Campbell Biology in Focus, 2e (Urry)
Chapter 19 Descent with Modification
19.1 Multiple-Choice Questions
1) Fossils are found in
A) sedimentary rocks.
B) igneous rocks.
C) metamorphic rocks.
D) glass.
2) What was the prevailing belief prior to the time of Lyell and Darwin?
A) Earth is a few thousand years old, and populations are unchanging.
B) Earth is a few thousand years old, and populations gradually change.
C) Earth is millions of years old, and populations rapidly change.
D) Earth is millions of years old, and populations are unchanging.
3) During a study session about evolution, one of your fellow students remarks, “The giraffe
stretched its neck while reaching for higher leaves; its offspring inherited longer necks as a
result.” Which statement is most likely to be helpful in correcting this student’s misconception?
A) Characteristics acquired during an organism’s life are generally not passed on through genes.
B) Spontaneous mutations can result in the appearance of new traits.
C) Only favorable adaptations have survival value.
D) Disuse of an organ may lead to its eventual disappearance.
4) Which of the following is the most accurate summary of Cuvier‘s consideration of fossils
found in the vicinity of Paris?
A) extinction of species: yes; evolution of new species: yes
B) extinction of species: no; evolution of new species: yes
C) extinction of species: yes; evolution of new species: no
D) extinction of species: no; evolution of new species: no
5) Lamarck’s contribution to evolutionary theory was the
A) use and disuse principle.
B) idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
C) idea that evolutionary change explains patterns in fossils.
D) idea that Earth’s features could be explained by gradual mechanisms.
6) Charles Darwin was the first person to propose
A) that evolution occurs.
B) a mechanism for how evolution occurs.
C) that Earth is older than a few thousand years.
D) a mechanism for evolution that was supported by evidence.
7) What are adaptations?
A) inherited characteristics of organisms that enhance their survival and reproduction in specific
environments
B) acquired characteristics of organisms that enhance their survival and reproduction in specific
environments
C) processes that allow individuals with certain inherited traits to survive and reproduce
D) patterns seen in fossils documenting the origins of other new groups of organisms
8) Natural selection is based on all of the following except
A) genetic variation exists within populations.
B) the best-adapted individuals tend to leave the most offspring.
C) individuals who survive longer tend to leave more offspring than those who die young.
D) individuals adapt to their environments and thereby evolve.
9) Which of the following represents an idea that Darwin learned from the writings of Thomas
Malthus?
A) Technological innovation in agricultural practices will permit exponential growth of the
human population into the foreseeable future.
B) Populations tend to increase at a faster rate than their food supply normally allows.
C) Earth changed over the years through a series of catastrophic upheavals.
D) The environment is responsible for natural selection.
10) Given a population that contains genetic variation, what is the correct sequence of the
following events, under the influence of natural selection?
1. Well-adapted individuals leave more offspring than do poorly adapted individuals.
2. A change occurs in the environment.
3. Genetic frequencies within the population change.
4. Poorly adapted individuals have decreased survivorship.
A) 2 → 4 → 1 → 3
B) 4 → 2 → 1 → 3
C) 4 → 1 → 2 → 3
D) 4 → 2 → 3 → 1
11) A biologist studied a population of squirrels for 15 years. During that time, the population
was never fewer than 30 squirrels and never more than 45. Her data showed that over half of the
squirrels born did not survive to reproduce, because of both competition for food and predation.
In a single generation, 90% of the squirrels that were born lived to reproduce, and the population
increased to 80. Which inference(s) about this population might be true?
A) The amount of available food may have increased.
B) The parental generation of squirrels developed better eyesight due to improved diet; the
subsequent squirrel generation inherited better eyesight.
C) The number of predators that prey upon squirrels may have decreased.
D) Both A and C could be true.
12) Which of the following must exist in a population before natural selection can act upon that
population?
A) genetic variation among individuals
B) variation among individuals caused by environmental factors
C) sexual reproduction
D) All of the above are correct.
13) Which of Darwin’s ideas had the strongest connection to Darwin having read Malthus’s essay
on human population growth?
A) descent with modification
B) variation among individuals in a population
C) the struggle for existence
D) that the ancestors of the Galápagos finches had come from the South American mainland
14) Artificial selection is
A) human-directed selective breeding.
B) past extinction.
C) patterns of evolution.
D) slower than natural selection.
15) Darwin’s observation of the Galápagos Islands finches’ various beaks and behaviors could be
explained by
A) adaptations to the specific foods available on their mainland.
B) adaptations forged by natural selection.
C) modification with descent.
D) inherited traits that did not survive.
16) DDT was once considered a “silver bullet” that would permanently eradicate insect pests.
Instead, today DDT is largely useless against many insects. Which of the following should have
occurred for this pest eradication effort to be successful in the long run?
A) Larger doses of DDT should have been applied.
B) All habitats should have received applications of DDT at about the same time.
C) The frequency of DDT application should have been higher.
D) None of the individual insects should have possessed genomes that made them resistant to
DDT.
17) Analogous features share ________ function but not ________ ancestry.
A) similar; common
B) common; similar
C) similar; similar
D) common; common
18) Currently, two extant elephant species (X and Y) are placed in the genus Loxodonta, and a
third species (Z) is placed in the genus Elephas. Thus, which of the following statements is true?
A) Species X and Y are not related to species Z.
B) Species X and Y share a greater number of homologies with each other than either does with
species Z.
C) Species X and Y share a common ancestor that is still extant (in other words, not yet extinct).
D) Species X and Y are the result of artificial selection from an ancestral species Z.
19) The rise of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can be considered to be an
example of artificial selection because
A) humans purposefully raise MRSA in large fermenters in an attempt to make the bacteria ever-
more resistant.
B) S. aureus is cultivated by humans to replenish the soil with nutrients.
C) humans synthesize methicillin and create environments in which bacteria frequently come
into contact with methicillin.
D) Humans are becoming resistant to bacteria by taking methicillin.
20) Two plant species live in the same biome but on different continents. Although the two
species are not at all closely related, they may appear quite similar as a result of
A) parallel evolution.
B) convergent evolution.
C) allopatric speciation.
D) gene flow.
21) If the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus experiences a cost for maintaining one or more
antibiotic-resistance genes, then what should happen in environments from which antibiotics are
missing?
A) These genes should continue to be maintained in case the antibiotics ever appear.
B) These bacteria should be outcompeted and replaced by bacteria that have lost these genes.
C) The bacteria should try to make the cost worthwhile by locating, and migrating to,
microenvironments where traces of antibiotics are present.
D) The bacteria should start making and secreting their own antibiotics.
22) Of the following anatomical structures, which is homologous to the bones in the wing of a
bird?
A) bones in the hind limb of a kangaroo
B) chitinous struts in the wing of a butterfly
C) bony rays in the tail fin of a flying fish
D) bones in the flipper of a whale
23) If two modern organisms are distantly related in an evolutionary sense, then one should
expect that
A) they live in very different habitats.
B) they should share fewer homologous structures than two more closely related organisms.
C) their chromosomes should be very similar.
D) they shared a common ancestor relatively recently.
24) What is an example of what happens when herbivores switch to a new food source with
different characteristics?
A) In southern Florida, the soapberry bug (Jadera haema-toloma) will not have beaks to feed on
the seeds of a native plant, the balloon vine (Cardiospermum corindum).
B) Soapberry bugs in central Florida, where balloon vines have become rare, now have bigger
beaks to feed on seeds of the goldenrain tree (Koelreuteria elegans), a species recently
introduced from Asia.
C) Soapberry bugs feed most effectively when the length of their beak is longer than the depth at
which seeds are found within the fruit. Goldenrain tree fruit consists of three flat lobes, and its
seeds are much closer to the fruit surface than seeds of the plump, round fruit of the native
balloon vine.
D) In populations that feed on goldenrain tree, natural selection results in beaks that are shorter
than those in populations that feed on balloon vine.
25) Over evolutionary time, many cave-dwelling organisms have lost their eyes. Tapeworms
have lost their digestive systems. Whales have lost their hind limbs. How can natural selection
account for these losses?
A) Natural selection cannot account for losses, only for innovations.
B) Natural selection accounts for these losses by the principle of use and disuse.
C) Under particular circumstances that persisted for long periods, each of these structures
presented greater costs than benefits.
D) The ancestors of these organisms experienced harmful mutations that forced them to find new
habitats that these species had not previously used.
26) Which of the following pieces of evidence most strongly supports the common origin of all
life on Earth?
A) All organisms require energy.
B) All organisms use essentially the same genetic code.
C) All organisms reproduce.
D) All organisms show heritable variation.
27) Logically, which of the following should cast the most doubt on the relationships depicted by
an evolutionary tree?
A) Some of the organisms depicted by the tree had lived in different habitats.
B) The skeletal remains of the organisms depicted by the tree were incomplete (in other words,
some bones were missing).
C) Transitional fossils had not been found.
D) Relationships between DNA sequences among the species did not match relationships
between skeletal patterns.
28) Which of the following statements indicate the function of the appendix?
A) The appendix can be surgically removed with no immediate ill effects.
B) The appendix might have been larger in fossil hominids.
C) The appendix has a substantial amount of defensive lymphatic tissue.
D) Individuals with a larger-than-average appendix leave fewer offspring than those with a
below-average-sized appendix.
29) Members of two different species possess similar-looking structures that they use in a similar
fashion to perform the same function. Which of the following statements describes these
structures originating from convergent evolution?
A) The two species live at great distance from each other and have structures for flying.
B) These structures share function but do not share a common ancestry.
C) The functions of the structures in adult members of both species are not similar.
D) Both species have structures that are not adapted to their particular environments.
30) What environment stimulates evolution of drug-resistant pathogens?
A) presence of an enzyme called penicillinase
B) colonization of host
C) pathogens without cell walls
D) excess antibiotics
31) Both ancestral birds and ancestral mammals shared a common ancestor that was terrestrial.
Today, penguins (which are birds) and seals (which are mammals) have forelimbs adapted for
swimming. What term best describes the relationship of the bones in the forelimbs of penguins
and seals, and what term best describes the flippers of penguins and seals?
A) homologous; homologous
B) analogous; homologous
C) homologous; analogous
D) analogous; analogous
32) What must be true of any organ that is described as vestigial?
A) It must be analogous to some feature in an ancestor.
B) It must be homologous to some feature in an ancestor.
C) It must be both homologous and analogous to some feature in an ancestor.
D) It need be neither homologous nor analogous to some feature in an ancestor.
33) What is true of pseudogenes?
A) They are composed of RNA, rather than DNA.
B) They are the same things as introns.
C) They are unrelated genes that code for the same gene product.
D) They are vestigial genes.
34) It has been observed that organisms on islands are different from, but closely related to,
similar forms found on the nearest continent. This is taken as evidence that
A) island forms and mainland forms descended from common ancestors.
B) common environments are inhabited by the same organisms.
C) the islands were originally part of the continent.
D) the island forms and mainland forms are converging.
35) If one wanted to find the largest number of endemic species, one should visit which of the
following geological features (assuming each has existed for several millions of years)?
A) an isolated ocean island in the tropics
B) an extensive mountain range
C) a midcontinental grassland with extreme climatic conditions
D) a shallow estuary on a warm-water coast
36) Convergent evolution uses analogous features to describe
A) distantly related organisms that have structures for a different functions.
B) the independent evolution of similar features in different lineages.
C) two mammals that have adapted to similar environments in similar way.
D) features that share common ancestry but not necessarily similar function.