BIOL 2402 - Exam 1 - UMSL Questions with Correct Answers Latest Update 2025/2026
Stuff you need to have addressed - Answers Card 2 - Pre-European scholars
card 32
Ch2
card 48
card 53
card 61
What do we need to know about fins?
I just need some help with scales in general
card 146
Of the Pre-European scholars, list the major contributors to biological research/anatomical
research (6) - Answers •First the Greeks: ~400 BC
•Chinese: ~300 BC - Taoism explicitly denies the fixity of biological species
•Romans: 0 - 300 AD - The fall of Rome brings the Dark Ages to Europe
•The Islamic Golden Age takes hold - Islamic Scholars made progress for seven centuries but
have been largely left out of Western texts
•Latin translations in the Renaissance and Enlightenment reintroduced Greek (and Arabic)
learning to Europeans
•Europeans quickly and consistently denied the contributions of any non-European scholars
except classical Greek figures.
Important to note that there was an enlightenment during the dark ages in other parts of the
world.
What were the two types of scholars (for the intellectual roots of theories about evolution) in
Europe? - Answers The immutists and the Evolutionists
Who are the immutists? Who are two famous immutists? - Answers •The Immutists believe
species are fixed and unchangeable
,•Carolus Linnaeus (father of taxonomy)
•Rev. John Ray and the Naturalists - fantastical creatures are manifestations of the divine mind
Who are the evolutionists? Who are is our most famous evolutionist, and what do think? -
Answers •Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck's main points:
•Spontaneous generation - living matter comes from non living matter, which is wrong.
•Evolution from lowest to perfect (read: humans)
•Inheritance of acquired characteristics (passing on laser hair removal to your kids)
What is the problem with acquired characteristics? - Answers •The needs of an individual are
not encoded in the genome of germ cells
•Therefore they can't be inherited
What is the problem with the Ladder of Progress? - Answers 1.) To evolution, there is only now.
The idea of a direction or concept of the future or increasing complexity is wrong.
2.)The idea that primitive/basal organisms are less evolved or less perfect assumes that
selection favors organisms that are pleasing to humans rather than best adapted to their time
and place.
Who are credited with formalizing the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection? - Answers
Charles Darwin & Alfred R. Wallace
The Modern Synthesis - Answers The later combination of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian
evolution
What were the two main arguments of the controversy surrounding theory of evolution by
natural selection? - Answers 1.) Contemporaries thought Earth was not old enough to have
allowed for the diversity of life at the pace Darwin suggested
1.) Blending inheritance was the prevailing thought of the time, this predicts a reduction in
variation through successive generations of blending
Georges Cuvier (3) - Answers •An immutist who believed that organisms should be understood
as similar to machines, composed of various interlocking functional groups. (head of a dog
body of tiger tail of a lion)
•Catastrophism (what he is most known for, that all features of the earth result from
catastrophe)
•Scientific Racism - Thought Europeans were superiors to other races.
, Richard Owen - Answers •Also an immutist
•Troubled by obvious homologies among groups.
•Thus, he proposed that all living groups were composed of members constructed around the
same basic body plan or archetype, but not that they evolved.
•Also rumored to be a very bad man:
•Upon the death of his nemesis Gideon Mantell, Owen had a "section of his spine removed,
pickled and stored on a shelf at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. •It remained there
until 1969 when it was destroyed due to lack of space."
What are the three Main Morphological Concepts? (SSS) - Answers 1. Similarity
2. Symmetry
3. Segmentation
Homology - Answers Features that are shared as a result of common ancestry
Analogy - Answers Features that are shared as a result of a common function
Homoplasy - Answers Features that look alike
Homologous structures - Answers Typically have different functions as a result of diversifying
selection [natural selection that drives differentiation among ecologically similar groups]
Similar Structure/Different Function
Analogous structures - Answers Have similar functions as a result of convergent evolution [the
phenomenon of similar structures evolving independently - e.g. vertebrate flight]
Different Structure/Similar Function
Note: Sometimes characters are only considered analogous if they are not a result of shared
ancestry
Radial - Answers Body plan laid out from a central axis; multiple planes divide it into equal
parts/mirror images
Bilateral - Answers Only the midsagittal plane divides the body into equal parts
Stuff you need to have addressed - Answers Card 2 - Pre-European scholars
card 32
Ch2
card 48
card 53
card 61
What do we need to know about fins?
I just need some help with scales in general
card 146
Of the Pre-European scholars, list the major contributors to biological research/anatomical
research (6) - Answers •First the Greeks: ~400 BC
•Chinese: ~300 BC - Taoism explicitly denies the fixity of biological species
•Romans: 0 - 300 AD - The fall of Rome brings the Dark Ages to Europe
•The Islamic Golden Age takes hold - Islamic Scholars made progress for seven centuries but
have been largely left out of Western texts
•Latin translations in the Renaissance and Enlightenment reintroduced Greek (and Arabic)
learning to Europeans
•Europeans quickly and consistently denied the contributions of any non-European scholars
except classical Greek figures.
Important to note that there was an enlightenment during the dark ages in other parts of the
world.
What were the two types of scholars (for the intellectual roots of theories about evolution) in
Europe? - Answers The immutists and the Evolutionists
Who are the immutists? Who are two famous immutists? - Answers •The Immutists believe
species are fixed and unchangeable
,•Carolus Linnaeus (father of taxonomy)
•Rev. John Ray and the Naturalists - fantastical creatures are manifestations of the divine mind
Who are the evolutionists? Who are is our most famous evolutionist, and what do think? -
Answers •Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck's main points:
•Spontaneous generation - living matter comes from non living matter, which is wrong.
•Evolution from lowest to perfect (read: humans)
•Inheritance of acquired characteristics (passing on laser hair removal to your kids)
What is the problem with acquired characteristics? - Answers •The needs of an individual are
not encoded in the genome of germ cells
•Therefore they can't be inherited
What is the problem with the Ladder of Progress? - Answers 1.) To evolution, there is only now.
The idea of a direction or concept of the future or increasing complexity is wrong.
2.)The idea that primitive/basal organisms are less evolved or less perfect assumes that
selection favors organisms that are pleasing to humans rather than best adapted to their time
and place.
Who are credited with formalizing the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection? - Answers
Charles Darwin & Alfred R. Wallace
The Modern Synthesis - Answers The later combination of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian
evolution
What were the two main arguments of the controversy surrounding theory of evolution by
natural selection? - Answers 1.) Contemporaries thought Earth was not old enough to have
allowed for the diversity of life at the pace Darwin suggested
1.) Blending inheritance was the prevailing thought of the time, this predicts a reduction in
variation through successive generations of blending
Georges Cuvier (3) - Answers •An immutist who believed that organisms should be understood
as similar to machines, composed of various interlocking functional groups. (head of a dog
body of tiger tail of a lion)
•Catastrophism (what he is most known for, that all features of the earth result from
catastrophe)
•Scientific Racism - Thought Europeans were superiors to other races.
, Richard Owen - Answers •Also an immutist
•Troubled by obvious homologies among groups.
•Thus, he proposed that all living groups were composed of members constructed around the
same basic body plan or archetype, but not that they evolved.
•Also rumored to be a very bad man:
•Upon the death of his nemesis Gideon Mantell, Owen had a "section of his spine removed,
pickled and stored on a shelf at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. •It remained there
until 1969 when it was destroyed due to lack of space."
What are the three Main Morphological Concepts? (SSS) - Answers 1. Similarity
2. Symmetry
3. Segmentation
Homology - Answers Features that are shared as a result of common ancestry
Analogy - Answers Features that are shared as a result of a common function
Homoplasy - Answers Features that look alike
Homologous structures - Answers Typically have different functions as a result of diversifying
selection [natural selection that drives differentiation among ecologically similar groups]
Similar Structure/Different Function
Analogous structures - Answers Have similar functions as a result of convergent evolution [the
phenomenon of similar structures evolving independently - e.g. vertebrate flight]
Different Structure/Similar Function
Note: Sometimes characters are only considered analogous if they are not a result of shared
ancestry
Radial - Answers Body plan laid out from a central axis; multiple planes divide it into equal
parts/mirror images
Bilateral - Answers Only the midsagittal plane divides the body into equal parts
