(Critical Thinking) Chapter 25: The History of Life On Earth - Complete

In 2013, researchers constructed a vesicle with replicated RNA. Why was this significant evidence for abiotic origin of life?

RNA molecules could pass on information to their "daughters".

Which of the following statements suggests natural selection as a mechanism in the evolution of ribozymes?

Some strands of RNA replicate less often

What is the most accurate method used to measure the age of a fossil?

radiometric dating

Which of the following would be least likely to appear in the fossil record?

desert-dwelling species

If the half-life of carbon-14 is about 5,730 years, then a fossil that has 1/16 the normal proportion of carbon-14 to carbon-12 should be about how many years old?

22,900

You are the lucky student of a wacky professor who develops a time machine. He asks if you will test it with him. You get in and there is an immediate glitch--the date readout fails so that when you land, you are not sure what era you are in. Your professor begins to panic, but you see something that tells you are in the Cenozoic era. Which of the following could it be?

a rabbit eating a daisy

Which of the following characteristics are expected in the first animals to have colonized land?

I) They were probably herbivores (ate photosynthesizers).
II) Animals had four appendages.
III) Animals had the ability to resist dehydration
IV) Animals had lobe-finned fishes as ancestors
V) Invertebrates

I, III, and V

refer to canvas!
A sediment core is removed from the floor of an inland sea. The sea has been in existence, off and on, throughout the entire time that terrestrial life has existed. Researchers wish to locate and study the terrestrial organisms fossilized in this core. The core is illustrated as a vertical column, with the top of the column representing the most recent strata and the bottom representing the time when land was first colonized by life.

If arrows indicate locations in the column where fossils of a particular type (see key) first appear, then which core in the figure above has the most accurate arrangement of fossils?

core A

What concept explains the evolution of complex eyes?

Complex eyes evolved through a series of steps that benefited the eyes.

How does the continental drift explain the uniqueness of Australian fauna?

The subsequent separation of the southern continents formed an island of marsupials.

The Permian period ended and then the rapid speciation occurred as new animal and plant forms evolved. The most likely explanation for this is_________?

I) adaptive radiation
II) ecological opportunity
III) lack of competition
IV) morphological innovation

three of the above

Hawaii is the most southeastern of the seven largest islands and is also closest to the seafloor spreading center from which the Pacific plate originates, which lies about 5,600 km further to the southeast. Assuming equal sedimentation rates, what should be the location of the thickest sediment layer and, thus, the area with the greatest diversity of fossils above the oceanic crust?

around the base of Kauai, the oldest of the large Hawaiian islands

Bagworm moth caterpillars feed on evergreens and carry a silken case or bag around with them in which they eventually pupate. Adult female bagworm moths are larval in appearance; they lack the wings and other structures of the adult male and instead retain the appearance of a caterpillar even though they are sexually mature and can lay eggs within the bag. This is a good example of____?

paedomorphosis

A female fly, full of fertilized eggs, is swept by high winds to an island far out to sea. She is the first fly to arrive on this island and the only fly to arrive in this way. Thousands of years later, her
numerous offspring occupy the island, but none of them resemble her. There are, instead, several species, each of which eats only a certain type of food. None of the species can fly, and
their balancing organs (halteres) are now used in courtship displays. The male members of each species bear modified halteres that are unique in appearance to their species. Females bear vestigial halteres. The ranges of all of the daughter species overlap.
In each fly species, the entire body segment that gave rise to the original flight wings is missing. The mutation(s) that led to the flightless condition could have_______?

altered the expression of a Hox gene

Why would gene duplication events, such as those seen in the Hox gene complex, set the stage for adaptive radiation?

One copy of a gene can perform the original function, while other copies are available to take on new functions.

A swim bladder is a gas-filled sac that helps fish maintain buoyancy. The evolution of the swim bladder from lungs of an ancestral fish is an example of_________?

exaptation

Insect wings may have begun to evolve as lateral extensions of the body that were used as heat dissipaters for thermoregulation. When they had become sufficiently large, these extensions became useful for gliding through the air. Additional selection refined them as flight-producing wings. If this hypothesis is correct, modern insect wings would be an example of _____.

an exaptation

Many species of snakes lay eggs. However, in the forests of northern Minnesota where growing seasons are short, only live-bearing snake species are present. This trend toward species that perform live birth in a particular environment is an example of______?

species selection

The following question is based on the observation that several dozen different proteins comprise the prokaryotic flagellum and its attachment to the prokaryotic cell, producing a highly complex structure.
If the complex protein assemblage of the prokaryotic flagellum arose by the same general processes as those of the complex eyes of molluscs (such as squids and octopi), then________.

ancestral versions of this protein assemblage were either less functional or had different functions than modern prokaryotic flagella

Endosymbiosis is an evolutionary theory that explains the origin of eukaryotes and suggests a specific order in which this might have occurred. Ancestral cells engulfed and then began to use the metabolic processes of the smaller cells. Based on shared-core processes and features, which statement most accurately describes the order, the theory, and the evolutionary implications for all organisms within domain Eukarya?

As Earth was becoming more aerobic, mitochondria would have provided an advantage to host cells by converting "toxic" oxygen into energy for heterotrophic cells. Since mitochondria are found in all eukaryotes, these combinations likely evolved first. Photosynthetic eukaryotes probably acquired an autotrophic prokaryote, which developed an advantageous symbiotic relationship within the host cell.