This exam is worth 100 points
in the whole course
Evolutionary Biology
Exam II, Fall 2011
A. Multiple Choice Questions. Choose the best possible answer. Use the bubble sheet.
(1 pt. each)
1. Ducks have webbed feet. The trait of webbed feet in the common ancestor of ducks:
(A) appeared in ancestral ducks because they lived in water and needed webbed feet
to swim (B) appeared in ancestral ducks because of chance mutation(s) (C)
appeared in ancestral ducks because they helped them fly (D) none of the above (E)
all of the above.
2. The sperm of a Species A dies when it comes in contact with secretions in the female
reproductive tract of Species B. This is an example of: (A) gradualism
(B) punctuated equilibrium (C) periodic isolation (D) a prezygotic isolating
mechanism (E) a postzygotic isolating mechanism
3. A group of 100 ducks is taken to a zoo where they are put in a cage that has a lot of
food, but no big pools of water. The cage is only three feet high so the ducks can’t
fly very well. The ducks are allowed to breed. We expect that the offspring of these
zoo ducks: (A) will not have wings (B) will not have webbed feet (C) will have
much smaller feet than their parents (D) will have feet very similar to their parents
feet (E) both A and B.
4. Under which of the following conditions would you expect rapid evolution of species
to occur? (A) among populations in similar habitats (B) in large, randomly breeding
populations (C) in populations with few reproductive isolating mechanisms
(D) among populations experiencing the same stabilizing selection (E) among
populations exposed to climatic and other environmental changes
5. The chemical DDT is used to kill mosquitoes in many countries. In the lab, you
expose 1000 mosquitoes to DDT and it kills 991 of the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes
that survived: (A) by chance were able to resist DDT (B) evolved to be able to
resist DDT (C) were faster than the other mosquitoes (D) learned to be able to resist
DDT (E) both A and D.
6. Approximately how long did the earth exist before life appeared on it? (A) 4.5 billion
years (B) 2.7 billion years (C) 1 billion years (D) 1 million years (E) 200 thousand
years
7. What is the proportion of alleles likely to be shared by a human child and his
biological father? (A) all (B) 3/4 (C) 1/2 (D) 1/4 (E) 1/8.
8. Miller and Urey’s experiment demonstrated that (A) life evolved on earth from
inorganic chemicals (B) coacervates were the precursors to true cells (C) complex
organic molecules can form spontaneously under conditions that probably
existed on the early earth (D) RNA can act as an enzyme and assemble new RNA
molecules (E) bacteria were the first type of living organisms to appear on the earth
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9. What is the proportion of alleles likely to be shared by a human brother and sister?
(A) all (B) ¾ (C) 1/2 (D) 1/4 (E) 1/8.
10. Which of the following traits evolved most recently? (A) prokaryotic cells
(B) eukaryotic cells (C) multicellularity (D) photosynthesis (E) hereditary
mechanisms
11. Which assumption is incompatible with the Hardy-Weinberg principle? (A) lack of
mutation (B) no differential migration (C) presence of natural selection (D) large
breeding population (E) random breeding
12. If you are looking at an organism that is eukaryotic, multicellular, heterotrophic and
has chitin in its cell walls, you are looking at a member of the Kingdom (A) Protista
(B) Fungi (C) Archaeobacteria (D) Animalia (E) Plantae
13. Which of the following statements represents a monohybrid cross between a
heterozygote and a homozygous recessive? (A) TT x tt (B) Tt x TT (C) ttMM x
TTmm (D) tTMm x ttmm (E) None of the above
14. In the current classification system, families are grouped into: (A) classes (B) phyla
(C) orders (D) divisions (E) kingdoms
15. What type of selection is most likely responsible for the large antlers on male elk?
(A) kin selection (B) sexual selection (C) group selection (D) territorial selection
(E) altruism.
16. Viruses are assigned to (A) Archaeobacteria (B) Protista (C) Eubacteria
(D) Prokaryota (E) None of the above.
17. Which organism was responsible for initiating the 02 revolution? (A) cyanobacteria
(B) green bacteria (C) green algae (D) liverworts (E) flowering plants
18. All viruses form _______ around their nucleic acid (A) an envelope (B) a cell wall
(C) a capsid (D) a cell membrane (E) a capsule
19. What situation might set the stage for genetic drift? (A) presence of significant back
mutation (B) absence of artificial selection (C) absence of differential migration
(D) small population size (E) kin selection
20. What is true about all tracheophytes but not true about bryophytes? (A) they bear
seeds (B) they have some cells that are flagellated (C) they have phloem (D) the
dominant generation is a gametophyte (E) They have anthers and produce pollen.
21. Prokaryotic organisms make up (A) Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, and Protista
(B) Archaebacteria and Protista (C) Protista and Eubacteria (D) Protista
(E) Eubacteria and Archaebacteria.
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22. Genetic recombination occurs in bacteria through the transfer of (A) pili
(B) plasmids (C) endospores (D) autopores (E) gametes
23. An evolutionary tree is also called (A) phrenology (B) a dendrology
endogeny (D) a phylogeny (E) an ontogeny.
(C) an
24. In the process of transcription (A) the base sequence of DNA is copied into RNA
(B) a polypeptide is formed as specified by the genes in chromosomes (C) rRNA is
specified by exons in DNA (D) a strand of mRNA is formed with base sequences
complementary to those of DNA (E) mRNA is formed as coded by introns
25. Viruses are most conveniently thought of as (A) lost chromosomes (B) the most
primitive bacteria (C) fragments of genomes (D) prions (E) escaped genomes.
26. The cellular slime molds form a moving mass that eventually transforms itself into a
_____ containing spores (A) slug (B) sorocarp (C) macrocyst (D) plasmodium
(E) pellicle
27. Cell division in bacteria takes place mainly by (A) conjugation (B) binary fission
(C) sporulation (D) fragmentation (E) mitosis.
28. What is the best criterion for determining if a trait is due to polygene inheritance?
(A) there are multiple alleles (B) it is pleiotropic (C) it has epigenetic effects (D) it
produces a normal distribution (bell shaped curve) of the trait (E) the Punnett
Square indicates that the genes sort independently, i.e are not linked.
29. Resource partitioning is the likely result of (A) competitive exclusion (B) disruptive
selection (C) allopatric speciation (D) stabilizing selection (E) kin selction
30. In transcription, the nucleotide sequence CAT in DNA would specify ____ in mRNA
(A) TAC (B) GUA (C) CAT (D) GTU (E) STOP
31. Which organisms are responsible for starting the oxygen revolution?
(A) Archeobacteria (B) Green bacteria (C) Plants (D) Cyanobacteria (E) Green algae
32. Which characteristic would you expect the Protozoa to lack? (A) cell walls
(B) rough endoplasmic reticulum (C) heterotrophic nutrition (D) pseudopodia
(E) they would have them all
33. Which of the following would lack the typical 9+2 arrangement of microtubules?
(A) Protista (B) Fungi (C) Archaeobacteria (D) Paramecia (E) all of them would
have this arrangement
34. The ______ ultimately matures into a fruit (A) integument (B) ovary (C) carpel
(D) stamen (E) sepal
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35. What do the following organisms have in common: brown algae, mosses, horsetails,
club mosses, and ferns? (A) chlorophyll a and b (B) double fertilization
(C) swimming sperm (D) xylem (E) dominant sporophyte.
36. Which of the following would you not expect to find in single celled eukaryotic
algae? (A) Mitochondria (B) Ribosomes (C) Linear chromosomes (D) Chloroplasts
(E) I would expect all of the above
37. Cross-over is the (A) the duplication of the double helix prior to cell division (B)
exchange of homologous chromosome segments (C) pulling apart of the chromatids
during meiosis (D) swapping of DNA units between prokaryotes and viruses. (E)
none of the above.
38. Lemurs only occur on the island of Madagascar. What type of distribution do they
have? (A) disjunct (B) remote (C) endemic (D) Isolated (E) Cosmopolitan
39. What is the best way to describe genetic drift? Genetic drift (A) is a gradual change in
genes (B) occurs when two populations interbreed (C) is adaptation to a habitat
(D) occurs when it is needed (E) is the change of a population’s genetic make-up
through chance alone.
40. What is a polyploid number for a plant that has a diploid number of 18? (A) nine
(B) ten (C) nineteen (D) twenty-seven (E) none of the above
41. What does it mean when the selection coefficient for a genotype is 0.5? (A) the
genotype is lethal (B) the genotype has a high probability of survival in a population
(C) the phenotype has a zygote superiority (D) the genotype is heterozygous (E) none
of the above.
42. A key difference between mitosis and meiosis is that(A) mitosis leads to the transfer
of genetic information from generation to generation and meiosis does not (B) there is
a duplication of genetic material prior to cell division in one and not the other. (C)
Diploid cells are the result of the process in mitosis and haploid cells in meiosis
(D) There are two cell divisions in mitosis and one in meiosis (E) cross-over is
common in mitosis but not meiosis
43. Cladistic relationships are based upon (A) similar use of unlike structures (B)
dissimilar use of similar structures (C) common lines of descent (D) analogous
structures (E) epigenetic effects
44. What is characteristic of a retrovirus? (A) lacks a protein coat (B) infects plasmids
(C) always has an RNA genome (D) lacks an envelope (E) typically infects plants.
45. Which important condition must be fulfilled if two populations are to be considered
different species? (A) geographic isolation (B) reproductive isolation (C) lack of
mutation in both populations (D) disjunct distributions (E) presence of homologous
structures
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46. The function of tRNA is to (A) provide a place for polypeptide synthesis
(B) transport amino acids to the ribosome (C) travel to the ribosome to direct the
assembly of polypeptides (D) transcribe DNA (E) translate DNA
47. The drug AZT is very effective at treating AIDS patients and reducing the number
or virions present in the blood. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of this treatment
rapidly diminishes over time. How does HIV acquire resistance to AZT? (A) The
HIV needs the resistance to survive and mutates in response (B) AZT promotes the
mutation of the HIV genome (C) Some HIV have natural resistance and they
survive and reproduce (D) HIV overcomes the Central Dogma (E) All of the above
48. The concept of “Intelligent Design” to explain how organisms adapt, has been ruled
unconstitutional because (A) organisms are not perfect (B) the presence of vestigial
organs cannot be explained by the argument (C) the “Intelligent Designer must
necessarily be a god (D) ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny which is incompatible
with the concept (E) all of the above
49. In the cladistic diagram below, humans, chimpanzees, Rhesus macaques, and tarsiers
form a taxonomic group that is (A) monophyletic (B) diphyletic (C) paraphyletic
(D) triphyletic (E) polyphyletic
50. In the cladistic diagram below which organism is most closely related to an elephant?
(A) dolphin (B) a common shrew (C) sloth (D) cow (E) horse
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