BSC 2011 Final Exam Questions With
100% Correct Answers 2026-2027
Updated.
A limitation of Darwin's work was a lack of understanding about the mechanisms of inheritance.
Mendel's work addresses this. - Answer Which of the following BEST describes the relationship
between Darwin and Mendel's ideas?
The two populations would have increasingly similar allele frequencies to each other. - Answer
One of the conditions to maintain H-W is no gene flow (immigration or emigration). Which of
the following would you MOST LIKELY predict to happen if gene flow occurred between two
populations?
This creates novel genotypes (and phenotypes) for selection to act on. - Answer How is the
genetic variation generated during meiosis important for evolution at the population level?
This is an example of gametic isolation; incompatibility between gametes prevents hybridization
- Answer In class, we learned about gamete recognition in sea urchins. How does this relate to
reproductive isolating mechanisms?
Species unaffected by competition have equal fundamental and realized niches. - Answer
What is one difference between the fundamental niche and the realized niche?
carrying capacity - Answer A population of deer grows from 100 to 200 to 600, and when it
gets to 600, it levels off. This population must have reached:
precipitation and temperature determine biomes. - Answer From this graph, we can conclude
that:
genetic diversity - Answer If all individuals in the last remaining population of a particular frog
species were all highly related, which type of diversity would be of greatest concern when
planning to prevent the species from going extinct?
an adult hummingbird - Answer Which of the following organisms would you expect to have
the lowest production efficiency (aka LEAST efficient)?
33% - Answer What is the production efficiency of this caterpillar? (note: only use assimilated
energy when calculating this)
Energy eaten from plant: 200J
, Energy going to feces: 100 J
Energy going to cellular respiration: 67 J
Energy going to new biomass: 33 J
Large "top-level" carnivores have high energy demands, so their community can't support that
many large, top predators - Answer How does trophic inefficiency (energy is lost at higher
levels) explain why big, fierce animals are rare?
If the species' realized niche is smaller than its fundamental niche due to competition, we would
expect the realized niche to increase when the competitor is removed - Answer Which of the
following would you predict to occur if competition played a role in the barnacle distributions?
intraspecific - Answer The strength of competition depends on overlap in resource use. Given
this, which kind of competition do you think is stronger?
increase - Answer For a population undergoing exponential growth, how would dN/dt be
expected to change as N increases?
type I - Answer Elephants typically live for a long time and have few offspring. Which of the
survivorship curves BEST describes this species?
High rate of extinction due to habitat loss - Answer Which of the following observations
provides the BEST EVIDENCE of a biodiversity crisis?
40 ° N - Answer The Mediterranean Sea experiences mild temperatures and precipitation.
Areas near here are seasonally warm and can support longer growing seasons. What latitude do
you predict this to be?
Cold air has little ability to evaporate water so there is little precipitation where it is cold -
Answer Why do you think regions of cold wet climate are NOT found on Earth?
A (Hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the N hemisphere and clockwise in the S hemisphere)
and B (Airplanes have to adjust flight paths depending on the direction of trade winds and the
hemisphere they are in) are true - Answer The Coriolis effect on Earth can deflect objects in
the N hemisphere to the right, and objects in the S hemisphere to the left. Given this, which of
the following is TRUE?
There are no homologous chromosomes to pair properly during Prophase I - Answer Why are
hybrids often sterile?
100% Correct Answers 2026-2027
Updated.
A limitation of Darwin's work was a lack of understanding about the mechanisms of inheritance.
Mendel's work addresses this. - Answer Which of the following BEST describes the relationship
between Darwin and Mendel's ideas?
The two populations would have increasingly similar allele frequencies to each other. - Answer
One of the conditions to maintain H-W is no gene flow (immigration or emigration). Which of
the following would you MOST LIKELY predict to happen if gene flow occurred between two
populations?
This creates novel genotypes (and phenotypes) for selection to act on. - Answer How is the
genetic variation generated during meiosis important for evolution at the population level?
This is an example of gametic isolation; incompatibility between gametes prevents hybridization
- Answer In class, we learned about gamete recognition in sea urchins. How does this relate to
reproductive isolating mechanisms?
Species unaffected by competition have equal fundamental and realized niches. - Answer
What is one difference between the fundamental niche and the realized niche?
carrying capacity - Answer A population of deer grows from 100 to 200 to 600, and when it
gets to 600, it levels off. This population must have reached:
precipitation and temperature determine biomes. - Answer From this graph, we can conclude
that:
genetic diversity - Answer If all individuals in the last remaining population of a particular frog
species were all highly related, which type of diversity would be of greatest concern when
planning to prevent the species from going extinct?
an adult hummingbird - Answer Which of the following organisms would you expect to have
the lowest production efficiency (aka LEAST efficient)?
33% - Answer What is the production efficiency of this caterpillar? (note: only use assimilated
energy when calculating this)
Energy eaten from plant: 200J
, Energy going to feces: 100 J
Energy going to cellular respiration: 67 J
Energy going to new biomass: 33 J
Large "top-level" carnivores have high energy demands, so their community can't support that
many large, top predators - Answer How does trophic inefficiency (energy is lost at higher
levels) explain why big, fierce animals are rare?
If the species' realized niche is smaller than its fundamental niche due to competition, we would
expect the realized niche to increase when the competitor is removed - Answer Which of the
following would you predict to occur if competition played a role in the barnacle distributions?
intraspecific - Answer The strength of competition depends on overlap in resource use. Given
this, which kind of competition do you think is stronger?
increase - Answer For a population undergoing exponential growth, how would dN/dt be
expected to change as N increases?
type I - Answer Elephants typically live for a long time and have few offspring. Which of the
survivorship curves BEST describes this species?
High rate of extinction due to habitat loss - Answer Which of the following observations
provides the BEST EVIDENCE of a biodiversity crisis?
40 ° N - Answer The Mediterranean Sea experiences mild temperatures and precipitation.
Areas near here are seasonally warm and can support longer growing seasons. What latitude do
you predict this to be?
Cold air has little ability to evaporate water so there is little precipitation where it is cold -
Answer Why do you think regions of cold wet climate are NOT found on Earth?
A (Hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the N hemisphere and clockwise in the S hemisphere)
and B (Airplanes have to adjust flight paths depending on the direction of trade winds and the
hemisphere they are in) are true - Answer The Coriolis effect on Earth can deflect objects in
the N hemisphere to the right, and objects in the S hemisphere to the left. Given this, which of
the following is TRUE?
There are no homologous chromosomes to pair properly during Prophase I - Answer Why are
hybrids often sterile?
