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WorksheetsChapter 17 The History of Life
Total questions: 60
Worksheet time: 30mins
Examples of fossils include preserved
eggs
footprints
body parts
all of the above
Sedimentary rock is formed from
the soft parts of organisms
the hard parts of organisms
small particles of sand, silt, and clay
wood, shell, and bone
What proportion of all species that have ever lived has become extinct?
less than 1 percent
approximately one-half
more than 99 percent
100 percent
Most fossils form in
rusty water
volcanic rock
sedimentary rock
the sap of ancient trees
The fossil record shows that
a. most organisms that ever lived on Earth are now extinct.
b. fossils occur in a particular order.
c. modern organisms have unicellular ancestors.
d. all of the above
To be useful as an index fossil, a species must have existed for a
a. long period over a wide geographic range.
b. long period over a small geographic range.
c. short period over a wide geographic range.
d. short period over a small geographic range.
The length of time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay is its
half-life
relative date
radioactive date
period
To compare the relative ages of fossils, scientists sometimes use an easily recognized species
called a(an)
carbon fossil
radioactive fossil
index fossil
sedimentary fossil
How would you date a sample of rock that you suspect as being one of the earliest on Earth?
a. Use a radioactive isotope with a short half-life.
b. Use a radioactive isotope with a long half-life.
c. Use an index fossil.
d. Use a microfossil.
What must be true about an index fossil whose absolute age is used as a reference for other fossils?
a. The absolute age of the index fossil is actually unknown.
b. The absolute age of the index fossil was determined only by relative dating.
c. The absolute age of the index fossil was determined by radioactive dating or another
absolute method.
d. The index fossils must be the same age as the other fossils.
After Precambrian Time, the basic divisions of the geologic time scale, from larger to smaller are
eras and periods
periods and eras
relative and absolute dates
billions of years and millions of years
The Mesozoic Era occurred
before Precambrian Time
during Precambrian Time
after the Paleozoic Era
after the Cenozoic Era
Earth’s most recent era is the
Paleozoic
Mesozoic
Cenozoic
Precambrian
Fossilized evidence of Earth’s first forms of life would consist of
vertebrates from the Precambrian
invertebrates from the Precambrian
eukaryotes from the Precambrian
prokaryotes from the Precambrian
Which of these labels for fossils in a museum display contains an error?
a. Dinosaur (Middle Mesozoic)
b. Early Mammal (Middle Paleozoic)
c. Early Human (Late Cenozoic)
d. Early Marine Invertebrate (Early Paleozoic)
Why did oceans not exist on Earth nearly 4 billion years ago?
a. No water molecules were present.
b. Water remained a gas because Earth was very hot.
c. Water existed as ice because Earth was very cold.
d. There was no oxygen gas in the atmosphere.
Early in Earth’s history, while the planet was in a melted state, the most dense elements formed Earth’s
core
seas
crust
atmosphere
Which of the following was NOT characteristic of Earth before the oceans formed?
a. volcanic activity
b. bombardment by comets and asteroids
c. an atmosphere of poisonous gases
d. an atmosphere containing oxygen gas
Two gases that probably existed in Earth’s early atmosphere are
a. oxygen and water vapor.
b. water vapor and nitrogen.
c. oxygen and carbon monoxide.
d. hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide.
To formulate a hypothesis about how Earth’s elements were rearranged after melting, scientists
considered which physical principle?
a. Denser materials tended to float on less dense materials.
b. Less dense materials tended to float on denser materials.
c. The most dense materials formed the atmosphere.
d. The least dense materials formed Earth’s core.
In addition to hydrogen, the gases used in Miller and Urey’s experiment were
nitrogen and oxygen
hydrogen cyanide and oxygen
methane and ammonia
carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide
Miller and Urey’s experiments attempted to demonstrate
a. how Earth first formed.
b. whether DNA or RNA evolved first.
c. whether organic molecules could have formed before life was present.
d. how the deepest part of Earth formed.
What prevents organic molecules from forming on their own and remaining intact today?
a. Earth is too hot.
b. Atmospheric oxygen is too reactive.
c. The necessary building blocks no longer exist.
d. There is no energy source available.
Which of the following conditions would likely prevent the assembly and survival of new kinds of
organic molecules on Earth today?
a. the presence of carbon dioxide
b. the presence of bacteria and other life forms
c. the supply of atoms that serve as raw material
d. the light and warmth from the sun
Modern experiments similar to Miller and Urey’s demonstrate that simulating conditions thought to exist on early Earth can produce
a. some bases contained in RNA.
b. DNA molecules.
c. living things composed of cells.
d. proteins that can catalyze complex chemical reactions.
One necessary condition for the evolution of the first life on Earth was
a. the presence of DNA.
b. abundant oxygen in the atmosphere.
c. the presence of photosynthetic organisms.
d. the presence of liquid water.
Which of the following functions can RNA perform under certain conditions?
a. catalyzing chemical reactions
b. processing messenger RNA after transcription
c. helping DNA replicate
d. all of the above
What do proteinoid microspheres have in common with cells?
They can store and release energy
They contain DNA
They contain RNA
They are communities of organisms
Proteinoid microspheres are tiny bubbles that resemble cells because they
a. contain DNA and/or RNA.
b. have selectively permeable membranes.
c. build proteins from amino acids.
d. add oxygen gas to the atmosphere.
One scientific hypothesis about the origin of life holds that
a. RNA replaced DNA as the most stable information-storing molecule.
b. RNA nucleotides were formed from simple organic molecules in an abiotic stew.
c. proteins that duplicate themselves came to function in information storage.
d. as cells evolved, RNA came to direct protein synthesis.
The endosymbiotic theory proposes that eukaryotic cells arose from
individual prokaryotic cells
multicellular prokaryotes
communities formed by prokaryotes
communities formed by eukaryotes
What was the response of the various groups of early organisms that existed when oxygen levels rose in the atmosphere?
a. Some life forms became extinct.
b. Some life forms survived only in a few airless habitats.
c. Some life forms evolved metabolic pathways that used oxygen for respiration.
d. all of the above
When oxygen was first released in the early seas, it combined with iron to form
RNA
DNA
proteins
rust
The first organisms on Earth were most like today’s
bacteria
eukaryotes
multicellular organisms
DNA molecules
Which of these facts about mitochondria and chloroplasts constitute(s) support for the endosymbiotic
theory?
a. Their DNA resembles bacterial RNA.
b. Their ribosomes resemble the ribosomes of bacteria.
c. Like bacteria, they reproduce by mitosis.
d. all of the above
The Cambrian Explosion resulted in the evolution of the first
dinosaurs and mammals
representatives of most animal phyla
bacteria
land animals
A very large mass extinction in which amphibians and trilobites disappeared occurred at the end of the
Precambrian
Cambrian Period
Paleozoic Era
Quaternary Period
During the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, the dominant land animals were
amphibians
dinosaurs
grazing mammals
human ancestors
A fossilized dinosaur, found with fossils of the flowering plants that it ate, must have lived
since life first evolved
before the Mesozoic Era
during the Mesozoic Era
after the Mesozoic Era
What does fossil evidence indicate about the order in which these three vertebrates evolved: a bony fish with a jaw, a jawless fish, and a fish with leglike fins?
a. The bony fish evolved before the jawless fish.
b. The fish with leglike fins was the last to evolve.
c. The jawless fish was the last to evolve.
d. The fish with leglike fins evolved before the jawless fish.
The process by which two species, for example, a flower and a pollinating insect, evolve in response to changes in each other over time is called
convergent evolution
adaptive radiation
coevolution
punctuated equilibrium
In the past, mass extinctions encouraged the rapid evolution of surviving species
a. by changing developmental genes.
b. by making new habitats available to them.
c. because they killed all organisms that had coevolved.
d. because they spared all organisms that had evolved convergently.
A single species that has evolved into several different forms that live in different ways has undergone
adaptive radiation
coevolution
punctuated equilibrium
mass extinction
One way master control genes, or hox genes, could have affected evolution is
a. by causing mutations in other genes.
b. through small changes in timing during embryonic development.
c. through the coevolution of species.
d. by leading to convergent evolution.
A pattern in which species experience long, stable periods interrupted by brief periods of rapid
evolutionary change is called
convergent evolution
coevolution
adaptive radiation
punctuated equilibrium
The fossil record, although incomplete, provides evidence about the history of life and illustrates that most species have remained unchanged over time.
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The radioactive isotope most useful for dating fossils less than 60,000 years old is potassium-40.
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Scientists use geologic dating to determine the absolute age of a rock in years.
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The vast majority of Earth’s history—about 88 percent—is taken up by the Cenozoic Era.
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The Cenozoic Era included the Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic Period.
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The molten elements of early Earth arranged themselves according to density—the most dense elements formed Earth’s surface.
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The earliest sedimentary rocks were formed about the time that liquid water formed on Earth’s surface.
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The oxygen present in the modern atmosphere is very reactive and would tend to destroy any new kinds of organic molecules that might form from simpler compounds.
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Stanley Miller and Harold Urey assumed that the assembly of complex organic molecules from
simpler compounds on early Earth would have required an energy source, which they hypothesized was radioactive decay.
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About 200 to 300 million years after Earth cooled enough to carry liquid water, cells similar to modern bacteria were common.
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Under certain conditions, very small bubbles called proteinoid microspheres can form from large organic molecules.
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Asexual reproduction increases genetic variation—the raw material on which natural selection
operates.
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During the Mesozoic Era, animals began to invade the land.
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The Galápagos finches underwent adaptive radiation, a process in which a small group evolves into several different forms that live in different ways.
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There are at least six important topics in coevolution—the large-scale evolutionary changes that take place over time.
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