SC 139 - Second Exam 2008
 

Numbers are linked to relevant passages in the book.

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 an epigenetic effect?

_______    a. Offspring inherits father's big peacock tail                 b. Offspring inherits mother's nurturing instincts
                c. Offspring inherits parents' hunting territory                d. Offspring inherit mixture of traits neither parent has
                                                    e. Uh oh...was I supposed to know about this?
 


2.  In linkage, what is linked?

_______    a. Genes to traits                     b. Alleles to traits                c. Chromosome copies
                d. Genes to chromosomes                            e. These questions to my nervous breakdown
 


3.  Which involves a group nearly going extinct?

_______    a. Bottleneck effect                 b. Genetic drift                c. Founder effect                 d. Adaptive radiation
                                                                    e. Did they all eat some bad clams?
 


4.  During the Cambrian Explosion, what "exploded"?

_______    a. Life on land                 b. Simple eukaryotes                c. Animal life                 d. An asteroid
                                        e. The savings - everybody bought a new Toyota Cambrian.
 


5.  For plants to successfully move onto land, they needed

_______    a. Animals to pollinate them                 b. Fungi to feed them                c. Bacterial symbionts
                d. Special soil                                                                    e. Travel visas
 


6.  Which describes a bit of the endosymbiont theory?

_______    a. Multicelled organisms that are really colonial                b. Prokaryotes with parts that were eukaryotes
                c. Eukaryotes with parts that were prokaryotes                 d. Use of a fungus to aid reproduction
                                            e. Well, "symbi" would be a bit of "endosymbiont"...




7.  Life most likely moved onto land from

_______    a. Tidal pools & fresh water                b. Tidal pools & hydrothermal vents                c. Fresh water & open ocean
                d. Tidal pools & open ocean                                                        e. New Jersey

 


8.  The materials in primordial soup came from

_______    a. Early plants                 b. Early animals                 c. Space dust                d. Early bacteria                 e. Old tin cans
 



9.  The fossil record shows the rise of photosynthesis with a layer containing

_______    a. Plants                 b. Chlorophyll                 c. Plant-eaters                d. Rust                 e. Little premiere announcements
 



10.  A dominant allele is

_______    a. More likely to be passed on                b. More likely to show up                c. Always associated with advantages
                d. All of these things                                                                e. Happy in leatherhujhyu
 



11.  Protocells would have developed

_______    a. In fresh water                 b. On land                c. At hydrothermal vents                 d. At the ocean surface
                                                                e. Where the real estate values were good

 


12.  Most mutations inside the DNA molecule

_______    a. Produce damage                 b. Are improvements                c. Have no real effect                 d. Are dominant
                                                                    e. Are in the gooey caramel center
 

 

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.  Give a brief description (not just a label) for the two possible rates of evolutionary change.
 

 

 

  
2. What two rates contribute most to overall evolutionary rates?
 

 

 

  
3. What was the "plant problem"?

 

 
4.  Briefly explain what's used in a molecular clock.

 


 
5. What are two major land animal groups?
 

 

 

  
6.  What are two types of energy that are likely to have helped the very first molecular systems develop?
 

 

 

  
7.  Show the basic chemical process (including energy input) of photosynthesis.

 

 
8.  Show the basic chemical process (including fuel output) of aerobic respiration.

 

 
9.  What is panspermia?

 

 
10.  What is hybrid vigor?

 

 
11.  Most mass extinction causes go through a second stage that really messes things up. What is that second stage (be fairly specific)?

 

 
12.  What is alternation of generations?

 

 
13.  In comparison to each other, give one advantage for each -
LOW
CHROMOSOME
NUMBER		 HIGH
CHROMOSOME
NUMBER
14. What is a type species / ecospecies?

 

 





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. For each step in the theoretical development of Life on Earth, put them in chronological order, from earliest to latest, 1 - 8 in the boxes to the left.
 

 

 Prokaryote
Cells		   Cellular
Colonialism		   Molecular
Evolution		   Movement onto Land
 

 

 Primordial
Soup		   Photosynthesis   Multicelled
Systems		   Aerobic
Respiration
2.  For the earliest "living" systems, give two basic requirements that have to be met for each of the two stages down below.
The first molecular "life"  

 
 

 
Eventual, more "modern"
life		  

 
 

 
3.  What are four different circumstances that are thought to lead to mass extinctions?
 

 

 

  
 

 

 

  
4.  For sexual reproduction, in general -

 		 Definition -

 
Advantage over asexual
reproduction -


 

 Advantage asexual has
over sexual -


 
5.  Describe (don't just give a simple label!) four different isolating situations that can lead to the evolution of new species from the same starting group.
 

 

 

  
 

 

 

  
6.  When organisms moved onto the land, there were many new conditions that they had to adapt to. Briefly explain four different ways that the conditions differed from living in the water.
 

 

 

  
 

 

 

  
7.  What are four different conditions that a "Hardy-Weinberg population" must have?
 

 

 

  
 

 

 

  


Link to Answer Key


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.

How do scientists know which layers of sedimentary rock in one place correspond to layers in another place? Three Points



Why did Mendel pick peas as his experimental organism? Three Points.



If Hardy and Weinberg conditions don't actually happen, why have researchers found them very useful? Three Points.




Where can the ingredients in primordial soup be found today in close to original form? Three Points.




What part might clays have played in the appearance of Life? Three Points.


 

Why is it thought that the first good molecular complexes were probably RNA? Three Points.

 


We have some fairly unique local fossils. For Two Points Each, what sort of fossils, why are they special, and where are they in the area?



During the Age of Dinosaurs, the big creatures like plesiosaurs that lived in the seas were not dinosaurs. What subgroup did they belong to? Three Points.



Why do some people think that Nemesis exists? Three Points.


  
     

 

Michael McDarby.

 

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