PCB 4674 Evolution Exam 1 - Questions with Correct
Answers (Verified Update)
87 questions with answers
Topic: PCB 4674 Evolution Exam 1
1. Which of the following statements about whale evolution is true?
Answer: The fossil record provides evidence about the timing of certain events in whale
evolution.
2. Which statement characterizes good scientific theories?
Answer: They should organize facts and lead to testable predictions.
3. Which statement about evolutionary biology is true?
Answer: Evolution happens by multiple mechanisms over short and long timescales.
4. Which intellectual predecessor to Darwin had the least influence on the theory of
evolution by natural selection?
Answer: Gregor Mendel's work on the genetics of peas
5. Linneaus's classification system functions well for living organisms. A little-known
fact is that he attempted to apply the same system to rocks and minerals. This has
fallen out of use. Why might this be the case?
Answer: The fact that rocks and minerals do not evolve means there is no evident hierarchy
of relatedness.
6. Define biological evolution.
Answer: Any process by which populations of organisms change over time. any change in
the inherited traits of a population that occures from one generation to the next. change
within a lineage due to natural selection and other mechanisms.
7. Explain why Theodosius Bobzhansky said " nothing in biology makes sense except
in the light of evolution".
Answer: he was fascinated by the capacity for evolution to explain the diversity of life and
its universal biological similarities.
8. Why do baleen whales still have genes for building teeth?
Answer: Their ancestors had teeth and they inherited these genes from them, even though
the genes no longer function.
9. What makes hemagglutinin important in the evolution of influenza viruses?
Answer: It allows the virus to bind to the cells of its host
10. Do whales and humans share a common ancestor?
Answer: Yes
11. Where is a place where scientists look for evidence of evolution?
Answer: change during an individual organisms lifetime
12. Where do phenotype originate?
Answer: Phenotypes originate from genotypes.
Page 1
, 13. Why do scientists overwhelmingly accept the theory of evolution?
Answer: The theory has overwhelming evidentiary support, it explains and predicts
independent lines of evidence, and scientists have testes and retested its predictions.
14. What kinds do evidence do evolutionary biologists use to test hypotheses about
how different species are related to each other.
Answer: Observations of living species, DNA, and fossils
15. How do mutations become more or less common in a population over the course
of generations?
Answer: Mutations can either be beneficial, neutral, or detrimental to an organism.
Mutations that are lethal will become less common over generations because fitness for this
mutation is low.
16. What role does viral reassortment play in flu pandemics?
Answer: When two viral strains infect the same cell, their genetic material can become
mixed as copies of their RNA are bundled into new virus particles. The new combinations of
genetic material can give rise to new beneficial characteristics of the virus, for example,
characteristics that permit bird flus to invade human cells. Humans who have never been
exposed to the characteristics of bird flus may have no antibodies to fight the infection, and
the virus can reproduce rapidly. A bird flu virus that gains the capacity to spread from human
to human through reassortment may spread rapidly over large geographic areas, leading to a
serious pandemic.
17. Nearly all currently existing animal lineages evolved during which period
Answer: Cambrian
18. Scientists discover a new fossil that they expect is at least three million years
old. To estimate the age of the fossil they would most likely:
Answer: Search for layers of volcanic ash in rock layers above and below the location of the
fossils.
19. The earliest generally accepted fossils of living organisms are:
Answer: prokaryotes
20. The earliest animal fossils appear similar to modern day:
Answer: sponges
21. Tetrapods includes
Answer: organisms descended from ancestors with four limbs
22. Which of these statements is a concept found in Georges Buffon's ideas about
evolution but not in the way we understand evolution now?
Answer: life is divided into a number of distinct types that are not related to each other.
23. What would Jean Baptiste Lamark and Charles Darmin have agreed upon?
Answer: One generation can pass on its traits to the next
24. Homology definition
Answer: common traits due to shared inheritance from a common ancestor
25. What set Darwin and Wallace concepts of natural selection apart from earlier
ideas of evolution?
Answer: their concept depended on a process that is observable
Page 2
Answers (Verified Update)
87 questions with answers
Topic: PCB 4674 Evolution Exam 1
1. Which of the following statements about whale evolution is true?
Answer: The fossil record provides evidence about the timing of certain events in whale
evolution.
2. Which statement characterizes good scientific theories?
Answer: They should organize facts and lead to testable predictions.
3. Which statement about evolutionary biology is true?
Answer: Evolution happens by multiple mechanisms over short and long timescales.
4. Which intellectual predecessor to Darwin had the least influence on the theory of
evolution by natural selection?
Answer: Gregor Mendel's work on the genetics of peas
5. Linneaus's classification system functions well for living organisms. A little-known
fact is that he attempted to apply the same system to rocks and minerals. This has
fallen out of use. Why might this be the case?
Answer: The fact that rocks and minerals do not evolve means there is no evident hierarchy
of relatedness.
6. Define biological evolution.
Answer: Any process by which populations of organisms change over time. any change in
the inherited traits of a population that occures from one generation to the next. change
within a lineage due to natural selection and other mechanisms.
7. Explain why Theodosius Bobzhansky said " nothing in biology makes sense except
in the light of evolution".
Answer: he was fascinated by the capacity for evolution to explain the diversity of life and
its universal biological similarities.
8. Why do baleen whales still have genes for building teeth?
Answer: Their ancestors had teeth and they inherited these genes from them, even though
the genes no longer function.
9. What makes hemagglutinin important in the evolution of influenza viruses?
Answer: It allows the virus to bind to the cells of its host
10. Do whales and humans share a common ancestor?
Answer: Yes
11. Where is a place where scientists look for evidence of evolution?
Answer: change during an individual organisms lifetime
12. Where do phenotype originate?
Answer: Phenotypes originate from genotypes.
Page 1
, 13. Why do scientists overwhelmingly accept the theory of evolution?
Answer: The theory has overwhelming evidentiary support, it explains and predicts
independent lines of evidence, and scientists have testes and retested its predictions.
14. What kinds do evidence do evolutionary biologists use to test hypotheses about
how different species are related to each other.
Answer: Observations of living species, DNA, and fossils
15. How do mutations become more or less common in a population over the course
of generations?
Answer: Mutations can either be beneficial, neutral, or detrimental to an organism.
Mutations that are lethal will become less common over generations because fitness for this
mutation is low.
16. What role does viral reassortment play in flu pandemics?
Answer: When two viral strains infect the same cell, their genetic material can become
mixed as copies of their RNA are bundled into new virus particles. The new combinations of
genetic material can give rise to new beneficial characteristics of the virus, for example,
characteristics that permit bird flus to invade human cells. Humans who have never been
exposed to the characteristics of bird flus may have no antibodies to fight the infection, and
the virus can reproduce rapidly. A bird flu virus that gains the capacity to spread from human
to human through reassortment may spread rapidly over large geographic areas, leading to a
serious pandemic.
17. Nearly all currently existing animal lineages evolved during which period
Answer: Cambrian
18. Scientists discover a new fossil that they expect is at least three million years
old. To estimate the age of the fossil they would most likely:
Answer: Search for layers of volcanic ash in rock layers above and below the location of the
fossils.
19. The earliest generally accepted fossils of living organisms are:
Answer: prokaryotes
20. The earliest animal fossils appear similar to modern day:
Answer: sponges
21. Tetrapods includes
Answer: organisms descended from ancestors with four limbs
22. Which of these statements is a concept found in Georges Buffon's ideas about
evolution but not in the way we understand evolution now?
Answer: life is divided into a number of distinct types that are not related to each other.
23. What would Jean Baptiste Lamark and Charles Darmin have agreed upon?
Answer: One generation can pass on its traits to the next
24. Homology definition
Answer: common traits due to shared inheritance from a common ancestor
25. What set Darwin and Wallace concepts of natural selection apart from earlier
ideas of evolution?
Answer: their concept depended on a process that is observable
Page 2
