relatives of any species | ||
| all of the above | ||
| none of the above | ||
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The system of binomial nomenclature assigns to each organism a unique name that describes its _________. |
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| order and family | ||
| body plan and habitat | ||
| species and genus | ||
| family and species | ||
| evolutionary history | ||
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The species is the only taxonomic group (at least in one definition) in which all the members ____________. |
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| have a similar ecology | ||
| share a gene pool | ||
| have a similar morphology | ||
| share an evolutionary ancestor | ||
| all of the above | ||
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A taxon __________. |
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| is a formal grouping at any given level | ||
| refers only to Mammalia | ||
| is a strain | ||
| is a species | ||
| is an order | ||
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Put the following in order, beginning with the most general: class, family, genus, kingdom, order, phylum, species. |
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| kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species | ||
| kingdom, class, phylum, family, order, genus, species | ||
| kingdom, family, class, order, phylum, genus, species | ||
| kingdom, family, order, class, phylum, genus, species | ||
| kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, species, genus | ||
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The wings of birds and insects have the same function, but they do not have the same evolutionary origin. Bird and insect wings are _____. |
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| homologous | ||
| phylogenetic | ||
| analogous | ||
| binomial | ||
| taxonomic | ||
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Which of the following would be the least useful in determining the relationships among various species? |
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| DNA base sequences | ||
| homologous structures | ||
| fossils | ||
| amino acid sequences of proteins | ||
| analogous structures | ||
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A phylogenetic tree of bird families constructed by cladistic analysis would most clearly show which of the following? |
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| characteristics shared by all bird families | ||
| evolutionary relationships among families | ||
| families that look most alike | ||
| analogous structures shared by various species | ||
| relative ages of living species of birds | ||
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Using cladistic analysis, a taxonomist wishes to construct a phylogenetic tree showing the relationships among various species of mammals. Which of the following would be the least useful for this purpose? |
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| descriptions of various types of limbs (wings, legs, flippers, etc.) | ||
| the fact that all mammals have hair | ||
| data about skull bones | ||
| the fact that teeth vary among types of mammals | ||
| DNA base sequences | ||
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Cacti are native to the Americas, while cactuslike euphorbs (relatives of Christmas poinsettias) are native to Africa. The most likely explanation for this is _____. |
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| a founder effect | ||
| adaptive radiation | ||
| competitive exclusion | ||
| coevolution | ||
| convergent evolution | ||
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Mammal hair evolved from the scales of reptiles. On the other hand, the "hair" on many insects, such as bees, has a completely different origin. These facts mean that the hair of mammals and the hair of insects are ____________. |
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| congruent structures | ||
| homologous structures | ||
| heterologous structures | ||
| analogous structures | ||
| embryonic structures | ||
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__________ evolution leads to __________ structures. |
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| Convergent ... analogous | ||
| Divergent ... congruent | ||
| Parallel ... analogous | ||
| Convergent ... homologous | ||
| Divergent ... analogous | ||
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An example of a pair of organisms that have undergone convergent evolution is _____. |
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| mice and bats | ||
| birds and bats | ||
| snakes and turtles | ||
| whales and kangaroos | ||
| none of the above | ||
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In a phylogenetic systematics, taxa are said to be related if they _____. |
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| evolve from the same ancestor | ||
| can exchange genes with one another | ||
| originate at the same time | ||
| share analogous structures | ||
| occupy similar niches | ||
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The characters that are most useful for phylogenetic inference are _________. |
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| unique and ancestral | ||
| shared and ancestral | ||
| biochemical and convergent | ||
| shared and convergent | ||
| shared and derived | ||
Answers: 1-B, 2-C, 3-A, 4-C, 5-E, 6-E, 7-D, 8-B, 9-E, 10-D, 11-C, 12-B, 13-A, 14-A, 15-C, 16-E, 17-B, 18-B, 19-E, 20-D, 21-A, 22-B, 23-A, 24-E