Evolution and the Diversity of Life Final Exam

The final exam for unit 4, Evolution and the Diversity of Life, in the course Introduction to Biology for Veterinary Technicians at Penn Foster College

An insect population lives on trees. Over time, more trees with light-colored bark grow in their habitat, and the insect population shifts its average color to become lighter so the insects are better camouflaged when on the trees. What type of selection does this exemplify?

Directional selection

How do amoeboid protists move?

amoeboid protists use finger-like cytoplasmic projections called pseudopods to move

A virus is isolated, and individual virions appear spherical. What type of virus is this?

Icosahedral

Despite the differences in neck length, mice, humans, and giraffes all have seven cervical vertebrae. This is an illustration of

homologous structures

What are the three stages of sexual reproduction that ascomycetes and basidiomycetes have in common?

Plasmogamy, karyogamy, and meiosis

Arbuscular mycorrhizae, which are obligate mutualists, are found in about 70% of all plant species. What are the primary benefits that the fungus and the plant offer each other?

The fungus provides minerals like phosphorous to the plant, and the plant provides nutrients like carbohydrates to the fungi

Which term indicates that a single gene has two or more alleles present in a population?

Polymorphism

How did the modern synthesis provide strong evidence in support of Darwin's ideas?

The modern synthesis explained changes in allele frequencies as the mechanism underlying evolution

Which process results in the formation of two genetically identical daughter cells?

Binary fission

Which of the following is not a function of the bacterial cell wall?

Provide the cell with locomotion

Minerals in volcanic rock orient toward the magnetic poles, and Earth's magnetic polarity has reversed over its history. Paleomagnetism is a method of what type of dating?

Absolute dating

What's the system of naming species developed by Linnaeus that used the names of the genus and species of the organism?

Binomial nomenclature

Which of the following statements about protists is true?

Protists are a catch-all group for eukaryotes that aren't plants, fungi, or animals

Australia has been isolated from other continents for a long time and so has a unique set of species. This fact illustrates which of the three major types of variation between species that Darwin identified?

Global differences

Where is the DNA of a fungi located, and how is it organized?

Fungi are eukaryotes, so their DNA is in the nucleus and it's organized by being wrapped around histones

Which of the following statements best summarizes the now-refuted idea of transformationalism?

The use or disuse of a specific body part results in heritable change of that body part

Which of the following statements explains why compression fossils of plants are more common than those of animals?

Plants are already relatively flat, so the pressure of compression doesn't distort their structures

Darwin bred pigeons by pairing birds with different physical traits and observed how offspring inherited traits. This is an example of

artificial selection

What's the largest unit of geologic time, lasting hundreds of millions of years?

Eon

Which hypothesis of viral evolution states that viruses were once free-living and eventually lost the ability to reproduce without a host?

Regressive hypothesis

How do rhizarians primarily affect the carbon cycle?

Their alveoli allow for gas exchange and absorb carbon dioxide from ocean water

The most common viral cycle, called the __________, undergoes attachment, penetration, uncoating, replication, and assembly, then causes the host cell to burst

lytic cycle

Plasmodium falciparum is an organism that causes malaria in humans when it's transmitted through a mosquito bite. Which term best characterizes this relationship?

Parasitism

What's the term to describe a mutant viral protein, apart from any genetic material, that can cause disease?

Prion

When prokaryotes reproduce, genetic material can be shared when a donor cell extends a pilus to form a bridge to a recipient cell and transfers DNA strands through the bridge. Which mechanism of reproduction is this?

Conjugation

Which of the following is the best example of coevolution?

Some plants that require pollination have developed ways to attract pollinators, such as brightly colored and fragrant flowers; pollinators have developed specialized structures to obtain pollen and nectar from the plants

Zooxanthellae are vital to the health of stony corals, and the coral provides zooxanthellae with the habitat and compounds it needs. Which term best characterizes this relationship?

Mutualism

The surface of the early earth was much hotter than it is today. This supports the idea that which group of organisms might be among the most primitive forms of life on earth?

Thermophilic archaea

The idea that small genetic changes can cause significant differences in a trait over a long period is essential to which of the following theories?

Gradualism

A population of animals is at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The frequency of the dominant allele Q is 0.70 and the frequency of the recessive allele q is 0.30. What percentage of the population is heterozygous for this gene?

42%

Two related populations separated by a mountain range for many generations eventually become different species, providing an example of what type of speciation?

Allopatric speciation

Some experts suggest that the Earth has entered the Anthropocene epoch, characterized by what feature or features?

Human-mediated changes to the earth

Which of the following explanations best summarizes why the peppered moth is empirical evidence supporting natural selection?

The darker form of the moth was selected for and more common because of pollution at the end of the Industrial Revolution. After pollution was better controlled, the lighter form became dominant again/

Which of the following is a paraphyletic group of eukaryotes?

Protista

Because it's most resistant to deterioration, which type of molecule is most often found in molecular fossils?

Lipid molecules