Name: Date:
Applied Biology Block:
Evolution Test-Answer Key
(Open-Notes)
Applied Bio
Multiple Choice (Worth 2 points each)
1. Variation is important to Darwin’s theory of evolution because it
a. Provides material on which natural selection acts
b. Allows individuals to explore new habitats
c. Minimizes competition within a species
d. Allows individuals to make the best use of limited resources
2. Can an individual evolve?
a. No
b. Yes
c. Under certain conditions
d. None of the above
Use the picture below to answer the 2 questions that follow:
3. The bones labeled A-D are known as:
a. Homologous structures
b. Divergent structures
c. Embryonic structures
d. Vestigial structures
4. In a mouse population inhabiting a grassland area, a mutation occurs that results in a new coat color allele.
Which of the following factors has the greatest effect on whether the new coat color will become more common in the mouse population?
a. whether abundant food is available in the grassland
b. whether the new coat color allele is dominant or recessive
c. whether the rate of reproduction in the mouse population is stable
d. whether the new coat color allele increases the survival of mice in their environment
The diagrams below show changes in a desert lizard population.
5. Which biological concept is illustrated in the above diagrams?
a. Polygenic traits
b. Natural selection
c. Sex-linked inheritance
d. Silent mutations
6. Cheetahs have come close to extinction due to hunting, drought and disease. There is now very little genetic variation in cheetah populations.
Which of the following is a result of the limited genetic variation in the current cheetah population compared to earlier cheetah populations with more variation?
a. Cheetahs in current populations are more resistant to new diseases.
b. The survival rate of young cheetahs is increased in current populations.
c. Cheetahs in current populations are less able to interbreed with other species.
d. The current cheetah populations are less likely to be able to adapt to environmental changes.
7. Similar structures are present in the embryos of fish, chickens, and rabbits. In fish, these structures develop into gills, but in chickens and rabbits, they either disappear or develop into other body parts later in embryonic development.
Which of the statements below best explains the presence of these structures in the embryos of all three species?
a. The embryos of the three species are similar in size.
b. Breathing structures are similar among the young of the three species.
c. The three species have a common ancestor with these embryonic structures.
d. The reproductive mechanisms are similar among the adults of the three species.
8. The illustration below represents a marine iguana.
The marine iguanas of the Galapagos Islands feed on seaweed and algae. Marine iguanas have flattened tails while other species of iguanas that live inland on the Galapagos and on the South American mainland have rounded tails.
Which of the following best explains this difference in tail shape?
a. Flattened tails are better for swimming than rounded tails.
b. Flattened tails move more easily on land than in the ocean.
c. Flattened tails are harder for predators to grasp than rounded tails.
d. Flattened tails release heat more rapidly in the ocean than on land.
9. Dutch elm disease is a fungal infection of elm trees that usually results in death. The disease has killed millions of North American elm trees that were not resistant to the fungus. Scientists have bred resistant elms by crossing North American species with Asian species that show resistance.
Which of the following best describes how natural selection would promote resistant elm populations once the resistance genes from the Asian species were successfully introduced?
a. After encountering elms with resistance genes, fungi would avoid elms and begin to attack other tree species.
b. Resistance would spread to all of the mature elms in a population from the few trees that acquired the resistance genes.
c. By reproducing with each other, elm trees with resistance genes would create super-resistant elms with twice the number of resistance genes.
d. Elm trees with resistance genes would survive and pass on resistance to offspring, while trees without resistance would more likely be killed by the fungus.
10. Which of the following provides the most conclusive evidence that organisms of two different species share a common ancestor?
a. They live in the same ecosystem.
b. They reproduce at the same time.
c. They have similar DNA sequences.
d. They have similar body movements.
11. On island chains like the one shown below, animal populations that spread from the main island to the other islands can evolve into separate species.
Which of the following best explains what favors speciation in these situations?
a. Predators on the main island can easily migrate to follow the populations to the other islands.
b. Lack of disease on the other islands enables the populations to grow and change without limit.
c. The physical separation of the islands limits gene flow and interbreeding between the populations.
d. The climatic conditions of the islands allow the populations to breed all year and produce several generations.
12. On the Galápagos Islands, finches adapted over time to different food sources through changes in their beak structure.
Which of the following most likely resulted from the finches’ beak structure adaptations?
a. a decreased predation on finches
b. an increased species diversity of finches
c. an increased competition among finches
d. a decreased reproductive rate in finches
13. Frogs, lizards, and birds all have a similar arrangement of bones in their limbs. Which of the following does this similarity most likely indicate about these animals?
a. They move in the same way.
b. They have a common ancestry.
c. They evolved at the same time.
14. The rock pipit and the water pipit are two types of birds found in the United Kingdom and other areas of Europe. The rock pipit and the water pipit have similar appearances and their habitat ranges overlap.
Which of the following observations most likely caused scientists to classify the birds as separate species?
a. The rock pipit is not able to produce fertile offspring with the water pipit.
b. The rock pipit population in the United Kingdom is larger than the water pipit population.
c. The rock pipit eats insects, fish, and seeds, but the water pipit eats only insects and larvae.
d. The rock pipit remains in the United Kingdom year-round, but the water pipit only overwinters there.
15. Which of the following statements best explains why geographic isolation can lead to speciation?
a. Physical separation of populations reduces competition for each group.
b. Physical separation of populations prevents interbreeding and mixing of gene pools.
c. Physical separation of populations provides more space for each group’s size to increase.
d. Physical separation of populations stresses the organisms and causes mutations in their genetic code.
16. The fossil record supports which of the following descriptions of the evolution of life on Earth?
a. Life first appeared with the diversity found today.
b. The importance of natural selection diminished over time.
c. Complex organisms evolved from more simple organisms.
d. Large organisms appeared before single-celled organisms.
Refer to the diagrams below to answer the 2 questions that follow.
17. Figure A represents which one of the following patterns of evolution?
a. Coevolution
b. Convergent evolution
c. Adaptive radiation
d. Gradualism
e. Extinction
f. Punctuated equilibrium
18. Figure B represents which one of the following patterns of evolution?
a. Coevolution
b. Convergent evolution
c. Adaptive radiation
d. Gradualism
e. Extinction
f. Punctuated equilibrium
19. The illustrations below show vestigial pelvic bones of a baleen whale and vestigial hind limb bones of an extinct whale.
The presence of these bones in the baleen whale and extinct whale provides evidence of which of the following?
a. Whales can travel on land when necessary.
b. Whales evolved from four-legged animals.
c. Whales have functional legs that are hidden by fat and skin.
d. Whales are developing into animals with four functioning limbs.
20. The drawings below show some trilobite and crinoid fossils.
Which of the following is the most reasonable conclusion when fossils of these two different types of organisms are found in the same layers of rock?
a. Crinoids were prey for trilobites.
b. Crinoids were ancestors of trilobites.
c. Crinoids and trilobites had similar behaviors.
d. Crinoids and trilobites lived at the same time.
Open-ended
1. The maps below show South America and Africa. Areas where fossils of the same extinct plant species have been found are marked with a star.
a. Explain how the widely separated areas marked in Map 2 can have fossils of the same extinct plant species. (Worth 2 points)
Both Continents were joined together in the past having the same organisms living in the area where they later separated.
In both South America and Africa, there are plants descended from this extinct species. These modern plants are very different from one another.
b. Explain how the extinct species has modern descendents that came to be very different from one another. (Worth 3 points)
When the continents separated and move far apart, they each had different climate/weather conditions, so that the plants with the adaptations which allowed them to survive did so and passed on those traits. Over many generations the plants on both continents evolved by natural selection to different species from the original extinct plant.
2. The graph below relates the number of gray squirrels in a small population to their coat colors.
This squirrel population has been separated from other squirrel populations by a new highway and several construction sites. The main predators of these squirrels are cats and hawks.
a. Assume that dark gray squirrels are very visible in this new environment. What is likely to happen to the distribution of coat color in this squirrel population over several generations? Sketch a graph on the attached graph paper to show the predicted distribution, and explain your answer. (Worth 5 points)
The dark gray shades would decline and the light gray shades would increase.
b. Assume that dark gray squirrels are very visible on the ground, and light gray squirrels are very visible in the trees. Explain what is likely to happen to the distribution of coat color in the squirrel population over several generations. Sketch a graph on the attached graph paper as part of your explanation. (Worth 5 points)
The colors on the ends of both light and dark gray would decline significantly leaving the middle 4 shades to be the most populated.