Summer 2003: Lecture Exam 1

This exam consists of 50 multiple-choice questions. Each one has only one right answer. Read each question and all possible answers carefully before answering. Please mark your answers on the Scantron form provided, using only #2 lead pencil. If you erase an answer, make sure you erase it fully, or the machine may mark it incorrect. Check carefully to ensure that your answers are on the correct rows on the Scantron form.

Turn in both the Scantron form and the test paper when you are finished. Make sure your name is on both. You may write on the test paper if you wish, but anything you write on the test paper will not be graded. Good luck.

1. Biologists who study snakes generally agree that snakes evolved from a type of lizard. Which line of evidence does not support this hypothesis?
Snakes are predators in many ecosystems.

2. Some living snakes have tiny "spurs" on the body where hind legs would be, and a tiny internal bone where the pelvis would be. Snakes obviously don't use these for walking, or for much of anything else. We would call them
vestigial structures.

3. We could represent the best reconstruction of how snakes and lizards are related by using a branching diagram called a:
cladogram

4. That cladogram would have to be based on
features that are shared by the organisms on it.

5. Such a reconstruction would not be proved truth,
but it can be tested.

6. In the southeastern United States, there is a lizard called Anolis carolinensis, or the "American anole" or "chamaeleon". (Technically it's not a true chamaeleon, but people call it that.) On the island of Cuba, there is a lizard species called Anolis sagrei that is very similar, but subtly different from, the American lizard. What was a likely first step in the process that put these lizard species where they are?
All of the above are possible first steps.
I.e.: Lizards from Cuba could have been transported by storms or driftwood to the southern US; or vice versa; or there could have been a land bridge. You can't tell which is likeliest just from the information given, but all are possible first steps in speciation.

7. Afther the first step, what probably happened?
Each separate population of lizards adapted in different ways.

8. The Cuban and American lizards are similar enough that some people might argue that they're the same species. What's the best way to test that?
Try to crossbreed them.
This being the working definition of what a species is. . .

9. Morel mushrooms are said to be ascomycetes, which means that, if you examined slices of one under the microscope, you'd find its spores being produced
inside microscopic sacs.

10. If a scientist tells you that he's proved an important theory, you should
suspect that he's not really a scientist.
Again: Scientists don't prove anything.

11. Which of the following is not a feature of all living things, as far as we know?
cell walls

12. The last time I went hiking in Nevada, I walked over several thick rock layers that make up a small mountain, called Mt. Dunfee. At the base of the mountain I saw a rock layer called the Reed Dolomite. The layer below the Reed Dolomite is a layer of dark green rocks called the Wyman Formation. Above the Reed Dolomite is a different-colored layer called the Deep Springs Formation. Which one formed first?
The Wyman Formation is oldest.

13. The man who discovered the "Law" that lets you tell which rock layer is oldest was
Steno.

14. The "Law" itself is called the Principle Of
Superposition

15. All the following statements are true about transport in plants EXCEPT:
***This question is still under review by the referees.***

16. What would happen if there were no bacteria or fungi?
All life would end because recycling of nutrients would end.

17. Axillary buds produce:
***This question is still under review by the referees.***

18. A good scientific experiment should:
isolate a single variable from nature.

19. The abbreviation CHON stands for
the most common chemical elements in living things.

20. A fungus called Gloeosporum nervisequum grows on sweet gum tree leaves, giving them reddish-black spots. G. nervisequum does not undergo sexual reproduction (as far as we know), which means that we classify it as a/an
imperfect fungus.

21. Since G. nervisequum harms the tree on which it grows, the relationship between the two would be called
parasitism.

22. Which of these would be an example of artificial selection?
A cattle rancher uses his best bull for breeding stock and slaughters the others.

23. The following are true about the knowledge gained by science EXCEPT:
it is better than other ways of knowing because it is objective.

24. According to James Hutton, what does an angular unconformity mean?
The Earth is indefinitely old, although just how old Hutton didn't know.

25. Linnaean classification was developed by
Carl Linnaeus.
Duh.

26. People with arthritis sometimes wear copper bracelets. There's no evidence that copper actually helps arthritis, but some people say that it makes them feel better. This is probably
the placebo effect.

27. Someone might say "I used to have arthritis pain in my wrist. I put on a copper bracelet, and then the pain went away. That's proof that copper causes arthritis to disappear!" That would be
the post hoc fallacy.

28. What distinguishes one Kingdom from another?
the structure of the organisms.

29. Which of the following is NOT part of the reasoning behind Darwin's theory of natural selection?
Living things have a tendency to get more complex over time.

30. The bacteria that cause anthrax produce a chemical, called edema factor, that leaves the bacterium, enters an infected animal's or person's cells, and causes them to swell up. Edema factor is a/an
exotoxin.

31. Science is only able to explore
objective reality based on shared observations.

32. The statement "Vanilla Ice is a better rapper than Eminem" is
unscientific, because it deals with aesthetic judgment.

33. Which of the following is not a characteristic of the Kingdom Fungi?
absence of nuclei.

34. Which of the following steps is NOT part of the scientific method?
accept hypotheses that cannot be tested on faith.

35. The force that pulls water from the roots to the top of a tall tree is:
evaporation.

36. Just by carefully reading its name, you could recognize the bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum by its
spiral shape. Because it's got the word "spirillum" in its name.

37. In the above question, the name Rhodospirillum refers to the ___ that the bacterium is classified in.
genus

38. A creationist whom I once publically debated said, during the debate, that if evolution was true, then people might as well go ahead and act like savage wild animals. What error in reasoning does this illustrate?
The naturalistic fallacy.
See, what he was saying was that if something is natural, then it must be morally OK -- if it's somehow "natural" for us to be "animal-like", then it's morally OK for us to be animal-like.

39. Which of the following materials is made up of cell walls?
wood

40. Can you receive extra credit in this class?
No.

41. How about make-up exams? Can you take make-up exams in this course?
No; instead, a valid absence will result in prorating your grade.

42. The organs of a plant do NOT include:
both B and D.

43. In Ireland, between 1846 and 1850, a famine was caused when a parasite called Plasmodiophora attacked the potato crop. Plasmodiophora has no cell wall. Its cells all have nuclei. It can be multicellular, but there is very little cell differentiation. This means that we would classify it as a/an
protist

44. Plasmodiophora is still with us, but it can be controlled with pesticides. Unfortunately, the use of pesticides for fifty years means that resistant strains of Plasmodiophora are becoming more and more frequent. The probable cause is
natural selection

45. Which of the following is NOT recognized in Biology as a Kingdom?
Monotremata.

46. Lamarck's idea of the "inheritance of acquired characters" was
reasonable for its time but ultimately disproved.

47. Which of the following kingdoms of life has many members that show cellular differentiation?
A and C (Animalia and Plantae)

48. Which of the following is an example of a mycelium?
The fuzzy green stuff on old bread.

49. The true identity of the God(s) who created the physical universe, and all the life in it, is
not an appropriate question to handle using the scientific method.
(Although I'm holding out for Odhinn, Vili and Vé, myself.)

50. The state where Conway is located is called
Arkansas.