Chapter 13-15 Bio.

What term do we use when we talk about Darwin's view of human evolution?

Humans and apes have a common ancestor.

At the time Darwin voyaged on HMS Beagle, the popularly accepted theory in Europe that explained the origin of Earth's plants and animals held that the various species: 

had been created by divine intervention a few thousand years before

If members of a population have traits that are both heritable and variable among individuals, then _____.

advantageous traits may become more widespread in subsequent generations

Which of the following is a true statement about Charles Darwin?

He proposed natural selection as the mechanism of evolution.

In a population of bears, which is most likely to be considered to have the greatest Darwinian fitness?

the bear that leaves the most descendants

According to the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory, which of the following is true?

Populations are the units of evolution.

The smallest unit that can evolve is a: 

population

"Natural selection" and "evolution" are two terms that are sometimes confused, even by freshman biology students. What is the relation between natural selection and evolution?

Natural selection is one of several mechanisms of evolution.

Fossils are most likely to be found in: 

sedimentary rock

______ is the study of fossils.

paleontology

Your family is taking a long driving vacation across the midwestern and western United States. As you travel, you notice that the flowers, birds, and trees of the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains are very different. As you ponder why, you remember that such differences in the distribution of species are part of the field of: 

biogeography

Animals that possess homologous structures probably:

evolved from the same ancestor

The wing of a bald eagle is ______ the wing of a penguin.

homologous to

The approach to evolution that involves the study of similar structures that appear during the development of different organisms is known as the study of: 

comparative embryology

Evidence from molecular biology supports the theory of evolution by showing that: 

closely related organisms have more similar DNA and proteins

All known organisms transcribe genetic information to protein molecules via the same genetic code. This finding strongly supports the hypothesis that:

all organisms are descended from a single common ancestor

Which one of the following statements most closely agrees with the theory of evolution by means of natural selection, as put forth by Darwin?

Organisms better adapted to their immediate environment are most likely to survive and reproduce.

Which of the following is a requirement for natural selection?

all of the above

The original source of genetic variation that serves as the raw material for natural selection is: 

mutation

"Differential success in reproduction" is just another way of saying: 

natural selection

Assume there are two varieties of mice, brown and gray, living on an island. They are the prey for the hawks on the island. They are distributed through rocky areas in the north part of the island and across the fields in the south part. Which of the following is predicted by natural selection?

Since brown mice blend better with the ground and gray mice blend better with the rocks, these are the ones that will be missed by the hawks and the mouse distribution will tend to indicate this.

In natural selection, _____ determines which phenotypes are successful.

the environment

Examples of modern day natural selection that scientists study today include:

all choices are correct

Scientists have warned doctors of the danger of their increasing use of antibiotics (for instance, penicillin) for treating minor illnesses. They are concerned because: 

strains of microorganisms that are resistant to these drugs will be selected

When they were first sold, aerosol insecticides were highly effective in killing flies and mosquitoes. Today, some 30 years later, a much smaller proportion of these insects die when sprayed. The reason fewer insects are being killed is that:

many mosquitoes today are descendants of mosquitoes with insecticide-resistant characteristics

Members of the same population: 

share a common gene pool

The evolutionary effects of genetic drift are greatest when: 

the population size is small

If an earthquake hit a small island so that all but a tiny group of lizards were eliminated and the survivors spread out over the island and the population increased, this would be an instance of:

the bottleneck effect

The founder effect differs from a population bottleneck in that the founder effect: 

involves the isolation of a small colony of individuals from a larger population

Which of the following is the best example of gene flow?

Wind blows pollen from one population of plants to another, and cross-fertilization occurs.