Biology Questions

41. Which statement is an example of evolution by natural selection that has taken place over the last few decadesin a manner that has allowed scientists to observe the evolutionary process?A) Insect wings evolved by first functioning as thermoregulatory organs before gradually becoming flight organs.B) Many strains of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus have become resistant to penicillin.C) Blood-sucking bats retained their molars, even though they have a completely liquid diet.D) Honeycreepers in Hawaii have radiated into niches occupied by parrots and hummingbirds in other areas.E) The forelimbs of humans, horses, bats, and porpoises all contain the same bones, even though they are used forvery different functions.

36. The fact that fish, penguins, and dolphins all have the same basic shape is best explained by which of thefollowing?A) The basic shapes of fish, penguins, and dolphins are vestigial structures.B) Divergent evolution and adaptive radiation into new niches often result in convergent evolution.C) The similarities are due to having the same genetic ancestors.D) Fish, penguins, and dolphins all faced the same physical constraints during their evolution and converged uponthe same body plan.E) Parallel evolution is common among aquatic mammals

25. The species of Darwin's finches on the Galápagos Islands mainly differ in:A) coloration.B) bill size.C) tail length.D) song type.E) body size

8. In a particular population, over the course of several dozen generations, an adenine was replaced by a guanineat a particular noncoding locus in the DNA base sequence. The evolutionary mechanism responsible for thischange was:A) genetic drift.B) migration.C) mutation.D) directional selection.E) disruptive selection.

35. Radiometric data is useful in conjunction with the study of the fossil record because:A) it allows a determination, not just of the relative ages of different fossils, but also their absolute ages.B) radioactive fossils break down much more slowly than non-radioactive fossils.C) radioactive fossils break down much more quickly than non-radioactive fossils.D) radiometric data makes it possible to analyze the "soft parts" of extinct animals, which fill in the gaps in the fossilrecord.E) radiometric dating of a species currently living on earth reveals how long the species has existed.

12. Which statement best explains why genetic bottlenecks and founder effects are evolutionarily important?A) In both cases, strong selective pressures lead to fast directional selection.B) Both result in stabilizing selection due to strong selective pressures.C) Both result in small populations that are influenced more by genetic drift.D) Both result in increased fitness.E) Both result in decreased fitness.

40. Ninety-six percent of the base-pair sequences in chimps and humans are the same. This finding indicates that:A) humans are more closely related to chimps than any two mice are related to each other.B) 96% of the genes in humans have identical counterparts in chimps.C) humans are more closely related to chimps than to any other species on earth.D) 4% of the DNA we carry contains mutations.E) 96% of the proteins produced by chimps are identical to the proteins produced by humans.

7. The origin of all genetic variation is:A) mutation.B) natural selection.C) gene flow.D) genetic drift.E) non-random mating.

37. In examples of convergent evolution, it can be demonstrated that the organisms of the two groups thatconverged:A) lived together at one point in time.B) have a recent common ancestry.C) are, in fact, the same species.D) occupy similar environments.E) had to converge because of the lack of food supply in their environment

4. Which statement represents a change in people's worldview after Darwin published The Origin of Species?A) Earth is mostly unchanging.B) Earth is approximately 6,000 years old.C) Organisms are fixed, with no additions or extinctions.D) Every extant organism was put on earth by a creator at the same time.E) Organisms change and adapt over time.

39. Which of these is not a vestigial structure?A) eye-less eye sockets in cave-dwelling fishesB) molars in bats that only a consume a liquid dietC) pelvic bones in whalesD) the canine teeth of a housecatE) the human appendix

26. In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice, "In this place it takes all the runningyou can do to stay in the same place." How is this statement logically connected with the idea of evolution bynatural selection?A) As individuals evolve to better fit their environment, their environment also changes, subjecting the individuals tocontinually changing selective pressures.B) Running in place is an important measure of optimal running speed, which is a strong correlate of survival andreproduction.C) As populations evolve to become better adapted to their environments, their environments also change,subjecting the populations to continually changing selective pressures.D) As individuals evolve through natural selection, they tend to develop characteristics that cause them to be lessadapted to their environment.E) As individuals evolve through natural selection, they tend to move to new places that are very similar to theplaces in which they originally evolved.

33. Until the middle of the 19th century, all peppered moths (Biston betularia) observed around Manchester,England, were light in color. In 1845, a single black peppered moth was reported. As Manchester became moreindustrialized and dark soot began to cover the bark of the trees, the frequency of black moths increased greatly.The change in proportion of light and dark forms resulted from:A) disruptive selection.B) directional selection.C) decreased population size.D) the ability of moths to change color within their lifetimes.E) increased mutation.

2. Which statement about Charles Darwin is false?A) He dropped out of medical school.B) He and Alfred Russell Wallace independently developed the theory of evolution by natural selection.C) He was enthusiastic about unleashing his theory of natural selection on the world as soon as he thought of it.D) He was under constant pressure from his father to make something of himself.E) He spent five years traveling the world, observing living organisms and collecting fossils.

3. Darwin made which of the following observations during his journey aboard the HMS Beagle?A) Although Galápagos finches had different physical attributes, they resembled mainland finches in Ecuador.B) The largest and most fit organisms tended to have a higher rate of survival.C) Galápagos finch populations were growing faster than the available food supply.D) In Argentina, extant glyptodonts closely resembled extinct armadillos, only the armadillos were much larger.E) He discovered the fossil remains of large animals, such as giant ground sloths and mastodons, deep in coal andslate mines

6. Evolution occurs:A) only through natural selection.B) only when the environment is changing.C) only via natural selection, genetic drift, migration, or mutation.D) almost entirely because of directional selection.E) by altering physical traits but not behavioral traits.

1. What is the best definition of a population?A) a group of species that share the same habitatB) a group of individuals of the same species that have the potential to interbreedC) a group of individuals of the same species that live in the same general location and have the potential tointerbreedD) a group of individuals of related species that live in the same general location and have the potential tointerbreedE) a group of individuals of the same species that live in the same general location and have the same genotypes

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