Practice Quiz


1	Like other phenotypic characters, life-history strategies can show clinal geographic variation and evolve due to natural selection.

		A)	TRUE
		B)	FALSE

2	Which of the following statements is a reasonable conclusion to draw from the guppy study by John Endler and colleagues?

		A)	Female guppies prefer to mate with brightly colored males only when predators are absent.
		B)	Female guppies prefer to mate with brightly colored males only when predators are present.
		C)	Female guppies generally prefer to mate with brightly colored males, but the reproductive benefit of bright colors is outweighed by the survival cost of conspicuousness when predators are present.
		D)	Among guppy populations, there is no observable correlation between presence or absence of predators and male coloration.

3	Phenotypic plasticity accounts for differences in guppy life-history strategies between populations from pools with predators and those from predator-free pools.

		A)	TRUE
		B)	FALSE

4	Experiments in which guppies from pools with pike-cichlids were transplanted to pools with killifish demonstrated

		A)	the action of natural selection in nature.
		B)	evolution of life-history characters.
		C)	that killifish predation favors larger adult body size and later reproduction than pike-cichlid predation.
		D)	more than one of the above

5	Rock pipits adjust the proportion of time they spend foraging in response to the harshness of environmental conditions.

		A)	TRUE
		B)	FALSE

6	Clutch size is polymorphic in swifts because

		A)	females can decrease clutch size in response to harsh environmental conditions.
		B)	natural selection favors different genetically determined clutch sizes during harsh and mild breeding seasons.
		C)	females adjust clutch size based on the presence or absence of predators.
		D)	swifts are "indeterminate" egg layers.

7	Which of the following statements is NOT true about life-history strategies exhibited by the Leguminosae in response to attack by bruchid beetles?

		A)	Plants that are attacked by bruchid beetles produce large numbers of small seeds.
		B)	Plants that are attacked by bruchid beetles divert resources away from chemical defenses that protect them from other enemies.
		C)	Plants that produce more seeds always have higher evolutionary fitness whether or not they are attacked by bruchid beetles.
		D)	Plants that produce fewer seeds generally allocate more resources to vegetative growth.

8	Life-history strategies can evolve in response to both abiotic and biotic selective pressures.

		A)	TRUE
		B)	FALSE

9	Natural selection can eliminate trade-offs between conflicting time and energy demands.

		A)	TRUE
		B)	FALSE

10	Side-blotched lizards in different geographic locations show different life-history strategies and are, in effect, different species.

		A)	TRUE
		B)	FALSE

11	Life-history strategies generally involve a tradeoff between size and number of offspring.

		A)	TRUE
		B)	FALSE

12	Why are female swifts that lay two rather than three eggs at a selective advantage during harsh breeding seasons?

		A)	Females that lay two eggs at a time can lay multiple clutches during harsh breeding seasons, but females that lay three eggs cannot.
		B)	Nests with two eggs are less vulnerable to predation only during harsh breeding seasons.
		C)	Females that lay two eggs can replace an egg lost to predation, but females that lay three eggs cannot do so.
		D)	It is hard to find enough insects to feed three chicks during harsh breeding seasons, and better-fed chicks from two-clutch nests are more likely to fledge than poorly fed chicks from three-clutch nests.

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