Evolution

__________ enable an organism to survive in its environment.

• adaptations
• natural selections
• divergence
• extinctions

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______________ is the process by which populations change in response to their environment.

• natural selection
• adaptation
• reproductive isolation
• divergence

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__________ characters are similar characteristics that have evolved separately in two unrelated organisms.

• analogous
• homologous
• cladistic
• phylogenic

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________ structures are reduced in size or function.

• vestigial
• homologous
• cladistic
• phylogenic

The fossil record provides evidence that 

• Fossils cannot be dated.
• All species were formed during Earth’s formation and have changed little since then.
• The fossilized species have no connection to today’s species.
• Older species gave rise to more-recent species.

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Individuals that are better able to cope with the challenges of their environment tend to  

• Decrease in population over time.
• Leave more offspring than those less suited to the environment.
• Leave fewer offspring than those less suited to the environment.

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European rabbits were introduced to Australia in 1859. The rabbits reproduced rapidly in their new habitat, displaced other animals, and overgrazed vegetation. In an attempt to reduce the rabbit population, a virus was introduced in 1951. This virus is usually deadly to European rabbits. When the virus was first introduced, the rabbits died in large numbers, but the death rate decreased over time. Which of the following best explains the decrease in the rabbit death rate? 

• Young rabbits learned to avoid being infected with the virus.
• The lifespan of the virus was too short to affect rabbits over a long period of time.
• Natural selection favored rabbits that were resistant to the virus. 
• No correct choices.

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Starting in 1954, commercial fishers in the northwest Pacific were paid by weight, rather than by the individual fish, for pink salmon. The fishers increased the use of a type of net that selectively catches larger fish.  Which of the following effects did this change in fishing technique most likely have on the salmon population over the next 20 years?

• The average body size of the salmon population decreased significantly.
• The average body size of the salmon population increased significantly.
• The average body size of the males in the salmon population increased, and the females stayed the same.

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Which of the following statements gives the most likely explanation for the presence of two very similar species of squirrels living on opposite sides of the Grand Canyon?

• One squirrel traveled across the canyon and started a new population on the other side.
• One squirrel traveled across the canyon and interbred with a different population on the other side.
• Members of one single squirrel species were geographically separated by the formation of the canyon.
• Members of two different squirrel species migrated from two different places to opposite sides of the canyon. 

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The Asian shore crab invaded parts of the eastern coast of the United States about 15 years ago. The Asian shore crab preys on blue mussels. In the time since the Asian shore crab arrived, the average shell thickness of the blue mussel population has increased. Which of the following is the most likely reason that this increase in shell thickness has occurred? 

• Blue mussels with thick shells attract more crabs that mussels without thick shells.
• Blue mussels with thick shells grow in larger colonies than mussels without thick shells.
• Blue mussels with thick shells catch more food per day than mussels without thick shells.
• Blue mussels with thick shells survive and reproduce more successfully than mussels without thick shells.

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