14.E: Diversity of Life (Exercises)
14.1: Organizing Life on Earth
Multiple Choice
What is a phylogeny a description of?
A. mutations
B. DNA
C. evolutionary history
D. organisms on Earth
- Answer
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C
What do scientists in the field of systematics accomplish?
A. discover new fossil sites
B. organize and classify organisms
C. name new species
D. communicate between field biologists
- Answer
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B
Which statement about the taxonomic classification system is correct?
A. There are more domains than kingdoms.
B. Kingdoms are the top category of classification.
C. A phylum may be represented in more than one kingdom.
D. Species are the most specific category of classification.
- Answer
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D
Which best describes the relationship between chimpanzees and humans?
A. chimpanzees evolved from humans
B. humans evolved from chimpanzees
C. chimpanzees and humans evolved from a common ancestor
D. chimpanzees and humans belong to the same species
- Answer
-
C
Which best describes a branch point in a phylogenetic tree?
A. a hypothesis
B. new lineage
C. hybridization
D. a mating
- Answer
-
B
Free Response
How does a phylogenetic tree indicate major evolutionary events within a lineage?
- Answer
-
The phylogenetic tree shows the order in which evolutionary events took place and in what order certain characteristics and organisms evolved in relation to others. It does not generally indicate time durations.
List the different levels of the taxonomic classification system.
- Answer
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Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species.
14.2: Determining Evolutionary Relationships
Multiple Choice
Which statement about analogies is correct?
A. They occur only as errors.
B. They are synonymous with homologous traits.
C. They are derived by response to similar environmental pressures.
D. They are a form of mutation.
- Answer
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C
What kind of trait is important to cladistics?
A. shared derived traits
B. shared ancestral traits
C. analogous traits
D. parsimonious traits
- Answer
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A
What is true about organisms that are a part of the same clade?
A. They all share the same basic characteristics.
B. They evolved from a shared ancestor.
C. They all are on the same tree.
D. They have identical phylogenies.
- Answer
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B
Which assumption of cladistics is stated incorrectly?
A. Living things are related by descent from a common ancestor.
B. Speciation can produce one, two, or three new species.
C. Traits change from one state to another.
D. The polarity of a character state change can be determined.
- Answer
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B
A monophyletic group is a ________.
A. phylogenetic tree
B. shared derived trait
C. character state
D. clade
- Answer
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D
Free Response
Dolphins and fish have similar body shapes. Is this feature more likely a homologous or analogous trait?
- Answer
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Dolphins are mammals and fish are not, which means that their evolutionary paths (phylogenies) are quite separate. Dolphins probably adapted to have a similar body plan after returning to an aquatic lifestyle, and therefore this trait is probably analogous.
Describe maximum parsimony.
- Answer
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Maximum parsimony hypothesizes that events occurred in the simplest, most obvious way, and the pathway of evolution probably includes the fewest major events that coincide with the evidence at hand.
How does a biologist determine the polarity of a character change?
- Answer
-
The biologist looks at the state of the character in an outgroup, an organism that is outside the clade for which the phylogeny is being developed. The polarity of the character change is from the state of the character in the outgroup to the second state.
Contributors and Attributions
Remixed and/or curated from the following works:
Fowler, S., Roush, R., & Wise, J. (2013). 12.E Diversity of Life (Exercises) and. In Concepts of Biology . OpenStax (CC BY 4.0; Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/concepts-biology/pages/1-introduction ).