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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. 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.






3. 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






4. Homology has to be distinguished from ___________; for instance - the wings of insects and the wings of birds are analogous but not homologous.






5. The Regional ___________ Hypothesis suggests that regional populations of H. erectus evolved into H. sapiens through interbreeding between the various populations.






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






7. When carriers have advantages that allow a detrimental allele to persist in a population - ______________ polymorphism is at work.






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






9. Most anthropologists agree that the ______ _______ was populated by a series of three migrations over the temporary land connection between Asia and North America.






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






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






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






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






14. Linnaeus placed all monkeys and apes along with humans into the order _________






15. Jean Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) developed one of the first theories on how species changed. Lamarck - in 1809 - concluded that organisms of higher complexity had __________ from preexisting - less complex organisms.






16. The highest category in the Linnaean system of classification is the __________. At this level - organisms are distinguished on the basis of cellular organization and methods of nutrition.






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






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






19. The early stages of development of the ___________ of fish - salamander - tortoise - hen and man show remarkable similarity.






20. Charles Darwin published a book The Origin of Species in the year 1859. He proposed that the new species came about by a process called ___________ __________.






21. According to Darwin - in spite of the high reproductive potential - the number of individuals in a species remains relatively constant - suggesting _____________ for existence.






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






23. Insect ____________ is also an example of convergent evolution - as for example when an edible (palatable) butterfly develops a color pattern similar to a relatively unrelated inedible (unpalatable) butterfly - and by so doing escapes being eaten.






24. 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






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






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






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






28. 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 ____________.






29. Some important structural changes during the evolution of horse are: Increase in size from 11' (Eohippus) to about 60' (Equus) - and ___________ of the head and neck so as that it can reach the ground.






30. 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






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






32. 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.






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






34. A ___________ can be defined as one or more populations of interbreeding organisms that are reproductively isolated in nature from all other organisms.






35. 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.






36. The most recent mass extinction - the K-T extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period - is best known for having wiped out the __________ .






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






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






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






40. Despite their image as brutish simpletons - _____________were the first humans to bury their dead with artifacts - indicating abstract thought - perhaps a belief in an after-life.






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






42. _____________ 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.






43. When Charles Darwin was in the Galapagos islands - one of the first things he noticed is the variety of ___________ that existed on each of the islands.






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






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






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






47. 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.






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






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






50. _________ ______ disease causes anemia - joint pain - a swollen spleen - and frequent - severe infections. It illustrates balanced polymorphism because carriers are resistant to malaria - an infection by the parasite that causes cycles of chills and