name __________________________________________

(Multiple choice questions are worth 3 points each.)

1. Along with Charles Darwin, the co-discoverer of natural selection was:
a) C. Linnaeus
b) Charles Lyell
c) A.R. Wallace
d) David Quammen
e) none of the above

2. mRNA molecules:
a) are transcribed and translated in the nucleus.
b) are double-stranded.
c) are transcribed from particular stretches of DNA that correspond to genes.
d) all of the above.
e) none of the above.

3. The next two questions deal with diseases called autosomal recessives, including sickle-cell anemia, Tay-Sachs disease, and cystic fibrosis (CF). These diseases are generally fatal well before the afflicted person reaches reproductive age. What genetic situation most commonly results in a person with one of these diseases?
a) both parents must actually have the disease.
b) both parents are heterozygous for the condition and are therefore healthy, but approximately one-quarter of their offspring have the disease.
c) these diseases usually occur in males, because the Y chromosome lacks any allele for these traits.
d) these diseases usually occur in males because male hormones must be circulating in the body if the traits are to be expressed.
e) these diseases no longer exist; they have been eliminated by genetic engineering.

4. Given that these diseases are so deadly, it is a puzzle why the alleles for them persist in the population at such high frequencies. What is the most likely explanation?
a) they weren't always so lethal.
b) heterozygotes have (or have had) a local selective advantage.
c) it is the price people pay for unhealthy lifestyles.
d) it is genetically more efficient to be homozygous.
e) all of the above.

5. Artificial selection:
a) may happen much more quickly than natural selection.
b) may take a lineage beyond its original range of variation.
c) is what has given us seedless watermelons and poodles.
d) was useful to Darwin as an analogy to natural selection.
e) all of the above.

6. Which is an example of a homologous trait shared by a (human) boy and his dog?
a) mitochondria
b) as babies, they drank mother's milk
c) four limbs
d) all of the above
e) none of the above 7. Suppose that in a species of crickets, females choose mates on the basis of their mating song. Males whose performance is too "strange" will never get to mate. This is an example of what type of selection?
a) disruptive
b) stabilizing
c) sexual
d) both a and c
e) both b and c

8. According to Forsyth and Miyata in "Night Walks", some male frogs do not sing the songs that fertile females most want to hear. This is because:
a) they are tired of females running their lives.
b) some frogs have direct development.
c) predatory bats key into the same songs as female frogs.
d) females prefer the strong, silent type.
e) none of the above.

9. Natural selection:
a) can only select from among the variation that arises in a population.
b) often happens randomly.
c) controls the type of mutations that happen in the first place.
d) operates via genetic drift.
e) all of the above.

10. Why is sexual reproduction important to animal evolution?
a) because it allows organisms to produce exact copies of their DNA in their offspring.
b) because it is dependent upon mutation.
c) without it, evolution could not occur.
d) without it, evolution would happen much more slowly.
e) without it, evolution would be no fun at all.

11. Siamese cats and pattern baldness in males both illustrate:
a) stabilizing selection.
b) how one gene can influence another.
c) heterozygous advantage.
d) the effects of the body's environment on gene expression.
e) disruptive selection.

12. Over what time interval could you find stromatolites?
a) 2.0 Ba to present
b) 2.0 Ba to 600 Ma
c) 45 Ba to 65 Ma
d) 3.5 Ba to present
e) 600 Ma to 65 Ma

13. Excluding birds, the closest living relatives to dinosaurs are:
a) Komodo dragons
b) lizards
c) pterosaurs
d) crocodiles
e) turtles

14. If you were SCUBA diving in the very late Precambrian, what would you be likely to see?
a) primitive fish
b) low-lying coral reefs
c) soft-bodied "Ediacaran" organisms
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

15. Bats are important ecologically because they:
a) pollinate numerous plant species.
b) consume enormous quantities of insects.
c) eat fruit and then disperse the seeds.
d) all of the above.
e) none of the above.

16. A hiker in Wisconsin in the Cambrian would have encountered:
a) lions and tigers and bears
b) a rocky landscape, perhaps partially covered with algae
c) primitive terrestrial arthropods and land plants
d) vast forests but no vertebrate animals
e) both b and c

17. The increase in brain size in the human lineage is an impressive example of a sustained evolutionary trend. What was the magnitude and time interval of this trend?
a) brain size tripled in 30 million years.
b) brain size tripled in 3 million years.
c) brain size increased by 10 times over the last three million years.
d) brain size increased by 10 times over the last thirty million years.
e)the average brain size may have increased, but that's not helping me here.

18. How does the demographic profile of the U.S. compare with that of most developing countries?
a)the profiles are roughly comparable, with approximately 15% of the population younger than 16 years old worldwide.
b)the 15-or-younger portion of the U.S. population is approximately 21%, whereas it is typically 35-50% in most developing countries.
c) the 15-or-younger portion of the U.S. population is approximately 21%, whereas it is typically three to four times that in most developing countries.
d) the 15-or-younger portion of the U.S. population is approximately 15%, whereas it is approximately 5% in most developing countries.
e) none of the above is accurate.

19. Which of these time intervals saw the most intense bombardment of meteorites?
a) 4.6-3.9 Ba
b) 2.5-2.0 Ba
c) end Precambrian
d) end Permian
e) end Cretaceous

20. Which is NOT true of monotremes?
a) they lay eggs.
b) they have some reptilian-style chromosomes.
c) their current species diversity is about the same as that of marsupials.
d) they feed milk to their young.
e) they include animals adapted for swimming and digging.

21. . Radiometric dating is possible because:
a) the rate of decay for all radioactive elements is the same.
b) the rate of decay for any particular element is constant over time.
c) the amount of radioactive material is the same in all rocks.
d) the ratio of parent to daughter atoms in a rock is constant over time.
e) all of the above

22. In his essay on mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosome Adam, Carl Zimmer argues that these two people:
a) met in Africa and had many children.
b) did not really exist at all.
c) lived thousands of years apart.
d) belonged to different species and were genetically incompatible.
e) were personally responsible for the Late Pleistocene extinctions. 23. What do cetaceans and bats have in common?
a) their earliest fossil representatives come from the Eocene.
b) use of a sonar system by many members of each group.
c) they are warm-blooded and milk-giving.
d) their common ancestor was terrestrial and walked on four legs.
e) all of the above.

24. When was global diversity highest?
a) Middle Permian
b) Late Cretaceous
c) Eocene
d) 50,000 years ago
e) today

25. We discussed a variety of environmental and evolutionary events that happened 2.5 Ma. Which of the following did NOT happen at that time?
a) earliest Homo appeared.
b) all australopithecines went extinct.
c) northern hemisphere glaciers began to advance.
d) the African continent was generally becoming drier.
e) various arid-tolerant ungulates appear.

26. Since the last lecture for this class (4 days ago), roughly how many children worldwide have died of starvation or related illnesses?
a) 160
b) 1,600
c) 16,000
d) 160,000
e) 1,600,000

27. The evolution of australopithecines:
a) includes several species, each one of which can be placed on a direct line to Homo.
b) is being studied from fossil localities in Africa, Europe, and Asia.
c) includes some species who used fire and buried their dead.
d) includes several species, some of which lived simultaneously, and may have come in contact with one another.
e) all of the above.

28. Roughly how many people are alive on earth today?
a) 60 million
b) 600 million
c) 6 billion
d) 30 billion
e) 60 billion

29. If everyone were to live with our lifestyle, what is the estimated carrying capacity of the earth?
a) 1.4 million people
b) 10.4 million people
c) 100 million people
d) 1.4 billion people
e) 14 billion people

30. Which organisms would NOT have been present in Jurassic oceans?
a) crocodiles
b) ichthyosaurs
c) turtles
d) ammonites
e) dolphins 31. When was the largest mass extinction in the history of life?
a) 2.0 Ba
b) 544 Ma
c) 251 Ma
d) 151 Ma
e) 65 Ma

32. What was the magnitude of the largest extinction event ever?
a) 12% families and 60% species extinct
b) 50% families and up to 95% species extinct
c) 50 families and 95 species extinct
d) 25% families and 50% species extinct
e) 60% families and 50% species extinct

True-False (please mark on the scantron sheet)

33. According to Forsyth and Miyata in "Southbound", birds who stay year-round in the tropics tend to have smaller clutch sizes (number of eggs per nest) than do birds who migrate to the temperate regions each spring.

34. Dinosaurs and mammals first appear in the fossil record at approximately the same time.

35. Dinosaurs and mammals share a number of features that suggest that dinosaur physiology was different from that of typical reptiles, including upright posture and a geographic distribution into high latitudes for some species.

36. The geological time scale was not developed until 20-30 years after Darwin published the Origin of Species because the fossil record wasn't studied much until people understood evolution.

Short Answer

1. (6 points) Who is the closest living relative to Homo sapiens? ____________________

How long ago did our lineage diverge from theirs? ________

When did our lineage diverge from the lineage leading to gibbons and orangs? ________

2. (9 points) According to David Quammen, what characteristics define a weedy species? Give at least three examples of weedy species (other than dandelions!). Why does Quammen expect to see a whole planet of weedy species? 3. (10 points) Fill in the blanks to complete the time scale. There are 10 blanks (8 names and 2 dates). **Be sure to label the dates with units, e.g. thousands of years, millions of years, billions of years...**

absolute ages eras periods epochs

Recent
Quaternary
Pleistocene

Pliocene
Cenozoic
____________

Tertiary Oligocene

Eocene

_____________

65 Ma - - - - - - - -

____________

_________ Jurassic

____________

______ - - - - - - - -

Permian

Carboniferous

Paleozoic ____________

Silurian

____________

Cambrian

______ - - - - - - - -

____________

4. (15 points) Please indicate the location of the following places on the map:

a) Lemurs and elephant birds are native to ___________________.

Indicate the location of this place on the map.

b) Indicate the location of the possible K-T impact crater site on the map with a K-T.

c) Indicate the location of Ecuador with an E.

d) Indicate the location of Hawaii with an H. 5. (12 points) Three major groups of vertebrates have adapted for flying. Which groups are these and when did each take to the air? Which group had the largest organisms? Are the wings of organisms in these three groups homologous or analogous? Describe briefly how they differ.

6. (9 points) Briefly discuss the history of the rubber industry. Where was rubber discovered? Where is it cultivated today. How have plantations in different regions fared and why? Describe the current situation as outlined by Wade Davis ("The White Blood of the Forest").

7. (6 points) Put a check next to the items that are the same in ALL living organisms:

____ the DNA is in the nucleus

____ G pairs with C

____ the number of chromosomes

____ the amount of DNA

____ a 3-base codon codes for a specific amino acid

____ the ordering of base pairs along the DNA 8. (8 points) What was the "great leap forward", as described by Jared Diamond? When did it happen? What is Diamond's explanation for WHY it happened?

9. (9 points) We discussed examples of transitional fossils, including Ichthyostega and Archaeopteryx. For EITHER (not both) of these organisms, name the two groups it links and list the features of each group that it had.

10. (8 points) Below is a figure from lecture and your coursepack, published by Jack Sepkoski. Please label the axes. Indicate at least two major mass extinctions on the curve. Indicate the Cambrian explosion/radiation on the curve. Briefly discuss at least one other important aspect of Phanerozoic diversity shown on the curve.