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Which of the following statements regarding natural selection is false?


A) Natural selection can be observed working in organisms alive today.
B) Natural selection and evolutionary change can occur in a short period of time (a few generations) .
C) Natural selection starts with the creation of new alleles that are directed toward improving an organism's fitness.
D) Natural selection depends on the local environment at the current time.

E) B) and D)
F) A) and B)

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Aristotle believed that


A) species are fixed (permanent) and perfect.
B) species evolve through natural selection and other mechanisms.
C) the best evidence for change within species is seen in fossils.
D) an individual's use of a body part causes it to further evolve.

E) C) and D)
F) A) and B)

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The recessive allele of a gene causes cystic fibrosis.For this gene among Caucasians,p = 0.98.If a Caucasian population is in Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium with respect to this gene,what proportion of babies is born homozygous recessive,and therefore suffers cystic fibrosis?


A) 0.022 = 0.0004
B) 0.982 = 0.9604
C) 0.02
D) 2(0.02 × 0.98) = 0.0392

E) C) and D)
F) A) and D)

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The core theme of biology,which explains both the unity and diversity of life,is


A) ecology.
B) evolution.
C) genetics.
D) metabolism.

E) All of the above
F) A) and D)

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Blue- footed boobies have webbed feet and are comically clumsy when they walk on land.Evolutionary scientists view these feet as


A) the outcome of a tradeoff: webbed feet perform poorly on land,but are very helpful in diving for food.
B) a curiosity that has little to teach us regarding evolution.
C) an example of a trait that has not evolved.
D) an example of a trait that is poorly adapted.

E) B) and D)
F) B) and C)

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Microevolution,or evolution at its smallest scale,occurs when


A) a population's allele frequencies change over a span of generations.
B) a community of organisms changes due to the extinction of several dominant species.
C) a new species arises from an existing species.
D) an individual's traits change in response to environmental factors.

E) A) and C)
F) None of the above

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Broccoli,cabbages,and brussels sprouts all descend from the same wild mustard and can still interbreed.These varieties were produced by


A) artificial selection.
B) inheritance of acquired characteristics.
C) genetic drift.
D) natural selection.

E) A) and B)
F) A) and C)

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Which sentence best describes the true nature of natural selection?


A) Heritable traits that promote reproduction become more frequent in a population from one generation to the next.
B) Organisms change by random chance.
C) Only the strongest survive.
D) The strong eliminate the weak in the race for survival.

E) None of the above
F) B) and C)

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A woman struggling with a bacterial illness is prescribed a month's supply of a potent antibiotic.She takes the antibiotic for about two weeks and feels much better.Should she save the remaining two- week supply,or should she continue taking the drug?


A) She should save the drug for use the next time the illness strikes.
B) She should continue taking the drug until her immune system can completely eliminate the infection.Otherwise the remaining bacteria in her system may recover,and they will probably be resistant.
C) She should save the drug for later,because if she keeps taking it the bacteria will evolve resistance.
D) She should save the drug because antibiotics are in short supply and she may need it to defend herself against a bioterrorism incident.

E) B) and C)
F) None of the above

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A rabbit population consists of animals that are either very dark on top or very light on top.The color pattern is not related to sex.No rabbit shows intermediate coloration (medium darkness) .This pattern might result from


A) directional selection.
B) stabilizing selection.
C) disruptive selection.
D) sexual selection.

E) A) and B)
F) A) and C)

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A dog breeder wishes to develop a breed that does not bark.She starts with a diverse mixture of dogs.Generation after generation,she allows only the quietest dogs to breed.After 30 years of work she has a new breed of dog with interesting traits,but on average,the dogs still bark at about the same rate as other dog breeds.Which of the following would be a logical explanation for her failure?


A) There is no variation for the trait (barking) .
B) There was no selection (differential reproductive success) related to barking behavior.
C) The tendency to bark is not a heritable trait.
D) The selection was artificial,not natural,so it did not produce evolutionary change.

E) A) and B)
F) A) and C)

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What evidence is used to determine the branching sequence of an evolutionary tree?


A) the genetic code
B) as overall assessment of general similarities between organisms
C) experiments in artificial selection
D) anatomical or molecular homologous structures

E) A) and B)
F) B) and D)

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Which of the following would prevent an organism from becoming part of the fossil record when it dies?


A) It is frozen in ice.
B) It is fully decomposed by bacteria and fungi.
C) It is buried in fine sediments at the bottom of a lake.
D) It gets trapped in sap.

E) A) and D)
F) A) and C)

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A population is


A) a group of individuals of a species plus all of the other species with which they interact.
B) all individuals of a species,regardless of location or time period in which they live.
C) a group of individuals of different species living in the same place at the same time.
D) a group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area and interbreed.

E) B) and D)
F) B) and C)

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Imagine that you are studying a very large population of moths that is isolated from gene flow.A single gene controls wing color.Half of the moths have white- spotted wings (genotype WW or Ww) and half of the moths have plain brown wings (ww) .There are no new mutations,individuals mate randomly,and there is no natural selection on wing color.How will p,the frequency of the dominant allele,change over time?


A) p will decrease because of genetic drift.
B) p will neither increase nor decrease; it will remain more or less constant under the conditions described.
C) p will fluctuate rapidly and randomly because of genetic drift.
D) p will increase; the dominant allele will eventually take over and become most common in the population.

E) C) and D)
F) None of the above

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After a copper smelter begins operation,local downwind populations of plants begin to adapt to the resulting air pollution.Scientists document,for example,that the acid tolerance of several plant species has increased significantly in the polluted area.This is an example of


A) disruptive selection.
B) genetic drift.
C) directional selection.
D) stabilizing selection.

E) A) and C)
F) B) and D)

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Who developed a theory of evolution almost identical to Darwin's?


A) Lyell
B) Aristotle
C) Wallace
D) Lamarck

E) A) and B)
F) None of the above

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Thirty people are selected for a long- term mission to colonize a planet many light years away from Earth.The mission is successful and the population rapidly grows to several hundred individuals.However,certain genetic diseases are unusually common in this group,and their gene pool is quite different from that of the Earth population they have left behind.Which of the following phenomena has left its mark on this population?


A) high rates of mutation
B) natural selection
C) founder effect
D) bottleneck effect

E) None of the above
F) A) and D)

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Which of the following will tend to produce adaptive changes in populations?


A) natural selection
B) genetic drift
C) gene flow
D) the founder effect

E) A) and D)
F) B) and C)

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Humans share several features with salamanders.Certain genes and proteins are nearly identical between the two species; both species have four limbs with a similar skeletal structure; the species' early embryos are very similar; and where the salamander has a functional tail,humans have a vestigial tailbone.In evolutionary terms,these are examples of


A) adaptation by natural selection.
B) biogeographic similarity.
C) coincidental similarity.
D) homology.

E) A) and D)
F) A) and C)

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