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CLEP Biology: Principles Of Evolution

Subjects : clep, science, biology
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Organisms struggle for existence. Organisms with advantageous characters survive - while those which lack such variations perish. The advantageous characters are passed on to the offsprings generation after generation and the organisms become better






2. Populations begin to diverge when gene flow between them is restricted. Geographic isolation is often the first step in ____________ speciation.






3. The ______-____-______ Hypothesis proposes that some Homo erectus remained in Africa and continued to evolve into Homo sapiens - and left Africa about 100 -000-200 -000 years ago. From a single source - Homo sapiens replaced all populations of Homo e






4. An allele may increase - or decrease - in frequency simply through ___________. Not every member of the population will become a parent and not every set of parents will produce the same number of offspring.






5. As the finch population began to flourish in these advantageous conditions - ______________ competition became a factor - and resources on the islands were squeezed and could not sustain the population of the finches for long.






6. In general if two genes have an almost identical DNA sequence - it is likely that they are ____________.






7. About 1.8 million years ago - early Homo gave rise to _______ ________ - the species thought to have been ancestral to our own.






8. Darwin reported that all organisms tend to _____________ in a geometric ratio provided there are no environmental checks. Even slow breeding animals like the elephant may theoretically give rise to 19 million descendants in a period of 750 years.






9. In species which reproduce _____________ - extinction of a species is generally inevitable when there is only one individual of that species left - or only individuals of a single sex.






10. The ____________ mammals occupy Australia - and differ from placental mammals because they bear their young inside a pouch (instead of a placenta).






11. Humans who have produced offspring that successfully live in a ________ environment tend to be broader and smaller in stature while hotter environments are occupied by thinner taller humans.






12. At the molecular level - life's ability to reproduce begins with the replication of ____________ - during which two new spirals are created that are exact replicas of the original molecule.






13. About 2 million years ago - two groups developed: the australopithecines - generally smaller brained and not users of tools; and the line that led to genus _________ - larger brained and makers and users of tools.






14. Heritable variations are called _____________ variations. Such variations arising from changes in DNA are passed on within families and to the offspring from the parents.






15. A Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium provides a ___________ by which to judge whether evolution has occurred.






16. An important step toward the modern theory of evolution came in the 1760's - when Count George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707-1788) published his Natural History of Animals with the idea that species __________ over time.






17. _____________ is the accumulation of small changes in a gene pool over a relatively short period.






18. Primates evolved about approximately 30 million years ago in ___________. One branch of primates evolved into the Old and New World Monkeys - the other into the hominoids (the line of descent common to both apes and man).






19. Almost all living organisms use the same basic biochemical molecules - including DNA - ATP - and many identical or nearly identical enzymes. Organisms utilize the same DNA triplet base _________ and the same 20 amino acids in their proteins






20. _____________ can occur randomly - from radiation damage (impact with high energy g-rays or cosmic rays) - from exposure to chemical agents called mutagens - or simply by error in the DNA replication process.






21. Except for the tail fins - whales greatly resemble fish in outline - but are instead descended from four-legged land ___________.






22. _____________ is the end of a particular evolutionary line - the end of a species - a family - or a larger group of organisms.






23. In the 1680s Ariaantje and Gerrit Jansz emigrated from Holland to South Africa - one of them bringing along an allele for the mild metabolic disease porphyria. Today more than 30000 South Africans carry this allele and - in every case examined - can






24. All organisms are placed into one of five kingdoms: Monera - Protista - ________ - Plantae - Animalia.






25. Animals and plants show variations in physical structure. Some of these variations are simply caused by external conditions (environmental) - such as accidents - temperature - food abundance - etc.. ___________ variations have no effect on evolution






26. ___________ speciation happens when members of a population develop some genetic difference that prevents them from reproducing with the parent type.






27. _______________ is that branch of biology dealing with the identification and naming of organisms.






28. Almost all _________ organisms are either plants or animals.






29. Mammals developed from primitive mammal-like reptiles during the __________ Period - some 200-245 million years ago.






30. Darwin's Finches illustrated ___________ ____________. This is where species all deriving from a common ancestor have over time successfully adapted to their environment via natural selection.






31. In a genetic drift the entire population may become homozygous for the allele or - equally likely - the allele may disappear. Before either of these fates occurs - the allele represents a Polymorphism. This is a case of polymorphism through...






32. Such a dual level designation is referred to as a _________ nomenclature.






33. ______________ struggle is the struggle of organisms against the physical environment.






34. There are at least ___________ of animals. Humans are members of the phylum Chordata.






35. If a population began with a few individuals - one or more of whom carried a particular allele - that allele may come to be represented in many of the descendants. This is known as ____________.






36. The study of ____________ ____________ supports the claim of a common origin of organisms.






37. Prior to the scientific discoveries of the past 200 years - _____________ from the Book Of Genesis described how living things came into being.






38. A ____________ tree is a graphical means to depict the evolutionary relationships of a group of organisms.






39. The Neolithic transition - about 10 -000 years ago - involved the change from __________-__________ societies to agricultural ones based on cultivation of plants and domesticated animals.






40. _________ evidence shows that the horse has undergone considerable evolutionary change over a period of 60 million years.






41. There are certain animals with intermediate characters between two major groups of animals. They are called ___________ _____.






42. Speciation by ____________ Equilibrium involves a group of creatures which gets isolated from the rest of their species.






43. Members of the phylum _____________ have soft - unsegmented bodies that are usually - but not always - enclosed in hard shells.






44. ___________ evolution is an evolutionary process in which organisms not closely related independently acquire some characteristic or characteristics in common.






45. _____________ struggle takes place between the individuals of the same species.






46. Humans are ____________ - meaning we walk on two of our limbs. The amount of melanin in our skin is representative of the environment we live in - i.e. dark skinned people occupy hotter climates.






47. Differential reproduction allows one species to gradually evolve into a new species. This is the process of ____________.






48. The only kingdom which consists of prokaryotes is the __________ kingdom.






49. Because organisms are continually tested by their changing ______________ - their forms change to suit new conditions.






50. As populations diverge - they form similar but related species. When are two populations new species? When populations no longer _____________ they are thought to be separate species.