Biology Exam #1

In a protein coding gene, which parts are involved in coding for the protein?

exons

Crossing over usually occurs among \_______________.

homologous chromosomes

In the hierarchical classification system we use to organize life, a genus usually includes a group of \_______.

closely related species

Crossing over can result in a genotype that is \_______________ compared to the parental type.

recombinant

Today, new species are only discovered in unpopulated and unexplored regions of the tropics.

False

Speciation is best described as \___________________________.

a process

The Biological Species Concept states that a species is a group of \________________.

interbreeding individuals

If you wanted to look at the frequencies of alleles in a population and see if they were changing through time, what concept that we've talked about would help you?

Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium

If someone said that increasing nuclear power generation would increase the number of people that drowned in swimming pools, they would be treating nuclear power generation as the \___________.

independent variable

The person in 10 above may also be confusing \_________________________ with their statement.

correlation and causation

The number of alleles for a gene that a diploid individual will have is \_________________.

two

Transcription results in the production of \_________________________.

RNA from DNA

A benefit of asexual reproduction, compared to sexual reproduction, is much \_______________.

faster reproduction

The primary biological purpose of DNA is \____________.

to provide code for the phenotype

Point mutations occur at the same rate throughout the entire genome.

False

A gene pool consists of \_______________________.

all the alleles in a population

The species concept we will be using in this class is broadly defined as groups of individuals \___________.

where offspring resemble parents

The current extinction rate for species is \____________________.

much higher

A point mutation changes \__________________.

the nucleotide in the DNA sequence

If an organism has 20,000 protein coding genes, how might it produce more than 200,000 protein products?

Alternative splicing

List two ways phenotypic novelty (variation/variability) originates.

Point mutations, chromosomal mutations, recombination

There's a lot of poop (feces) in the world and Dung Beetles have evolved to take advantage of this spectacular resource. Many Dung Beetles move portions of dung down into borrows, into nests, or in other hiding places. All these activities of moving dung through the environment can be viewed as an example of which of the five big ideas/major learning objectives for this class?

Evolution, systems, transfer of energy and materials

If the frequency distribution of a trait in a population changes from 1 to 2 (figures below), it would be indicative of \__________________.

disruptive selection

If a group of closely related lizard species all ate the same thing, but had strikingly different courtship displays, it is most likely they diversified along an axis of \________________.

sexual selection

The largest mass extinction was the \________________.

Permian

Phylogenetic methods can be used to determine \___________________.

the relationships among organisms, evolutionary patterns among organisms, the causes of diversification for groups of organisms, the number of times mammals moved into aquatic lifestyles

Chili peppers benefit from being hot in the context of increased seed dispersal, because \________.

capsaicin is avoided by mammals but not by birds

The arrow is pointing to a \____________ is the phylogeny.

branch

Evolution can best be summarized by the phrase \________.

descent with modification

The method of estimating the age of an object through determining the ratios of radioactive isotope products is called __.

radiometric dating

All of the following are examples of prezygotic isolation except for \______.

offspring not developing to maturity

In your laboratory you mix the gametes from a pair of species that have been evolving separately for 40 million years and count viable embryos, and then you mix gametes from a pair of species that had only been separated for 4 million years and count viable embryos. Based on what

you know about hybrid viability and reproduction isolation, you would probably see which of the following?

more viable embryos in the 4 million year cross than the 40 million year cross

A population with allele frequencies that are not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium may be experiencing?

sexual selection, gene flow from another population, drift due to population size, directional selection for faster growth

If a species disappears from its entire range and can no longer be found it is considered \___________.

extinct

The Permian mass extinction, when lots of large insects went extinct, was largely caused by \______.

a rapid depletion of oxygen in the atmosphere

The oldest rocks on earth and meteorites that have been tested by radiometric dating support the hypothesis that earth is approximately \___________ years old.

4.5 billion

Mass extinctions are often followed by \____________________.

rapid diversification of species

If individuals from two genetically different populations mate and the offspring do poorly, it could be a result of \________________.

outbreeding depression

Extirpation is the \________________.

loss of a species through part of its range

When a population experiences a bottleneck, it experiences a \____________.

decrease in genetic diversity

The Cretaceous - Paleogene extinction (the one when non-avian dinosaurs went extinct) was most likely

caused by \__________________.

a meteor

Change in the allele frequencies in a population due to genetic drift will happen faster in a ______ \n population, like in a population that have recently experienced a population ______________.

small/bottleneck

population, like in a population that have recently experienced a population \______________.

small/bottleneck

An example of a possible historical mechanism for a biogeographic pattern would be \__________.

a palm tree's range covers half of a large tropical swamp

Which is an example of natural selection?

A group of turtles was crossing I-81 in Virginia and Bernie Madoff's prison bus passed over them.

Which of the answers in question 28 are an example of stabilizing selection (regardless of if it is artificial

or natural selection)?

A group of turtles was crossing I-81 in Virginia and Bernie Madoff's prison bus passed over them.

The observation that the beak length of individual birds in a population was slightly different between

variation

each bird would fit with Darwin's principle of \_____________.

variation

What is a mass extinction and why are adaptive radiations often observed after mass extinctions?

\>30% die off and something describing Opening of niche space

Broadshoulder Hawks usually prey on small mammals and birds, but the population of Broadshoulder Hawks living on The Hill is undergoing selection for larger talons so that they can more easily incapacitate and eat undergrads that are too absorbed in their phones and have no situational awareness. A(4pts) Which population/s are undergoing directional selection and why? B(2pts) Would either of these populations be in Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium for alleles related to the mentioned traits C(2pts) Is this artificial or natural selection? D(2pts) The Broadshoulder Hawk population on The Hill is diverging from other Broadshoulder Hawks along which axis of diversification?

A) Both populations

B) No

C) Natural Selection

D) Trophic Morphology

The Anthropocene is the time period identified by \______________.

major human modification of the environment

The \_____________ are the most diverse group of reptiles.

lizards and snakes

The main difference between Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria is the \__________________.

double or single layer of plasma membrane

What is believed to be the most significant result of the evolution of the amniotic egg

Tetrapods were no longer tied to the water for reproduction

The most diverse group of plants are the \________________.

angiosperms

Why might have aquatic vertebrates evolved to live in terrestrial environments?

to avoid competition

The smallest vertebrate is a \_______________.

fish

Amphibians and reptiles are \__________________.

ectothermic

Most of the protected land in the USA is also in the most biodiverse region.

False

The reproductive behaviors of birds are diverse and have resulted in many species that are brightly pigmented and oddly feathered. These traits are often used in attracting a mate. Most birds exhibit this type of mating system.

monogamy

The group of invertebrates with exoskeletons and specialized body segments are the \____.

arthropods

What is paleontology?

the study of ancient organisms

All amphibians and reptiles have four limbs.

False

Mammals and birds eat more often than reptiles. Which of the following traits shared by mammals and birds best explains this habit?

endothermy

Given the three domains of life, which two are more closely related to each other?

Archaea/Eukaryote

The plant group with the shortest gametophyte generation is the \_____________.

angiosperms

20. Birds are closely related to the Theropod dinosaurs, which were in the \_____________ group of dinosaurs.

lizard hipped

Which of these is most closely related to vertebrates?

tunicates

Sponges are all of the following except \___________.

bilaterally symmetric

It is believed that the coelacanths and lungfish represent a crucial link between other fishes and tetrapods. What is the major feature in these fish in support of this hypothesis?

Their fins have skeletal and muscular structures similar to amphibian limbs

Which is NOT a reason why we still know relatively little about the diversity of bacteria and archaea?

not very abundant

The group of fishes most closely related to tetrapods are the \______________.

lobe-finned fishes

The three major morphological traits of birds that are very informative for determining the ecology of a bird are listed below, except for \______________, which isn't very useful for such inferences.

eye color

Fish are \_________.

vertebrates that are not tetrapods

Of the following, \______________ were important for the transition of vertebrates from aquatic to terrestrial environments.

lungs and supportive limbs

An Archaea that requires a lack of oxygen in its environment is called a/an \___________.

obligate anaerobe

A conservative estimate of how many species go extinct every day is about \____________.

10

Based on what we know about early earth and the timing of early life that led to the first cellular life, we think the environment where these protobionts evolved were probably \_____________.

aquatic

In primates, the parts of the brain that are much larger than in other mammals are associated with which sense?

sight

The biodiversity hotspot, or where most fossils occur, for hominids is in \____________.

Africa

In fungi, the breakdown of food occurs \_______________.

outside the cells that make up the mycelium

Fish are the coolest organisms and pretty much everything can be answered through ichthyology.

True

Which one of these groups is known for occurring in extreme environments?

Archaea

Microbiomes on different parts of a human body are likely due to two main factors, including: \___ and \____.

differing environmental conditions and exposure to many environments

Coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct at the same time as \_______ before M. Courteney-Latimer found one in a fish market in South Africa?

dinosaurs

The development of the Endosymbiotic Theory is supported by the bacteria-like \___________ found in animal and plant cells.

mitochondria

The Monotremes are a group of mammals that lay eggs.

True

In lecture we talked about the morphological traits associated with arboreal dinosaurs, which are nearly identical to morphological traits of Notharctus, the extinct, early primate relative, that was discussed in the 3rd episode of "Your Inner Fish."

a) List two of those traits:

b) Explain why this is convergent evolution:

a) Gracile digits and limbs

b) Notharctus and arboreal dinosaurs do not share a common ancestor with these features, they evolved independently

What group/clade of organisms would you consider to be the most successful? First, provide the metric you are using to determine the most successful group (what are you enumerating or measuring?). Second, explain why that is a good metric. Third, give one trait that you think would be a key innovation for that clade (or the trait that made the group successful).

1. Metric \= \# of species, environments, abundance, etc

2. This metric is the best assessment because it ...

3. Linking the metric to an evolutionary or ecological concept like adaptive radiation or competition