Biology: A Guide to the Natural World, 5e (Krogh)
Chapter 19 A Slow Unfolding: The History of Life on Earth
1) Which large animals were wiped out by the Cretaceous extinction?
A) sharks
B) dinosaurs
C) whales
D) mammoths
2) The greatest extinction event of all time occurred at the end of the:
A) Permian period.
B) Mesozoic era.
C) Cretaceous period.
D) Cambrian period.
3) If a 10-mile-wide comet hit Earth, how would this likely affect the history of life?
A) A mass extinction would occur, followed by lots of evolutionary change among descendants
of the survivors.
B) A slow climate warming and drying would begin, decreasing the biological diversity on
Earth.
C) Continental drift would be reversed, and all the continents would slowly be pushed together
again.
D) Most species would become extinct, and the rest would remain more or less unchanged.
4) Sections of the geologic timescale are defined by:
A) how close the rocks are to the surface of the earth.
B) whether the rocks are metamorphic or sedimentary.
C) the age of the rocks.
D) the kinds of fossils present.
5) The end of the ________ era was marked by a transition into an explosion of life-forms rather
than an extinction event.
A) Precambrian
B) Mesozoic
C) Paleozoic
D) Jurassic
Refer to the scenario below, and then answer the following question(s).
You are the managing naturalist for a natural history museum that has just received a batch of
fossils from one of the field paleontologists sponsored by the museum. The note in the box states
the fossils all came from the same rock layer. The museum is organized according to geologic
timescale, and its management needs you to tell them to which department (based on era) and
period specialist (an individual with experience with life-forms of a particular geologic-timescale
period) the fossils should go. You find fossils of fish and seed-bearing plants but no reptiles or
higher animals and no flowering plants.
6) To which era do these fossils belong?
A) Precambrian
B) Paleozoic
C) Mesozoic
D) Cenozoic
7) To which period specialist should you forward the fossils?
A) Devonian
B) Carboniferous
C) Permian
D) Triassic
8) Some rock strata associated with coal seams in Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania can be shown
to have the same mixture of pollen grain types. This suggests that these rocks are/were:
A) the same age.
B) equally radioactive.
C) deposited from a common source material.
D) the same type of rock.
9) During which of these eras were dinosaurs dominant?
A) Paleozoic
B) Precambrian
C) Mesozoic
D) Cenozoic
10) What is the significance of finding evidence that zirconium/uranium rocks formed in water
4.2 million years ago?
A) Zirconium can be used for dating old rock samples.
B) The Earth coalesced from gas earlier than originally thought.
C) The Earth cooled earlier than originally thought.
D) Radiation played a role in the origin of life.
11) Experiments with enzymes made of RNA support which origin-of-life model?
A) Miller model
B) replicator-first model
C) metabolism-first model
D) DNA world model
12) What argument do scientists who support the metabolism-first model use to dispute the
replicator-first model?
A) The replicator nucleic acid molecule would be too large and complex.
B) DNA cannot replicate without the help of proteins.
C) RNA can only be used to make proteins, not other nucleic acids.
D) Replicators cannot exist without metabolism.
13) Which of these gases was absent in the early Earth atmosphere at the time life first appeared?
A) nitrogen
B) water vapor
C) carbon dioxide
D) oxygen
14) To be a successful cell evolutionarily, the earliest cells had to:
A) reproduce.
B) consume oxygen.
C) photosynthesize.
D) have mitochondria.
15) You discover a single-celled organism that does not have a nucleus, and you also notice that
the culture is producing methane. In which group would you place this organism?
A) Domain Bacteria
B) Domain Archaea
C) Domain Eukarya
D) Kingdom Protista
16) A major difference between cells of organisms in Domain Eukarya and the cells of those in
Domains Bacteria and Archaea is that:
A) Domain Eukarya organisms can only live in acid environments.
B) Domain Bacteria and Archaea cells can only live in acid environments.
C) Domain Bacteria and Archaea cells have a nucleus and Domain Eukarya cells do not.
D) cells of Domain Eukarya have a nucleus and Domains Bacteria and Archaea do not.
17) Organisms from which kingdom or domain were the first photosynthesizers?
A) Protista
B) Plantae
C) Bacteria
D) Archaea
18) Before the development of photosynthesis and as ancient cells became crowded, there was
probably a major competition for:
A) enzymes.
B) water.
C) organic molecules.
D) oxygen gas.
19) Which of the following statements best describes the history of life on Earth?
A) The Earth was lifeless far longer than it had living things.
B) The Earth had multicellular life-forms for most of its history.
C) The Earth had single-celled life-forms for most of its history.
D) The Earth had photosynthetic organisms about 100 million years after it formed.
20) A major event in the Precambrian era responsible for dramatically increasing organic
material on Earth was:
A) evolution of mitochondria.
B) evolution of photosynthesis.
C) deposition of carbon in rocks.
D) leaching of sulfur into the oceans.
21) A eukaryotic cell organelle is found to have its own DNA and to make some of its own
ribosomes. It also can make some protein without the help of DNA in the cell’s nucleus. Propose
an explanation for the origin of this organelle.
A) intracellular evolution from latent bacterial DNA
B) symbiotic merger of two bacteria cells; one becoming the nucleus, the other becoming the
organelle
C) symbiotic merger of bacteria into a eukaryotic cell with the bacterial cell becoming the
organelle
D) viral transmission of DNA from a bacterium to a eukaryotic cell
22) An organelle that probably evolved from an independent organism that moved inside and
began to live within a eukaryotic cell is the:
A) mitochondrion.
B) nucleus.
C) Golgi apparatus.
D) endoplasmic reticulum.
23) Of the following groups, which have been in existence the longest?
A) multicellular animals
B) cyanobacteria
C) gastropods
D) green algae
24) The evolution of which of the following biochemical processes changed the physical and
chemical nature of Earth in such a way that most life-forms had to adapt radically or become
extinct?
A) aerobic respiration
B) DNA replication
C) anaerobic respiration
D) photosynthesis
25) The Cambrian explosion of life is most notable for the:
A) appearance of multicellular animals, including nearly all phyla of the animal kingdom.
B) movement of life from the oceans to the land masses, including all kingdoms.
C) appearance of stromatolites.
D) appearance of the first photosynthetic organisms.
26) The evolution of land organisms was not possible until enough ________ had been made by
the early forms of aquatic life.
A) oxygen gas
B) carbon dioxide
C) ammonia
D) organic food
27) Which of the following is the most likely candidate for the first eukaryotic life-forms to
move onto land?
A) amphibians in shallow water
B) algae in shallow water
C) fungi
D) trilobites
28) Because there would not have been any significant soil before significant establishment of
life-forms on land, the earliest eukaryotic life-forms on land most likely were:
A) animals.
B) fungi.
C) plant—fungi combinations.
D) plant—animal combinations.
29) Some of the earliest true land plants lacked roots or a vascular system. The implication of
this would be that they:
A) lived mostly underground.
B) lived in protected areas such as caves.
C) had high mortality.
D) could not grow tall.
30) An example of a “seedless vascular plant” is a:
A) club moss.
B) pine tree.
C) gymnosperm.
D) green alga.
31) Which of the following is an adaptation that helped plants move from aquatic environments
to the land?
A) seeds
B) a cuticle
C) pollen
D) swimming sperm
32) An advantage allowing the seed plant to greatly surpass the seedless vascular plants in
colonizing the land was the evolution of:
A) large leaves with great surface area.
B) fibrous root systems.
C) air-dispersed sperm in pollen grains.
D) durable, water-resistant spores.
33) One advantage of angiosperms over gymnosperms is that angiosperms have evolved:
A) more efficient means of pollination.
B) more water-resistant leaves.
C) stronger vascular tissue.
D) better protection from plant pathogens such as fungi.
34) During the Silurian, the oxygen gas concentration in the atmosphere is postulated to have
reached an amount equivalent to more than 10 percent of its present-day concentration. Thus,
nearly all lethal ultraviolet radiation was unable to reach the Earth’s surface, making dry land
available for newly evolved forms. Which of the following major events in the evolution of
animals and plants probably occurred at this time?
A) The amphibians developed watertight skins and eggs.
B) The crayfish become the first land organisms.
C) The first major groups of seed plants appeared.
D) Primitive bryophytes and fern-like plants appeared.
35) Which of the following is a correct sequence of events in the history of life on Earth?
A) aquatic organisms, photosynthesis, RNA world, land organisms
B) prokaryotes, eukaryotes, land animals, land plants
C) Cambrian explosion, multicellular organisms, photosynthesis, eukaryotes
D) prokaryotes, photosynthesis, eukaryotes, land organisms
36) Some of the earliest animals to successfully adapt to life on land were the:
A) trilobites.
B) arthropods.
C) amphibians.
D) aquatic vertebrates.
37) Which of the following is assumed to be more primitive than a dinosaur and more complex
than a shark?
A) segmented worm
B) crayfish
C) starfish
D) frog
38) An adaptation of arthropods that made them well adapted for life on land was an exoskeleton
that can:
A) provide camouflage.
B) prevent water loss.
C) overcome the effects of gravity.
D) protect against predators.
39) Which group of vertebrates possessed an anatomical feature that made evolution of the limbs
of all tetrapods possible?
A) reptiles
B) sharks
C) amphibians
D) lobe-finned fish
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40) Early mammals differed from reptiles in many respects, including:
A) the number of legs used for walking.
B) feeding their young milk.
C) eating other organisms for food.
D) internal versus external fertilization.
41) Which aquatic vertebrates are thought to be the ancestors of the amphibians?
A) skates and rays
B) tadpoles
C) lobe-finned fish
D) sharks
42) Modern birds are probably direct descendants of:
A) marsupials.
B) iguanas.
C) dinosaurs.
D) crocodiles.
43) The amniotic egg was important in the colonization of the land because it:
A) was deposited in water.
B) could hold multiple embryos.
C) had a hard shell and membranes to prevent drying out.
D) was easy to produce.
44) The gnathostomes were the first vertebrates to:
A) develop gills.
B) possess jaws.
C) develop scales.
D) develop feathers.
45) Primates first appear in the fossil record in the:
A) Mesozoic era.
B) Cambrian period.