Quizzes for Evolution Exam #1 Questions & Answers

1. Several independent species evolve a new body shape from a mutation in the same gene. This is an example of: a. Parallel evolution b. Parsimony c. Mosaic evolution d. Vicariance - ANSWERSa 2. Why was DNA an unlikely candidate for the first information bearing molecule in living systems? a. DNA is unable to catalyze reactions b. DNA cannot store and transmit genetic information c. Nucleic acids like DNA cannot be synthesized by abiotic reactions d. Most living systems do not transmit genetic information through DNA - ANSWERSa 3. Which is the likely explanation for why rates of evolution tend to be higher over short intervals than over long intervals? a. The direction of evolution reverses often, which tends to average out any evolutionary change. b. Most species that have high rates of evolution go extinct, so those that are around for a long time have lower rates of evolution. c. Mutations become more important as species evolve over time. d. Natural selection is only an important factor in evolution for short amounts of time. - ANSWERSa 4. Because selection acts on individuals, different phenotypic characteristics tend to evolve at a similar rate True or False - ANSWERSFalse 5. Self-replicating proteins are the most likely candidate for the first information bearing molecule in living systems. True or False - ANSWERSFalse 1.The presence of competitors tends to enable species to expand their geographic range True or False - ANSWERSFalse 2. Diversification rate can be calculated from a phylogeny as: a. The ratio of (ln) species diversity to clade age. b. The number of branches on the phylogeny. c. The time to the most recent common ancestor of all species on the phylogeny. d. The age of the oldest species divided by its branch length - ANSWERSa 3. The generally accepted cause of the KT (aka "K/Pg" end Cretaceous) extinction was an asteroid strike True or False - ANSWERSTrue 4. Which of the following is not a potential explanation for why some clades diversify more than others? a. Key innovations enable higher diversification rates b. Some clades have more ecological potential to diversify because of geographic location c. Clades that tend to have higher population sizes are less likely to go extinct d. Some clades show more convergent evolution than others - ANSWERSd 5. How does the addition of density dependence (i.e., a carrying capacity) affect our expectation for the number of lineages that evolve over time? a. The number of lineages will be expected to increase at an ever-increasing rate. b. The number of lineages will continue to increase, but at a decreasing rate. c. The number of lineages will decrease because extinction is more common than speciation. d. No diversification is possible when we account for the carrying capacity - ANSWERSb Which of these is not a method for building phylogenies? Parsimony Maximum likelihood Bayesian Diversification - ANSWERSDiversification Which of these is an advantage of maximum likelihood compared to parsimony? Maximum likelihood can be used on fossils; parsimony cannot We can use maximum likelihood to estimate divergence times Maximum likelihood is easier to calculate by hand - ANSWERSWe can use maximum likelihood to estimate divergence times The parsimony method will always correctly identify the single phylogeny that represents the true evolutionary history of a clade True False - ANSWERSFalse Outgroups are used as a reference so that we can determine which characteristics are ancestral and which are derived True False - ANSWERSCorrect A phylogeny that requires 7 changes in character state is more parsimonious than one that requires 5 changes. True False - ANSWERSFalse