What does the Grants’ study of medium ground finches tell us about evolution by means
of natural selection?
a. New species cannot form.
b. A new species can form only when natural selection operates consistently in one
direction for a few million years.
c. Evolution can change only single traits within a species.
d. New species normally take thousands to millions of years to arise because natural
selection pressures operate in fits and starts.
Because primates are mammals, what can you predict about their reproductive strategy?
a. Resource competition forces pair-bonding.
b. Alpha males sire almost all of the offspring.
c. Males assist in rearing offspring in most cases.
d. Females are obligated to invest heavily in their offspring through pregnancy and
lactation.
Proponents of the neutral theory
a. believe that most changes in DNA sequences produce clocklike change because they
are controlled by drift and mutation.
b. think the molecular clock is a result of natural selection.
c. are not sure if we can accurately calculate how long ago two lineages diverged.
d. use only derived traits in their analysis.
The relative amount of parental care
a. can affect all aspects of social behavior and some aspects of morphology.
b. is virtually the same across the primate order.
c. does not influence reproductive strategies.
d. is determined directly by dominance hierarchy.
The existence of asexual species provides evidence that
a. species can be maintained through the biological species concept.
b. species can be maintained through the ecological species concept.
c. macroevolution is a stronger force than microevolution.
d. microevolution is a stronger force than macroevolution.
A selection”mutation balance occurs when
a. mutation introduces alleles that selection favors.
b. mutation introduces alleles that selection does not favor.
c. selection is neutral and mutation is not present.
d. both b and c.
According to evolutionary psychologists, the environment of evolutionary adaptedness
a. is long gone.
b. has not yet arrived.
c. is here now.
d. never existed.
Which of the following is predicted by Hamilton’s rule?
a. No altruism should evolve when r< 0.5.
b. Altruism evolves only when r> 0.0.
c. Altruism evolves only when r< 0.0.
d. No altruism should evolve when r> 0.5.
When a true-breeding plant bearing yellow seeds produces gametes, what alleles are
represented among those gametes?
a. Only A alleles
b. Only a alleles
c. Both a and A alleles, in equal frequencies
d. Both a and A alleles, but mostly A alleles
Which of the following statements can be seen as support for the idea that Homo
floresiensis is descended from Homo erectus?
a. The skulls of H. floresiensis share a number of derived characters with H. erectus.
b. A rich fossil record documents a long occupation of nearby mainland areas by H.
erectus.
c. Mode 2 tools have been found on Flores and are dated to 500,000 years ago.
d. Adult H. floresiensis look like H. erectus children.
Imagine two loci on one chromosome. At one locus the genotype is Aa, and at the other
locus the genotype is Bb. After meiosis, what are all of the possible genotypes of the
gametes?
a. AB and ab gametes
b. All AB gametes
c. AB, ab, Ab, and aB gametes
d. Ab and aB gametes
The Omomyidae were a group of early primates that
a. were similar to modern tarsiers.
b. specialized in fruit.
c. had small eye sockets.
d. had large bodies.
Humans rarely mate with close relatives because
a. culture stops us from doing what we really desire.
b. childhood propinquity stifles desire.
c. natural selection cannot stop the power of culture.
d. Both a and c.
Behaviors are more likely to be canalized if
a. there is no genetic control of the behavior.
b. the behavior is seen in a variety of environments.
c. the behavior is seen in environments that are the same.
d. phenotypes vary.
Imagine that an alarm caller sacrifices its life to save other conspecifics. According to
Hamilton’s rule, how many full siblings would it have to save for the behavior to be
favored?
a. at least 1.
b. at least 2.
c. at least 3.
d. Hamilton’s rule cannot be satisfied.
Phenylketonuria (PKU)
a. can result in shortened limbs.
b. is caused by the substitution of one allele for another at a single locus.
c. is not a genetically inherited disease.
d. All of the above.
An example of a condition caused by genetic drift is
a. porphyria variegata.
b. non-insulin-dependent diabetes.
c. lactose tolerance.
d. cystic fibrosis.
A woman’s ________ peaks in her twenties and then steadily declines until she reaches
menopause, when it drops to zero.
a. fertility
b. sexuality
c. reproductive value
d. fecundity
Culture
a. is common in other primates.
b. occurs only in humans.
c. is common in other primates, but cumulative cultural change is rare in other animals.
d. is common in other primates, and is also cumulative, just as in humans.
Around 200 mya, contemporary continents
a. had not been formed into land yet.
b. were underneath the ocean.
c. were joined together into a single continent.
d. were joined together into two continents.
The mtDNA and Y chromosome evidence favors
a. the viewpoint that modern humans evolved in areas of the Old World.
b. the viewpoint that modern humans evolved in Africa.
c. the viewpoint that African populations of modern humans interbred with archaic
populations in Europe and Asia.
d. the viewpoint that modern humans are descended from a single pair of individuals
like Adam and Eve.
Homo erectus was shorter and stockier than Homo ergaster. This morphological
difference most likely reflects
a. dietary differences.
b. different climatic adaptations.
c. differences in technological abilities.
d. nonadaptive random differences.
Chimpanzees primarily include ________ foods in their diet.
a. extracted
b. hunted
c. collected
d. provisioned
Apes from the Middle Miocene adapted to have ________ because they ate harder
foods than their predecessors.
a. molars with thick enamel and rounded cusps.
b. narrow zygomatic arches.
c. robust upper jaws.
d. molars with thin enamel and sharp cusps.
Inbreeding
a. increases the chances of deleterious recessives coming together in one individual.
b. is bad because individuals with families have more defects than individuals without
families.
c. decreases the chances of deleterious recessives coming together in one individual.
d. is bad because individuals with families have fewer defects than individuals without
families.
The transition from hominoid to hominin occurred during a transition
a. from forest to savanna.
b. from savanna to forest.
c. from arboreality to terrestriality.
d. Both a and c.
Natural selection usually acts upon and produces adaptations at the level of the
a. gene.
b. individual.
c. group.
d. species.
Compare and contrast mitosis and meiosis. Include in your discussion for each process
(a) the number of daughter cells produced and (b) the number of chromosomes each
new cell contains. What are recombination and crossing over, and why are they
important in the study of evolution?
Chastity was
a. an important mate quality in Sweden but not China.
b. an important mate quality in China but not Sweden.
c. important in both China and Sweden.
d. unimportant in both Sweden and China.
Evidence that hominins ate meat includes
a. stone-tool marks on prey bones.
b. hominin tooth marks on prey bones.
c. hominin fingerprints on prey bones.
d. the shape of hominin molars.
The projecting nose of Homo ergaster may have
a. increased their olfactory ability.
b. decreased the amount of oxygen available in each inhalation.
c. helped to prevent moisture loss.
d. altered the sound of their voices while using language.
One adaptation to nocturnality is
a. color vision.
b. large eyes.
c. immobile ears.
d. large body size.
________ are characterized by small incisors and large premolars with sharp crests.
a. Frugivores
b. Folivores
c. Insectivores
d. Faunivores
When a juvenile distress vocalization is played for a troop of vervet monkeys and the
mother of the juvenile orients toward the speaker, we can infer that vervet mothers
a. recognize the sound of their own kin.
b. like their offspring.
c. are subordinate to their offspring.
d. are located in the center of vervet troops.
What is Pangaea?
a. A single landmass that contained all present-day continents.
b. The view that all mammals evolved in Gaea.
c. The specific geographic location where all life originated.
d. Evidence of an ancient underwater biome.