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Chapter 6 Quiz
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1

Earth's rock strata record the irreversible, historical change that we call organic evolution.
A)True
B)False
2

Darwinian evolutionary theory is the dominant paradigm of biology. It is a theory that is supported by the evidence and never been disproved.
A)True
B)False
3

The first scientific explanation of evolution was formulated by Jean Baptiste de Lamarck who outlined his idea of inheritance of acquired characteristics. Which of the following scenarios did Larmarck use to support his theory?
A)Evolution of insects resistant to pesticides
B)Giraffes evolving long necks by stretching to obtain food
C)Transformational forms in the fossil record
D)Evolution based on differential survival and reproduction among organisms
E)None of the above would fit Lamarck's theory of evolution
4

Which of the following is mismatched?
A)Sir Charles Lyell—Principles of Geology
B)Principle of Uniformitarianism—Sir Charles Lyell
C)Charles Darwin—Voyage of the Beagle in 1831
D)Galápagos Islands—Adaptive radiation of fruit flies
E)None of the above is mismatched
5

Natural forces are responsible for the geological features of the earth.
A)True
B)False
6

Charles Darwin realized that the plants and animals of the Galápagos were different and obviously NOT related to those of the South American mainland.
A)True
B)False
7

Which of the following matches is NOT correct?
A)Malthus—wrote essays on populations that stimulated thoughts of the “struggle for existence”
B)Natural selection—the vehicle of organic evolution proposed by Charles Darwin
C)Alfred Wallace—proposed a theory of evolution similar to that of Darwin's
D)Darwin—wrote “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”
E)All of the above are correct
8

Fossils may include which of the following?
A)Insects in amber
B)Hard parts such as teeth and bones
C)Feathers
D)Molds, casts, and impressions
E)All of the above are correct
9

Fossils, on rare occasions, may include soft tissues preserved so well that cellular organelles can be observed through electron microscopy.
A)True
B)False
10

Which of the following exhibit great fossil beds?
A)Precambrian fossil beds of South Australia
B)Tar pits of Rancho la Brea
C)Dinosaur Provincial Park in Canada
D)Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania
E)All of the above represent excellent fossil beds
11

Fossils are typically deposited in stratified layers with new deposits forming on top of older ones so that characteristic fossils often serve to identify particular layers. Which of the following are considered to be good indicators of specific geological periods (that is, they are “index” or “guide” fossils)?
A)Foraminiferans
B)Echinoderms
C)Bacteria
D)Archaea
E)A and B only
12

The “law of stratigraphy” produced a relative dating method with the oldest layers at the bottom and the youngest at the top.
A)True
B)False
13

Several independent methods of radiometric dating are now used, which involve the radioactive decay of naturally occurring elements into other elements.
A)True
B)False
14

Which of the following is NOT correct?
A)Potassium-argon dating—radiometric dating to 1.3 billion years
B)Cambrian Explosion—nearly 600 million years BP
C)Evolution of horses—only a single genus, Equus, survives
D)Perpetual change—species are fixed and unchangeable
E)All of the above are correct
15

Darwin proposed that all plants and animals have descended from an ancestral form.
A)True
B)False
16

The branching tree of evolution is called...
A)Speciation
B)Phylogeny
C)Common descent
D)Shared ancestry
E)None of the above is correct
17

Darwin's book, “The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex” was devoted to the idea that humans share common descent with apes and other animals. Darwin built his case largely on anatomical comparisons revealing homology between humans and apes.
A)True
B)False
18

The nested hierarchical structure of homology is so pervasive in the living world that it forms the basis for our systematic classification of all forms of life.
A)True
B)False
19

Which of the following is mismatched?
A)Ontogeny—the history of the development of an organism through its entire life
B)Recapitulation—biogenetic law
C)Heterochrony—evolutionary change in timing of development
D)Paedomorphosis—the retention of ancestral juvenile characters by the adults of descendants
E)None of the above is mismatched
20

The part of the evolutionary theory that is termed “multiplication of species” pertains to…
A)When an ancestral species has split into two different ones
B)New species gradually appearing in the fossil record
C)New species formed from older, ancestral species
D)All species increasing geometrically
E)None of the above is correct
21

Although no consensus exists for the definition of species, most biologist would agree that there are three important criteria which includes all of the following except…
A)Descent of all members from a common ancestral population
B)Reproductive compatibility within and reproductive incompatibility between species
C)Maintenance within species of genotypic and phenotypic cohesion
D)Members of species cannot vary in phenotype
E)None of the above is correct
22

Biological features that prevent different species from interbreeding are called…
A)Phenotypic barriers
B)Reproductive barriers
C)Systematic barriers
D)Evolutionary barriers
E)None of the above is correct
23

Which of the following is mismatched?
A)Hybridization—matings between divergent populations
B)Premating barriers—impair fertilization to prevent populations from interbreeding
C)Sibling species—species that are indistinguishable
D)Sympatric speciation—speciation due to allopatry
E)All of the above are correct
24

The production of ecologically diverse species from a common ancestral stock is called..
A)Adaptive radiation
B)Gamma radiation
C)Ecological diversification
D)The Galápagos effect
E)None of the above is correct
25

Which of the following is NOT correct?
A)Darwin's theory of gradualism opposed arguments for the sudden origin of species
B)New traits are always produced by phenotypic gradualism
C)Phenotypic gradualism is not often revealed by the fossil record
D)Punctuated equilibrium is one explanation for the discontinuous evolutionary changes observed throughout geologic time.
E)All of the above are correct
26

Natural selection is the major process by which evolution occurs in Darwin's theory of evolution.
A)True
B)False
27

Which of the following statements, if any, cannot be supported by evidence?
A)Organisms have great potential fertility
B)Natural populations normally remain constant in size, except for minor fluctuations
C)Natural resources are limited
D)A continuing struggle for existence exists among members of a population
E)All of the above are supported by evidence
28

In species with sexual reproduction, many individuals show no phenotypic variation whatsoever.
A)True
B)False
29

There is differential survival and reproduction among varying organisms in a population.
A)True
B)False
30

August Weismann rejected Lamarckian inheritance by showing experimentally that modifications of an organism during its lifetime do not change its heredity.
A)True
B)False
31

Which of the following is NOT correct?
A)Neo-Darwinism—Darwinism plus Mendelian genetics
B)Microevolution—evolutionary changes in frequencies of different allelic forms of genes within populations
C)Polymorphisms—the occurrence of different allelic forms of a gene in a population
D)Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium—the foundation for population genetics
E)All of the above are correct
32

Macroevolution, or evolution on a grand scale, encompasses the origins of new organismal structures and designs, but may also include which of the following:
A)Evolutionary trends
B)Adaptive radiation
C)Phylogenetic relationships of species
D)Mass extinctions
E)All of the above are correct
33

The chance fluctuation in allelic frequency from one generation to the next, including the loss of alleles from the population, is called…
A)Genetic drift
B)Nonrandom mating
C)Inbreeding
D)Migration of alleles
E)None of the above is correct
34

Darwin used which of the following terms to denote the selection of traits that are advantageous for obtaining mates but may be harmful for survival?
A)Relative fitness
B)Sexual selection
C)Allelic selection
D)Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
E)None of the above is correct
35

Different allelic forms of genes encode proteins that may differ slightly in their amino acid sequence. This phenomenon is called…
A)Genetic variation with populations
B)Heterozygosity
C)Protein polymorphism
D)Quantitative variation
E)None of the above is correct
36

When two different extreme phenotypes are simultaneously favored, the population may exhibit two very different phenotypes. This type of quantitative selection is called…
A)Monomorphic selection
B)Stabilizing selection
C)Directional selection
D)Disruptive selection
E)None of the above is correct
37

Periodic, sometimes catastrophic, events in which extinction rates increase dramatically are called:
A)Mass extinctions
B)Macroevolution
C)Bimodal evolution
D)Noah extinctions
E)None of the above is correct
38

The extinction that marked the end of the dinosaurs as well as numerous marine invertebrate taxa is called the Cretaceous extinction.
A)True
B)False







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