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






2. 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.






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






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






5. Extinctions - mostly at the level of species - have been occurring constantly at a low 'background rate' - usually matched by the rate at which new species appear - with the result that ____________ is constantly increasing.






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






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






8. 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.






9. 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.






10. 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.






11. _____________ struggle takes place between the individuals of different species.






12. Biodiversity crashes during ________ extinctions. This has been a powerful force in evolution - wiping the slate clean of up to 96% of all species - and providing the survivors with a world full of opportunities into which they can diversify.






13. 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.






14. Scientific classification sorts living organisms by _________ levels of classification - kingdom; phylum; class; order; family; genus; and species.






15. 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).






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






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






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






19. 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.






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






21. Homo erectus was the first hominid to use ___________ - and have social structures for food gathering.






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






23. ____________ organs are formed on the same basic plan though they may be modified variously to perform different functions. They must have a common ancestral structure which gave rise to different modifications.






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






25. Homology was defined by Darwin as similarity of structure and position - and distinguished from 'analogy -' which was defined as similarity of _____________ but not necessarily of structure and position.






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






27. 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.






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






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






30. Immediately below kingdom is the _________ level of classification. At this level - animals are grouped together based on similarities in basic body plan or organization.






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






32. 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.






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






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






35. 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.






36. 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 ___________ __________.






37. 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 ____________.






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






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






40. 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.






41. 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.






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






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






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






45. At some time in their life cycle - chordates have a pair of lateral gill slits or pouches used to obtain __________ in a liquid environment.






46. _____________ 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.






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






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






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






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