LS1 Spring10

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VERSION A
Dont open your exam until instructed to.
Write your name and student number on every page of the test before handing in the
test. You will lose 5 points if you dont!
Enter you name, uid, and which version of the exam you have on the scantron. You
will lose 5 points if you dont!
Use a pencil on the multiple choice; pen or pencil on the short answer.
Mark scantrons neatly, one answer per question. Erase changes completely.
Answer written questions in space provided. Do not write on the back, in the margins,
or in space allotted for another question.
Only answers on the front side of pages will be graded. NO EXCEPTIONS.
If you must cross something out and run out of space to answer the question in the
space provided, you must request another blank exam page.
No electronic devices at your desk, including calculators and cellphones.
No food, no bottles with labels.
If you need to use the restroom, turn in your exam to a TA. Only one student may leave
at a time. You may not leave the room with any electronic devices.
Place a check next to your section
Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Slichter 2870

Young 2343

Slichter 2870

Young 2343

Slichter 2870

___2A: 12:00

___2C: 10:00

___2D 10:00

___2I: 9:00

___2J: 9:00

___2B: 2:00

___2E: 2:00

___2F: 2:00

___2K: 11:00

___2K: 11:00

___2G: 4:00

___2H: 4:00

Good luck!
I hereby certify that I have neither given nor received any aid on this exam, and that I have
read and understand the instructions above.

Sign your name here:_____________________________________

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PUT YOUR NAME ON EVERY PAGE OF THE EXAM BEFORE STARTING.

Exam is 175 pts total
Part 1 Multiple Choice. 25 questions, 5 pts each
1. Which of the following is not a function of feathers?
a. Insulation.
b. Flight
c. Mating Display
d. Sensory
e. camouflage
2. Which of the following describes the most likely sequence of events in a speciation
event
a. Genetic drift, genetic isolation, divergence
b. Genetic isolation, genetic drift, divergence
c. Genetic isolation, divergence, genetic drift
d. Divergence, genetic drift, isolation
e. Divergence, genetic isolation, genetic drift
3. The evolution of specialized adaptation reflected in the fossil record of horses is best
characterized by which environmental/ecological changes?
a. Glaciation events caused population bottlenecks that left behind only the largest
individuals
b. Environments grew cool and dry, and forests were replaced by more
open habitats
c. Horses in early lineages were outcompeted by other mammals better adapted for
browsing
d. Both a and b
e. Both b and c
4. Which statement about genetic drift is correct?
a. Genetic drift results from migration of new individuals into a population.
b. Genetic drift increases adaptation of individuals to their environment.
c. The direction of evolutionary change due to genetic drift is random.
d. Genetic drift becomes increasingly important with increasing population size
5. How many chromosomes would be found in an allopolyploid plant if its parents had
diploid numbers of 6 and 10, respectively?
a. Haploid number of 8
b. Diploid number of 8
c. Haploid number of 16
d. Diploid number of 16

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6. Which of these lists contains the four elements necessary for natural selection?
a. Uniform population, heritable traits, selection, differential survival or
reproduction
b. Variation in population, heritable variation, selection, differential
survival or reproduction
c. Variation in population, heritable variation, selection, unlimited survival and
reproduction
d. Variation in population, environmental variation, selection, differential survival
or reproduction
7. Which of the following best describes the Cell Theory?
a. all cells have membranes or walls; all organisms are composed of cells
b. All cells arise from pre-existing cells, all cells have DNA
c. All cells have DNA; all cells divide
d. All organisms are composed of cells, cells arise from pre-existing cells
8. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder in homozygous recessives that causes death
during the teenage years. If 9 in 10,000 newborn babies have the disease, what are
the expected frequencies of the dominant (A1) and recessive (A2) alleles according to
the Hardy-Weinberg model?
a. f(A1) = 0.9997, f(A2) = 0.0003
b. f(A1) = 0.9800, f(A2) = 0.0200
c. f(A1) = 0.9700, f(A2) = 0.0300
d. f(A1) = 0.9604, f(A2) = 0.0392
e. f(A1) = 0.9600, f(A2) = 0.0400
9. Which is the best definition of adaptive radiation?
a. An adaptive radiation is a group of rapid speciation events.
b. An adaptive radiation occurs when a single lineage produces many
ecologically diverse descendant species in a relatively short period of
time.
c. An adaptive radiation is the evolution of a novel trait that makes new ecological
opportunities available
d. An adaptive radiation is a star phylogeny.
10. Which statement is correct?
a. Synapomorphies identify monophyletic groups
b. A synapomorphy is an ancestral trait.
c. Synapomorphies are examples of homoplasy
d. A synapomorphy may arise due to covergent evolution

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11. Why would gene duplication events, such as those seen in the Hox gene complex, set
the stage for adaptive radiation?
a. There are more copies of genes, meaning speciation had occurred by polyploidy.
b. The original gene copy is the out-group, and the new gene copies are the adaptive
radiation.
c. Without duplicated genes, species would be vulnerable to extinction.
d. One copy of a gene can perform the original function while other
copies are available to take on new functions.
12. Which of the following statements best describes the rationale for applying the
principle of parsimony in constructing phylogenetic trees?
a. Parsimony allows the researcher to "root" the tree.
b. Similarity due to common ancestry should be more likely than
similarity due to convergent evolution.
c. The molecular clock validates the principle of parsimony.
d. The out-group roots the tree, allowing the principle of parsimony to be applied
13. In looking at the fossil record of horses, why does the presence of extinct and
transitional forms support the theory of evolution?
a. It supports the hypothesis that only individuals with larger bodies were capable
of surviving, and that bigger is always better in evolution.
b. It supports the hypothesis that evolution follows a linear path of simple to more
complex
c. It supports the hypothesis that species have changed over time
d. It supports the hypothesis that species always evolve to become more and better
adapted over time.
14. In 1983 a population of dark-eyed junco birds became established on the campus of
the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), which is located many miles from
the junco's normal habitat in the mixed-coniferous temperate forests in the
mountains. Juncos have white outer tail feathers that the males display during
aggressive interactions and during courtship displays. The UCSD campus male junco
population tails were, on average, 36% white, whereas the tails of males from nearby
mountain populations averaged 4045% white. If this observed trait difference were
due to a difference in the original colonizing population, it would be due to
a. disruptive selection.
b. sexual selection.
c. sexual dimorphism.
d. a genetic bottleneck.
e. founder effect.
15. If the juncos at UCSD, over time became reproductively isolated from the mountain
population, which of the following could be said to have occurred?
a. Allopatric speciation
b. Peripatric speciation
c. Parapatric speciation
d. Sympatric speciation

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16. You sequence the genes that code for an important glycolytic enzyme in a moth, a
mushroom, a worm, and an alga and find a high degree of sequence similarity among
these distantly related species. This is an example of ________.
a. structural homology.
b. developmental homology.
c. genetic homology.
d. convergent evolution.
17. Which of the following is a fitness trade-off?
a. In some hornbill species, the male helps seal the female in a tree with her nest
until the young are ready to fledge.
b. Moths are the best pollinators for datura flowers, but bees are the best pollinators
for orchids.
c. Some lemmings run into the sea when overgrazing threatens the species.
d. Algal genotypes that can grow fast in nitrogen-limited environments
are easier for predators to digest.
18. Which of the following characters necessary for flight does NOT appear in the nonflying Theropod dinosaur lineages?
a. Relatively long arms as compared to legs
b. Thin-walled bones
c. Flexible wrists with a semi-lunate bone
d. Furcula
e. Enlarged sternum
19. Three populations of crickets look very similar, but the males have courtship songs
that sound different. What function would this difference in song likely serve if the
populations came in contact?
a. A prezygotic isolating mechanism
b. A postzygotic isolating mechanism
c. All of the above
20. A small number of birds arrive on an island from a neighboring larger island. This
small population begins to adapt to the new food plants available on the island, and
their beaks begin to change. About twice a year, one or two more birds from the
neighboring island arrive. What effect do these new arrivals have?
a. Their arrival speeds the process of speciation.
b. Their arrival tends to promote adaptation to the new food plants.
c. Their arrival tends to slow adaptation to the new food plants.
d. Their arrival represents a colonizing event

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21. How does a scientific theory differ from a scientific hypothesis?

a. They are the same thing
b. A theory is an explanation for broad set of observations and
phenomena, hypotheses treat more specific issues
c. A hypothesis is an explanation for broad set of observations and phenomena,
theories treat more specific issues
d. Theories define scientific laws, hypotheses are used to set up experiments
22. The Luria and Delbrck experiment on fluctuation in bacteria demonstrated that
a. Bacteria always evolve resistance to antibiotics
b. Resistance to antibiotics is a random mutation
c. Bacteria requires exposure to antibiotics for resistance to develop
d. Bacteria will mutate when exposed to antibiotics
e. Resistance to antibiotics is a directed mutation
23. You find a new fossil deposit, containing many species with shells but no soft-bodied
species. What is the most logical conclusion?
a. There were no soft-bodied organisms at this time and location.
b. Conditions were not right to fossilize soft-bodied organisms.
c. There was a mass extinction event among hard-bodied but not soft-bodied
species at this location
24. Evolution occurs primarily at the level of the
a. Individual
b. Population
c. Species
d. Phenotype
e. Allele
25. Why is reinforcement an appropriate name for the concept that natural selection
should favor divergence and genetic isolation if populations experience postzygotic
isolation?
a. Selection should reinforce high fitness for hybrid offspring.
b. Selection should reinforce the fact that they are good species under the
morphological species concept.
c. It reinforces divergence that began when the species was
geographically isolated
d. Selection acts because hybrid offspring do not develop at all or are sterile when
mature

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Short Answer.
1. (15 pts) The graph below shows the distribution of a trait before selection occurs. The
dotted line indicates the average value of the trait before selection.
# of Individuals

Average value of trait before selection

Value of Trait

On each of the 3 graphs below, draw a possible distribution for each of the 3 types of
selection. Draw only 1 distribution per graph. Indicate the new average value of the trait
relative to the old value

Average value of trait before selection

# of Individuals

Average value of trait after

selection

Value of Trait

Type of Selection__directional_________ Effect on Variation _reduces____

Note: The curve could also be shifted to the left hand side of the graph. Do
not need to indicate changes in variance on graph, only changes in average
and overall shape of curve, e.g. from bell to double humped for disruptive
selection
2 pts for each graph shape & placement of new mean. 2 pts for correct
name, 1 pts for variation effect.

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Average value of trait before selection

# of Individuals

Average value of trait after

selection (no change)

Value of Trait

Type of Selection__Stabilizing___ Effect on Variation ___reduces______

Average value of trait before selection

# of Individuals

Average value of trait after

selection

Value of Trait

Type of Selection__Disruptive__ Effect on Variation __increased or

maintained______
Note: Disruptive selection increases variation. However, the book on page
442 incorrectly states that it maintains variation (although a figure on the
following page correctly notes that it increases variation). So well accept
either answer.

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2. Vestigial traits
a. (8 pts) What are vestigial traits? Why are they considered evidence for evolution?
A trait that has that has no function or little function, and appears to
be a reduced version of a functioning trait in other organisms. They
are considered evidence for evolution because a logical explanation
for their appearance is that they were inherited from a common
ancestor, and that the descendents were modified through time by
evolution

b. (8 pts) Describe two examples of a vestigial trait

Numerous, including any of the following (4 pts each):
Goosebumps in humans
Tail bones in humans
Wisdom teeth in humans
Pamirus longus in humans
Hip and leg bones of both snakes and cetaceans
Wings of ostriches, emus, etc (note penguin wings are not vestigial)
Eye sockets of blind cave fish
Egg tooth of marsupials
Correct answer should include trait and in which organism it is
vestigial
3. (18 pts) Name the three most recent geologic eras and their start time in millions of
years before present. What major events mark the start of each era?
Cenozoic- 65.5- mass extinction
Mesozoic- 251- mass extinction
Paleozoic- 542- Cambrian explosion- diversification of animal body plans
2 points for each era, 1 point for each date. 3 points each for each event.

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4. Hardy Weinberg
a. (15 pts) List five evolutionary mechanisms that can cause a population to deviate
from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
Natural selection
Genetic drift
Gene flow
Mutation
Sexual selection
3 pts each

b. (8 pts) Name the non-evolutionary mechanism that can cause a deviation from
Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. How can it cause a deviation from Hardy-Weinberg
Equilibrium and not be an evolutionary mechanism?
Inbreeding. Inbreeding causes an increase in homozygosity. Therefore it
skews genotype frequencies. However, it does not by itself change allele
frequencies. For evolution to occur, a change in allele frequency must
occur.
2 pts for inbreeding. 3 points for increase in homozygosity. 3 pts for
noting it does not change allele frequency and therefore does not cause
evolution.

5. (8 pts) Name and describe two essential elements of a good experimental design.
Any two of the following (4 pts each):
Replication: The experiment is repeated across several units.
Controls: A test group identical to the treatment except for the factor
being studied or other key elements of the procedure.
Repeatability (or repetition): The ability to repeat the experiment and
get similar results.

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