SC 139 - First Exam 2001

ANSWER KEY

MULTIPLE CHOICE. On the line to the left, place the letter of the choice that best answers the question.
Three Points Each. NOTE: "e" answers are never the correct answer.

                    1. Which is true?
_______          a. Mutation is the only way to produce evolutionary change
                        b. Evolution works faster in things that reproduce quickly
                        c. Sexual reproduction always requires two parents
                        d. All organisms evolve at about the same pace
                        e. Why does none of this look familiar?

                    2. Which term refers to a system to classify living things?
_______             a. Relativism             b. Speciation            c. Taxonomy             
                           d. Selection                    e. Putting sticky notes on everything

                    3. Modern ideas see evolution as a process that changes what in a population?
_______             a. Individuals             b. Traits             c. Offspring
                           d. Gene / allele proportions             e. TV viewing habits

                    4. Species that do the same "job" in different ecosystems are called
_______             a. Ecospecies                                 b. Habitat sympatrics
                           c. Homeospecies                            d. Isospecies
                           e. Often by copyright lawyers of the original

                    5. Ancient fossils feel "rocky" because of
_______             a. Their age                                              b. Minerals from ground water
                           c. Their original composition                     d. Lava flow
                                        e. Their marketability is better that way

                    6. Which would most likely be a product of homeogenes?
_______             a. Reproductive behavior
                           b. Differences between two populations of the same species
                           c. Adult strength
                           d. Determination of front end and back end
                           e. They control slang terms after they're no longer trendy

                    7. Which is an idea from Thomas Malthus?
_______             a. Population has natural controls
                           b. Selective breeding can changes types of animals or plants
                           c. Traits picked up during life can be passed on to offspring
                           d. The world is much older than was previously thought
                           e. He originated many ideas about curing hiccups

                    8. Recombination occurs during
_______             a. Fossil formation             b. Group migration
                           c. Sexual reproduction       d. Classification
                           e. A combination that happening again

                    9. Which would most likely give the most continuous fossil record?
_______             a. Elephants                 b. Ferns                 c. Jellyfish
                           d. Clams                             e. The fossil Napster site

                    10. Alfred Russel Wallace did most of his work where?
_______             a. African jungle                     b. Indonesian Islands
                           c. Australian desert                 d. American mountains
                                       e. Wherever the boss was watching

                    11. The term that refers to the "jobs" that can be performed by living things
                                        in an ecosystem:
_______             a. Niche                 b. Ecofunction                 c. Adaptation
                           d. Selection slot             e. Where do they advertise these jobs?

                    12. A small population migrates away from a large one. The gene pool of
                                        that small group affects the possible alleles in their descendants.
                                        This is called
_______             a. Bottleneck effect                         b. Gene pool limitation
                           c. Founder effect                             d. Adaptive radiation
                               e. The ungrateful young punk process - eh, let 'em go!!

SHORT ANSWER. Answer any eight of the following questions for 4 Points Each.
Note: if you answer more than eight, only the first eight will be corrected.

You can get partial credit on these answers.

1. In general, what kind of effect is usually produced by mutations?

2. Briefly explain how punctuated evolution is supposed to work.

3. What is the most current way to define a species?

4. How can the environment produce a bottleneck effect?

5. Briefly explain why the cystic fibrosis allele is somewhat common in the population.

6. Give examples of two traits produced in unrelated species by convergent evolution.

7. An important trait for evolution is genetic redundancy. What is that?

8. Briefly explain why similarities in embryo development exist in groups that have become hugely different in all later forms. Why haven't the embryos changed too?

9. What are two ways to figure out how old a layer of fossils is?

10. Briefly explain why continental drift has had an impact on evolution.

11. When it was suggested that fossils were the remains of extinct animals, what accepted view of the world, based on an older interpretation of the Bible, was suddenly at risk?

12. What were two traits of the Galapagos Islands that made it a great place for Darwin to form his ideas about evolution?

13. If a currently-living animal appears almost identical to ancient fossils, what is probably true about that animal's microenvironment?

14. What is meant by "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"?

15. What are two different types of molecules that can be used in comparative biochemistry.

LONG ANSWER. 

Answer any four of the following questions for Eight Points Each.
Note: if you answer more than four, only the first four will be corrected.

You can get partial credit on these answers.

1. Give, in order, four steps that would occur between the death of an organism and its being discovered as a fossil.

2. Answer the following for the process of asexual reproduction:

3. What are four of the points made in Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection? They do not have to be in any particular order.

4. Describe - don't just name! - four basically different types of isolation that can lead to the development of new species.

5. Give the full definitions:

6. What are four conditions that the Hardy-Weinberg Law insists are necessary to keep allele proportions in a population constant over time? (There are more than 4)

BONUS QUESTIONS ON BACK.

BONUS QUESTIONS. Answer as many as you are able. Wrong answers will not result in points being lost from the main exam. You can get partial credit on these answers.

There were several reasons why Charles Darwin spent much of the HMS Beagle's voyage on land. For Two Points each, what were they?

The mountain range that the Adirondacks are part of a chain that goes north to end in what eventual region? Three Points.

Why is it extremely uncommon to find dinosaur fossils in New York State? Three Points.

Explain how the "ticks" work for each type of "clock," for Three Points Each.

Carbon Dating:

Mitochondrial DNA:

Australia is somewhat close to Asia, but its animals are close relatives. Why haven't Asian animals moved to Australia over the last several million years? Three Points.

In what way could cancer represent an absolute necessity to a species? Four Points.

What points on the study sheet (other than the stuff at the end that we didn't get to) did not wind up being covered in class? Three Points each.