Exam 5 Practice Exam – 11/13/17

  1. A proficient engineer can easily design skeletal structures that are more functional than those currently found in the forelimbs of such diverse mammals as horses, whales, and bats. The actual forelimbs of these mammals do NOT seem to be optimally arranged because ______.
  2. Natural selection is generally limited to modifying structures that were present in previous generations and/or previous species
  3. Though we may not consider the fit between the current skeletal arrangements and their functions excellent, we should not doubt that natural selection ultimately produces the best design
  4. In many cases, phenotype is determined by the environment
  5. Natural selection has just not had time to change the trait yet, but it will
  1. After the drought of 1977, researchers on the island of Daphne Major hypothesized that medium ground finches that had large, deep beaks survived better than those with smaller beaks because they could more easily crack and eat the toughTribuluscistoidesfruits. If this hypothesis is correct, what would you expect to observe if a population of these medium ground finches colonizes a nearby island whereT. cistoidesis the most abundant food for the next 1000 years? Assume that (1) even the survivors of the 1977 drought sometimes had difficulty cracking the toughT. cistoidesfruits and would eat other seeds when offered a choice; and (2) food availability is the primary limit on finch fitness on this new island.
  2. Evolution of larger, deeper beaks over time
  3. No change in beak size and shape
  4. Random fluctuations in beak size and shape
  5. Evolution of smaller, pointier beaks over time
  1. You are studying a group of related fossils, and you notice that a particular trait is present in older fossils, but disappears in more recent species. What does this mean
  2. this means that the new species without the trait are less evolved
  3. This means that in more recent species, individuals without the trait had higher fitness
  4. This means you have disproved evolution
  5. This means evolution made a mistake
  1. Carnivory in plants has evolved at least 5 times independently, yet there is a great deal of morphological similarity among these groups. This independent evolution of similar traits is called______.
  2. Branching evolution
  3. Convergent evolution
  4. Allegiant evolution
  5. Divergent evolution
  1. Resistance to a wide variety of insecticides, fungicides, antibiotics, antiviral drugs, and herbicides has recently evolved in hundreds of insects, fungi, bacteria, viruses, and plants. Why?
  2. Humans are altering the environments of these organisms, and populations of these organisms are evolving by natural selection.
  3. Humans have better health practices, so these organisms are trying to keep up
  4. No new species are evolving, just resistant varieties. This is not evolution by natural selection
  5. Mutations are on the rise
  1. If the bacteriumStaphylococcus aureusexperiences a cost for maintaining one or more antibiotic-resistance genes, what would happen in environments that lack antibiotics?
  2. These bacteria would try to make the cost worthwhile by locating and migrating to microenvironments where traces of antibiotics are present.
  3. The number of genes conveying antibiotic resistance would increase in these bacteria.
  4. These bacteria would be outcompeted and replaced by bacteria that have lost these genes.
  5. These genes would be maintained in case the antibiotics appear.
  1. Wikelski and Romero (2003) studied large marine iguanas and found that they had higher reproductive success than smaller iguanas did. However, the large iguanas were generally in poor body condition because they could not eat enough; at higher temperatures, their foraging efficiency improved, allowing them to eat more. Thus, Wikelski and Romero hypothesized that iguana size will ______as global warming gradually increases air and water temperatures in the Galápagos Islands.
  2. Decrease
  3. Increase
  4. Remain unchanged
  5. Stabilize around the mean body size
  1. House finches were found only in western North America until 1939, when a few individuals were released in New York City. These individuals established a breeding population and gradually expanded their range. The western population also expanded its range somewhat eastward, and the two populations have recently come in contact. If the two forms were unable to interbreed when their expanding ranges met, it would be an example of ______.
  2. Allopatric speciation
  3. Prezygotic isolation
  4. Sympatic speciation
  5. Reinforcement
  1. Define adaptation
  1. How do we define evolutionary fitness?
  1. What does natural selection act on?
  1. Define vestigial trait?
  1. Which of the following is not an example of evolution through natural selection?
  2. Overtime, weed populations are increasingly resistant to herbicide
  3. Humans visiting high elevation regions develop a higher density of red blood cells
  4. Following a long-standing drought, plant populations exhibit an increase in water use efficiency
  5. Antibiotics that were once effective in treating a bacterial infection can no longer control the disease
  1. Which of the following is an example of a vestigial trait?
  2. Fingernails in humans
  3. Feathers in dinosaurs
  4. Eye sockets in eyeless cave fish
  5. Gills in fish
  1. At what level does evolution occur?
  2. Population
  3. Individual
  1. At what level does natural selection occur?
  2. Population
  3. Individual
  1. Vestigial traits and neutral changes in DNA sequences are good examples of…?
  2. Acclimation
  3. Adaptation
  4. Non-adaptive traits
  5. Convergent traits
  1. An earthquake decimates a ground-squirrel population, randomly killing 98% of the squirrels. The surviving population happens to have broader stripes on average, than the initial population. If broadness of stripes is genetically determined, what effect has the ground-squirrel population experienced during the earthquake?
  1. drift
  2. Genetic bottleneck
  3. Gene flow
  4. Founder event
  5. Directional selection
  1. Define biological fitness?
  1. Define the difference between artificial selection and natural selection?
  1. What are the required conditions for the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium to be met?
  1. What is the gene pool?
  1. Define gene flow?
  1. What is the founder effect?
  1. Which of the following describes the most likely order of events in allopatric speciation?
  2. Genetic isolation, genetic drift, divergence
  3. Genetic isolation, divergence, genetic drift
  4. Divergence, genetic drift, genetic isolation
  5. Divergence, genetic isolation, genetic drift
  1. Male birds that have elaborate dances do not attract females from other species due to ____?
  1. Of the following anatomical structures, which is homologous to the bones in the wing of a bat?
  2. Bony rals in the tail fin of a flying fish
  3. The cartilage in the dorsal fin of a shark
  4. The chitnous struts in the wing of a butterfly
  5. The bones in the flipper of a whale
  6. Bones in the hind limb of a kangaroo
  1. When is reinforcement most likely to occur?
  1. If we see geographical isolation, then we know we probably have __ speciation.
  2. Allopatric
  3. Sympatric
  1. If two frogs have genitalia that don’t match up, which kind of reproductive barrier is this?