Biology Final

"Natural selection" and "evolution" are two terms that are sometimes confused, even by freshman biology students. What is the relation between natural selection and evolution?

• They are the same thing

• Any phenomenon that causes evolution is natural selection

• Natural selection is one of several causes of evolution

• When natural selection is occurring, evolution is not, and vice cersa

During his voyage around the world, Darwin was inspired to think about evolution by:

• The books he read

• Fossils he collected

• the studying adaptations of organisms to their environment

• the unique organisms he saw in the Galapagos

• All of the above

Assume there are two varieties of mice, brown and gray, living on an island. They are the prey for the hawks on the island. They are distributed through rocky areas in the north of the island and across the fields in the south part. What of the following is predicted by natural selection?

• If they stay as a mixed population, they will remain mixed because the two varieties will not interbreed with each other

• Since brown mice blend better with the ground and gray mice blend better with the rocks, these are the ones that will be missed by the hawks and the mouse distribution will tend to indicate this

• Hawks find the mice by movement so it won't matter

• The hawks will starve to death because they get confused.

In natural selection, __________ determines which phenotypes are successful.

• Chance

• The environment

• Sample Size

• Genetic drift

• Human intervention

Animals that possess homologous structures probably ____.

• Are headed for extinction

• Evolved from the same ancestor

• Have increased genetic diversity

• By chance had similar mutations in the past

Change over time, the process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms.

Over time, results in changes in inherited characteristics of a population. These changes increase a species fitness in its environment

Some individuals better suited for the environment

Inheritable attributes that come from parent of organism that help it survive

Able to measure the age of an organism or substance by using an element's half life