BIO 370 Vertebrate Zoology ASU Exam
1 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Types of adaptations: Form and function - correct answer ✔✔ o Body plan
o Locomotion
o Gas exchange
o Feeding structures
o Thermoregulation
o Reproduction
Abiotic environmental conditions (drive the evolution and fixation of a trait in a population) -
correct answer ✔✔ o Space (habitat)
o Water
o Temperature
o Light
o Oxygen
o Minerals
Biotic environmental conditions (interactions between an animal and other organisms) - correct
answer ✔✔ o Food
o Predators
o Conspecific rivals or mates
The Linnaean system - correct answer ✔✔ Naming of organisms based on functional similarities
(anatomy, physiology, behavior) and uses a binomial nomenclature
, Cladistics - correct answer ✔✔ Phylogenetic systematics that takes evolutionary relationships
into consideration by grouping an ancestor and all of their descendants into a clade
o Grouping can then be based on morphology, gene sequencing, or computational methods
Analagous - correct answer ✔✔ Characteristics that are the same but not the same because of
evolution (they just happen to be similar)
Homologous - correct answer ✔✔ Characteristics that are shared due to a common ancestral
origin
o Shared primitive characteristics: ancestral to all of the animals of interest
o Shared derived characteristics: unique to that individual clade
Apomorphy - correct answer ✔✔ A derived trait (distinct feature) in a taxon
Synapomorphy - correct answer ✔✔ Derived traits shared by related taxa and found in their
most recent common ancestor. Are homologous (meaning due to being inherited through
common ancestry)
Autapomorphy - correct answer ✔✔ derived trait found only in one member of a clade
Plesiomorphy - correct answer ✔✔ Ancestral trait found at basis of cladogram (may be lost or
retained)
Homoplasy - correct answer ✔✔ Trait is found in several members of a clade, but not in
ancestors so the trait did not evolve in common ancestor. Similar solutions to similar selection
pressures, but no phylogenetic relationship.
Convergence - correct answer ✔✔ (Homoplasy) same trait evolved independently in two
different lineages
1 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Types of adaptations: Form and function - correct answer ✔✔ o Body plan
o Locomotion
o Gas exchange
o Feeding structures
o Thermoregulation
o Reproduction
Abiotic environmental conditions (drive the evolution and fixation of a trait in a population) -
correct answer ✔✔ o Space (habitat)
o Water
o Temperature
o Light
o Oxygen
o Minerals
Biotic environmental conditions (interactions between an animal and other organisms) - correct
answer ✔✔ o Food
o Predators
o Conspecific rivals or mates
The Linnaean system - correct answer ✔✔ Naming of organisms based on functional similarities
(anatomy, physiology, behavior) and uses a binomial nomenclature
, Cladistics - correct answer ✔✔ Phylogenetic systematics that takes evolutionary relationships
into consideration by grouping an ancestor and all of their descendants into a clade
o Grouping can then be based on morphology, gene sequencing, or computational methods
Analagous - correct answer ✔✔ Characteristics that are the same but not the same because of
evolution (they just happen to be similar)
Homologous - correct answer ✔✔ Characteristics that are shared due to a common ancestral
origin
o Shared primitive characteristics: ancestral to all of the animals of interest
o Shared derived characteristics: unique to that individual clade
Apomorphy - correct answer ✔✔ A derived trait (distinct feature) in a taxon
Synapomorphy - correct answer ✔✔ Derived traits shared by related taxa and found in their
most recent common ancestor. Are homologous (meaning due to being inherited through
common ancestry)
Autapomorphy - correct answer ✔✔ derived trait found only in one member of a clade
Plesiomorphy - correct answer ✔✔ Ancestral trait found at basis of cladogram (may be lost or
retained)
Homoplasy - correct answer ✔✔ Trait is found in several members of a clade, but not in
ancestors so the trait did not evolve in common ancestor. Similar solutions to similar selection
pressures, but no phylogenetic relationship.
Convergence - correct answer ✔✔ (Homoplasy) same trait evolved independently in two
different lineages
