Name Date
Evolution Constructed Response #2 HW
Directions: Please answer the following constructed response questions. Please answer in BULLET form when appropriate
1. A student wanted to determine if slugs preferred green leaf lettuce leaves over purple cabbage leaves for food. Pieces of both leaves were cut. One piece of each type of leaf and one slug were placed in each of ten containers. After three days, the surface area of each leaf section was measured and the results were recorded in a data table. State one reason that the results of this experiment might be considered invalid.
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2. Base your answer to the question on the finch diversity chart below, which contains information concerning the finches found on the Galapagos Islands.
Identify one bird that would most likely compete for food with the large tree finch. Support your answer.
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3. Base your answer to this question on the information below and on your knowledge of biology.
Rabbits eat plants and in turn are eaten by predators such as foxes and wolves. A population of rabbits is found in which a few have a genetic trait that gives them much better than average leg strength.
It was later discovered that the rabbits born with the trait for above average leg strength also inherited the trait for poor eyesight. Taking into account this new information, explain how your predictions would change. Support your answer.
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4. Base your answer to the question on the passage below and on your knowledge of biology.
When Whales Walked the Earth
A newly unearthed fossil is the missing link between land and marine mammals
Standing two to three feet tall on legs adapted to wade through shallow water, the 48-million-year-old Indohyus is the missing link between modern day whales and their land-lubbing ancestors. Hans Thewissen of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy recovered the skeleton in rocks from Kashmir, a disputed region between India and Pakistan, where the deer-like herbivore lived during the Eocene epoch, 56 to 34 million years ago.
The extreme thickness of its bones is a trait seen often in animals that are aquatic waders (thick, heavy bones counteract buoyancy and allow the animal to stay underwater more easily), and chemical traces in its teeth indicate that the animal ate plants in a freshwater environment. Scientists know that Indohyus belongs in the evolutionary path with whales because it has skeletal similarities to both modern whales and known primordial whale ancestors.
— Source: Day Greenberg, “When Whales Walked the Earth,” Popular Science, May 2008
Identify one characteristic of Indohyus that led some scientists to conclude that it was an ancestor of modern whales.
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5. Base your answer to the question on the information below and on your knowledge of biology.
In many areas, there are some small mammals whose fur color is influenced by temperature. In these animals, the trait for fur color is expressed only if the air temperature is above a certain level. In cold weather, when the ground is covered with snow, the trait is not expressed and the fur color is white.
Explain how the fur color change trait may help the small mammals survive.
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6. The diagram below shows a branching “tree” representing the evolution of ten different groups of organisms alive today.
Identify the group of organisms that is most closely related to the Arthropoda group. Support your answer.
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7. Base your answer to the question on the information below and on your knowledge of biology.
A person expressed concern that the vegetarian finch may face greater competition when other finch populations increase. State whether the vegetarian finch will face competition if the populations of warbler finches, woodpecker finches, and mangrove finches increase. Support your answer.
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8. Base your answer to the question on the diagram below and on your knowledge of biology. The diagram shows variations in the beaks of finches in the Galapagos Islands.
State one reason why the large ground finch and the woodpecker finch can live successfully on the same island.
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9. Base your answer to the question on the diagram below and on your knowledge of biology. The diagram shows variations in the beaks of finches in the Galapagos Islands.
Identify one finch in the diagram that is least likely to compete with any of the other finches. Support your answer.
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10. Identifyone trait, other than a beak characteristic, that could affect the survival of a finch. Support your answer.
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