front 1 5) The legless condition that is observed in several groups of extant
reptiles is the result of ________. C) several instances of the legless condition arising
independently of each other | back 1 C |
front 2 6) The various taxonomic levels (for example, phyla, genera, classes)
of the hierarchical classification system differ from each other on
the basis of ________. B) their inclusiveness C) the relative genome sizes of the organisms assigned to each D) morphological characters that are applicable to all organisms | back 2 B |
front 3 7) If organisms A, B, and C belong to the same class but to different
orders and if organisms C, D, and E belong to the same order but to
different families, which of the following pairs of organisms would be
expected to show the greatest degree of structural homology? B) B and D | back 3 D |
front 4 8) Carolus Linnaeus believed that species remained fixed in the form
in which they had been created. Linnaeus would have been uncomfortable
with ________. C) phylogenies | back 4 C |
front 5 9) The best classification system is that which most closely ________. A) unites organisms that possess similar morphologies D) reflects the basic separation of prokaryotes from eukaryotes | back 5 C |
front 6 12) Some beetles and flies have antler-like structures on their
heads, much like male deer. The existence of antlers in beetle, fly,
and deer species with strong male-male competition is an example of
________. B) similarity due to shared ancestry C) homology | back 6 A |
front 7 13) The term convergent evolution is most applicable to which of the following features? A) the legless condition found in various lineages of extant
lizards D) the bones of bat forelimbs and the bones of bird forelimbs | back 7 A |
front 8 14) If, someday, an archaean cell is discovered whose rRNA sequence
is more similar to that of humans than the sequence of mouse rRNA is
to that of humans, the best explanation for this apparent discrepancy
would be ________. B) convergent evolution | back 8 B |
front 9 15) Which of the following pairs are the best examples of homologous
structures? A) eyelessness in the Australian mole and eyelessness in
the North American mole B) owl wing and hornet wing D) bones in the bat wing and bones in the human forelimb | back 9 D |
front 10 16) Some molecular data place the giant panda in the bear family (Ursidae) but place the lesser panda in the raccoon family (Procyonidae). If the molecular data best reflect the evolutionary history of these two groups, then the morphological similarities of these two species is most likely due to ________. A) the inheritance of acquired characteristics B) sexual
selection | back 10 C |
front 11 17) The importance of computers and of computer software to modern
systematics s is most closely linked to advances in ________. C) fossil discovery techniques | back 11 D |
front 12 18) The common ancestors of birds and mammals were very early (stem) reptiles, which almost certainly possessed three-chambered hearts (two atria, one ventricle). Birds and mammals, however, are alike in having four-chambered hearts (two atria, two ventricles). The four- chambered hearts of birds and mammals are best described as ________. A) structural homologies | back 12 C |
front 13 19) Imagine that a phylogeny was developed for a group of mammals based on bone structure. Which of the following statements would be a reasonable prediction about a phylogeny for the same group of species based on similarities and differences in the structure of a particular enzyme? A) The same phylogeny would be unlikely. | back 13 A |
front 14 25) Which of the following would be most useful in creating a phylogenetic tree of a taxon? A) morphological data from fossil and living species D) morphological data from fossil species | back 14 D |
front 15 26) Your professor wants you to construct a phylogenetic tree of orchids. She gives you tissue from seven orchid species and one lily. What is the most likely reason she gave you the lily? A) to serve as an outgroup C) to see if the lily and the orchids show all the same shared derived characters D) to demonstrate likely homoplasies | back 15 A |
front 16 27) Which of the following statements best describes the rationale
for applying the principle of maximum parsimony in constructing
phylogenetic trees? C) The molecular clock validates the principle of
parsimony. | back 16 B |
front 17 29) Which of the following statements is accurate with regard to a
phylogeny, as represented by a phylogenetic tree? C) The ancestral group often has all the derived characters of the descendant species. D) Shared ancestral characters are excellent traits to use in developing a phylogeny. | back 17 A |
front 18 31) Which of the following is (are) problematic when the goal is to
construct phylogenies that accurately reflect evolutionary
history? C) monophyletic taxa | back 18 D |
front 19 33) There is some evidence that reptiles called cynodonts may have
had whisker-like hairs around their mouths. If true, then hair is a
shared ________. B) derived character of all vertebrates and not of the mammal clade C) ancestral character of the all vertebrates, but only if cynodonts are reclassified as mammals D) derived character of mammals, but only if cynodonts are reclassified as mammals | back 19 D |
front 20 40) In a comparison of birds and mammals, having four limbs is
________. A) a shared ancestral character D) an example of analogy rather than homology | back 20 A |
front 21 41) To apply the principle of maximum parsimony to construction of a
phylogenetic tree, ________. C) choose the tree that represents the fewest evolutionary
changes, either in DNA sequences or morphology | back 21 C |
front 22 42) If you were using cladistics to build a phylogenetic tree of
cats, which of the following would be the best outgroup? C) wolf | back 22 C |
front 23 44) Concerning growth in genome size over evolutionary time, which of
these is least associated with the others? C) paralogous genes | back 23 A |
front 24 45) Eukaryotes that are not closely related and that do not share
many anatomical similarities can still be placed together on the same
phylogenetic tree by comparing their ________. C) homologous genes that are poorly conserved D) homologous genes that are highly conserved | back 24 D |
front 25 46) A phylogenetic tree constructed using sequence differences in
mitochondrial DNA would be most valid for discerning the evolutionary
relatedness of ________. C) chimpanzees and humans | back 25 C |
front 26 47) The lakes of northern Minnesota are home to many similar species of damselflies of the genus Enallagma. These species have apparently undergone speciation from ancestral stock since the last glacial retreat about 10 thousand years ago. Sequencing which of the following would probably be most useful in sorting out evolutionary relationships among these closely related species? A) conserved regions of nuclear DNA B) mitochondrial DNA | back 26 B |
front 27 48) Which statement represents the best explanation for the
observation that the nuclear DNA of wolves and domestic dogs has a
very high degree of sequence homology? Dogs and wolves
________. B) belong to the same order | back 27 D |
front 28 49) The reason that paralogous genes can diverge from each other
within the same gene pool, whereas orthologous genes diverge only
after gene pools are isolated from each other, is that
________. B) paralogous genes can occur only in diploid species, thus they
are absent from most prokaryotes D) having an extra copy of a gene permits modifications to the copy without loss of the original gene product | back 28 D |
front 29 51) The most important feature that permits a gene to act as a molecular clock is ________. A) a large number of base pairs D) a recent origin by a gene-duplication event | back 29 C |
front 30 52) Molecular clocks are more reliable when ________. D) a significant proportion of mutations are not acted upon by natural selection | back 30 D |
front 31 53) Which of the following would, if it had acted upon a gene,
prevent this gene from acting as a reliable molecular clock? C) mutations within introns | back 31 D |
front 32 55) Based on cladistics, which eukaryotic kingdom is polyphyletic and, therefore, unacceptable? A) Plantae D) Protista | back 32 D |
front 33 56) Which eukaryotic kingdom includes members that are the result of
endosymbioses that included an ancient aerobic bacterium and an
ancient cyanobacterium? C) Animalia | back 33 A |
front 34 57) A large proportion of archaeans are extremophiles, so called because they inhabit extreme environments with high acidity, salinity, and/or temperature. Such environments are thought to have been much more common on primitive Earth. Thus, modern extremophiles survive only in places that their ancestors became adapted to long ago. Which of the following is, consequently, a valid statement about modern extremophiles, assuming that their habitats have remained relatively unchanged? A) Among themselves, they should share relatively few ancestral
traits, especially those that enabled ancestral forms to adapt to
extreme conditions. C) They should contain genes that originated in eukaryotes that
are the hosts for numerous species of bacteria. | back 34 B |
front 35 58) Use the following information to answer the question. Paulinella chromatophora is one of the few cercozoans that is autotrophic, carrying out aerobic photosynthesis with its two elongated "chromatophores." The chromatophores are contained within vesicles of the host cell, and each is derived from a cyanobacterium, though not the same type of cyanobacterium that gave rise to the chloroplasts of algae and plants. A crucial photosynthetic gene of the cyanobacterium that gave rise
to the chromatophore is called psaE. This gene is present in the
nuclear genome of the cercozoan, but is not in the genome of the
chromatophore. This is evidence of ________. B) horizontal gene transfer from bacterium to eukaryotes | back 35 B |
front 36 59) What kind of evidence has recently made it necessary to assign
the prokaryotes to either of two different domains, rather than
assigning all prokaryotes to the same kingdom? C) morphological | back 36 B |
front 37 63) Which of the following statements is accurate, at least according to our present knowledge? A) Eukaryotes acquired nuclear genes only in the distant past;
these genes can allow survival in anaerobic environments. C) Prokaryotes acquired genes from eukaryotes many times; these
genes can allow survival in extreme environments. | back 37 B |
front 38 65) If additional DNA sequence evidence shows that yeast genes for
synthesizing proteins are more similar to protein-synthesizing genes
in bacteria than those in archaea, a modern systematist would
________. B) redraw the phylogeny to show more recent common ancestry
between archaea and yeast than between eukaryotes and archaea D) retain the phylogeny that shows a more recent common ancestor between bacteria and archaea | back 38 A |
front 39 66) Which of the following statements about horizontal gene transfer
is accurate? B) Horizontal gene transfer among organisms does not occur
today. | back 39 A |
front 40 67) The kingdom Monera was dismantled because of which of the
following reasons? A) Some Monera contained nuclei in their
cells. D) Some, but not all, of the organisms in Monera contained DNA sequences that were similar to those of eukaryotes. | back 40 D |
front 41 68) Imagine that you discovered the following information: Feature Introns Membrane Lipids Bacteria Archaea Eukaryotes complex These data would support which of the following
conclusions? | back 41 D |