Evolution and the Diversity of Life Pre-Assessment

The Pre-assessment for unit 4, Evolution and the Diversity of Life, in the course Introduction to Biology for Vet Techs

Which eon began about 541 million years ago and continues to the present?

Phanerozoic

What's a polygenic trait?

What's a polygenic trait?

What dating technique is based on the decay over time of unstable isotopes of elements such as carbon, potassium, or uranium?

Radiometric dating

A distinct, more distantly related group of organisms on a cladogram is called a/an

outgroup.

A population of birds is at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. A single gene controls the length of the tail feather, and the allele for a long tail feather is dominant to the allele that produces a short tail feather. The allele frequency of the dominant allele T is 0.80, and the frequency of the recessive allele t is 0.20. What percentage of the population has short tail feathers?

Four percent

Which molecule is a primary component of fungal cell walls?

Chitin

The group "Protista" is

paraphyletic.

What's the term for an individual virus particle?

Virion

What's the name for the process of ingesting food by engulfing a particle to form a vacuole?

Phagocytosis

What ideas were put together in the modern synthesis?

The modern synthesis combined evolution and genetics.

In the system of classifying bacteria based on their shape, what's a rod-shaped bacterium called?

Bacillus

Eukaryotic cells are thought to have evolved over two billion years ago because of what event?

Endosymbiosis between a host cell and an alpha-proteobacterium

A population of squirrels has a range of sizes, a trait controlled by several genes. The smallest and largest squirrels are selected against because the intermediate sized animals are best at evading prey. This is an example of what type of selection?

Stabilizing selection

Earthworms feed on decaying organic matter in soil. What's the best description of how earthworms obtain energy?

Earthworms are saprotrophic.

Mollusks all have a foot, which they use for movement or attachment to surfaces. Different mollusks live in different environments, so the foot varies widely throughout this related group of animals. The mollusk foot is an example of what type of structure?

Homologous structure

Order the Phanerozoic eon's three distinct eras.

1. Paleozoic

2. Mesozoic

3. Cenozoic

Match each archaea clade with its description.

1. Korarchaeota

2. Euryarchaeota

3. Crenarchaeota

4. Nanoarchaeota

The taxonomy of fungi was updated in 2007. It defined seven monophyletic groups, including

- Ascomycota

- Glomeromycota

- Microsporidia

The Hardy-Weinberg principle states that allele frequencies in a population remain constant over time if which conditions are met?

a) The population size is large and not affected by genetic drift.

b) Mating occurs randomly, without inbreeding or positive assortative mating.

c) There are no mutations.

What are principles of Darwin's theory of evolution?

- Common descent

- Perpetual change

- Multiplication of species