Evolution: Living Environment Regents

What two factors can lead to the evolution of a species over time?

• overproduction of offspring and no variation

• changes in the genes of body cells and extinction

• struggle for survival and fossilization

• changes in the genes of sex cells and survival of the fittest

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Which statement could account for the similarities between the woolly mammoth and elephants?

• Mutations were caused by industrial chemicals and radiation.

• Selective breeding results in

  better survival

• Present-day species developed from earlier different species

• Both animals have identical genetic information

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Scientists have been investigating a way to recreate extinct species such as the saber-toothed cat illustrated below.

Which technique would use DNA from an extinct species to recreate an organism of the species?

• natural selection

• differentiation

• cloning

• selective breeding

A shark and a dolphin have similarly shaped

bodies and fins. However, these two organisms

are not closely related: The shark is a fish, and

the dolphin is a mammal. Some species may

have similar body structures even if they are not

related because they evolved in

• similar environments and specific traits increased their chances of survival

• similar environments and were exposed to factors that caused exactly the same mutations

• different environments, but tried to adapt in the same ways so they could survive

• different environments, but ate similar foods that affected their growth and development

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Scientists at Penn State have sequenced the DNA of the extinct woolly mammoth. The data suggested that the woolly mammoth was more closely related to present-day elephants than previously believed.

Which statement could account for the similarities between the woolly mammoth and present-day elephants?

• Common gene mutations were caused by agents such as industrial chemicals and radiation

• Present-day species developed from earlier, different species

• Selective breeding results in offspring better able to survive.

• Both animals have identical genetic information

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After a lake dried up during a severe drought, a section of undisturbed rock layers was exposed. The layers are represented below.

This sequence of rock layers best illustrates the concept that

• the living and nonliving environment both change over time

• it is important to preserve the diversity of species and habitats

• new inheritable characteristics can result from the recombining of genes

• living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of unlimited size

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Natural selection produces changes most quickly in

• species with short reproductive cycles

• individual pathogens killed by antibiotics

• complex multicellular organisms

• individuals that produce a small number of offspring

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Survival of at least a few members of a population after a major environmental change is most dependent on

• the population having an individual that is adapted to the original environment

• the population having an individual that is adapted to great changes in the temperature in its environment

• variations in many different traits in many individuals in the population

• no variations in the color of the fur, skin, or feathers of the individuals in the population

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The theory of evolution states that

• species that are extinct have no biological relationship to living species

• different animal species always interbreed to form new and different species

• species change over time, sometimes developing into new species

• the environment of Earth is constant over time

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Evolution can occur at different rates; however, for evolution to occur, there must be

• variations within a species

• extinction of the species

• asexual reproduction

• no change in the genes of an organism

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