Homologies that appear to have marginal, if any, importance to an organism are called __________.
answer
vestigial structures.
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A population of zooplankton is exposed to a small number of predatory fish that feed on the larger-sized (adult) zooplankton. Which of the following predictions would most likely occur based on the principles of natural selection?
answer
Adult zooplankton will start to reach sexual maturity when they are still relatively small.
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Paleontology, the study of fossils, was developed by __________.
answer
Georges Cuvier.
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During periods of rapid environmental change, what may happen to a species that was well-suited to the former environment?
answer
All of the listed responses are correct. (Individuals with particular traits that provide an advantage in the new environment will have higher reproductive success; traits that were favourable in the original environment may be detrimental in the new environment; the species may go extinct; the population may change so much in adapting to the new environment that it is considered a new species).
question
Organisms found only in specific places in the world are referred to as __________.
answer
Endemic.
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Even though rodents known as sugar gliders and flying squirrels are members of distinctly different groups of organisms and live on different continents, they possess similar characteristics. This is an example of __________.
answer
convergent evolution.
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What does it mean to describe evolution as a scientific theory?
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Evolution is a broad model that is supported by many observations and much experimental evidence.
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The bacteria Staphylococcus aureus has developed resistance to some antibiotic drugs. How did this resistance come about?
answer
Some members of the bacteria populations possessed some sort of genetic variation for antibiotic resistance that was selected for when the bacteria was exposed to the drugs.
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In Darwin's view of descent with modification, __________.
answer
Natural selection can improve the match between an organism and its environment.
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At the time Darwin voyaged on the HMS Beagle, the popularly accepted theory in Western culture that explained the origin of Earth's plants and animals held that the various species __________.
answer
had been created by divine intervention a few thousand years before.
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Which of the following people developed the idea known as the scala naturae, or scale of nature?
answer
Aristotle.
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The modern idea of extinction as a common occurrence in Earth's history was first proposed in the early 19th century writings of __________.
answer
Cuvier.
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Which of the following is not an observation or inference that Darwin made while developing his theory of evolution?
answer
Interactions between individuals and their environments cause individuals to evolve.
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How does our understanding of genetics today refute Lamarck's principle of the inheritance of acquired characteristics?
answer
Experiments in genetics show that traits acquired during an individual's lifetime are not inherited in the way proposed by Lamarck.
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Darwin's explanation of how adaptations arise centered on __________.
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Natural Selection.
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On an evolutionary tree, __________.
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homologous characteristics form a nested pattern.
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All known organisms transcribe genetic information to protein molecules via the same genetic code. This finding strongly supports the hypothesis that __________.
answer
all organisms are descended from a single common ancestor.
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Darwin originally defined evolution as __________.
answer
descent with modification.
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Which of the following is correct regarding natural selection?
answer
All of the listed responses are correct. (Natural selection is a process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than do individuals without those traits; Individuals do not evolve, populations do; Over time, natural selection can increase the correspondence between organisms and their environments; If an environment changes, or if individuals move to a new environment, natural selection may result in adaptation to these new conditions, sometimes giving rise to new species).
question
Adaptations are defined as __________.
answer
inherited characteristics of organisms that enhance their survival and reproduction in specific environments.
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The breeding of plants and animals for particular traits by humans is called __________.
answer
artificial selection.
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How did Hutton and Lyell's ideas influence Charles Darwin's thinking?
answer
Darwin reasoned that the Earth must be very old and that slow, subtle processes could produce substantial biological changes.
question
The upper forelimbs of humans and bats have fairly similar skeletal structures, whereas the corresponding bones in whales have very different shapes and proportions. However, genetic data suggest that all three kinds of organisms diverged from a common ancestor at about the same time. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for these data?
answer
Natural selection in an aquatic environment resulted in the resulted in significant changes to whale forelimb anatomy.
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What does each branch point on an evolutionary tree represent?
answer
The common ancestor of the lineages beginning there and to the right of it.
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What insight did Darwin gain from reading Thomas Malthus's essay on human suffering?
answer
Organisms have the capacity to overreproduce.
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A __________ is the smallest unit that can evolve.
answer
population.
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Which of the following is not an observation or inference on which natural selection is based?
answer
Poorly adapted individuals never produce offspring.
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An important challenge to traditional (pre-1860) ideas about species was the observation that seemingly dissimilar organisms such as hummingbirds, humans, and whales have similar skeletal structures. This most directly suggested to biologists that __________.
answer
dissimilar organisms might have evolved from a distant, common ancestor.
question
Carolus Linnaeus is considered to be the founder of __________, and he __________.
answer
the binomial classification system; thought that resembles among different species reflected the pattern of their creation.
question
Animals that possess homologous structures probably __________.
answer
evolved from the same ancestor.
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