Exam 4 - Paleobiology, Human Evolution, Population Ecology, Community Ecology, Biodiversity, & Animal Behaivor Flashcards
Mammals evolved from a major lineage of amniotes called synapsids.
True
Microtektites represent:
part of the debris associated with an asteroid impact
Which of these examples is not an atavism?
a platypus laying an egg
In the evolution of the tetrapod limb, the stylopod element evolved before the autopod element.
True
The external gills on the Mexican axolotl are an example of peramorphosis.
False
Three of the major characteristics of placental mammals are hair, mammary glands, and live births. Of the three, mammary glands evolved last.
False
Mousterian stone tools are associated with:
Neanderthals
Sphecomyrma is a transitional fossil in the evolution of:
ants
The species represented by “Turkana boy” was fully bipedal and lived approximately:
1.6 to 1.8 million years ago
Which combination of characters best describes the genus Paranthropus:
small brain, very large teeth, facultative bipedalism
Deliberately shaped or flaked stone tools have been made by various Homo species:
since about 40,000 years ago
Which of these traits is most strongly associated with the evolution of bipedal locomotion and upright posture?
a downward repositioning of the foramen magnum
The net replacement rate, R0, is calculated as:
the sum of age-specific survival times age-specific fecundity for each age class
A factor that regulates a population is generally one that:
acts in a positively density-dependent way
Which of the following is not evidence of an asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous?
shocked quartz
a crater 180 km wide
these are all evidence of an asteroid impact
an enriched iridium layer
a crater dated to be about 200 million years old
a crater dated to be about 200 million years old (its 64 million)
All anthropoids have stereoscopic, trichromatic color vision.
False
Pisaster sea stars were considered a keystone species because:
their removal greatly reduced species diversity
Which term represents the gathering of vital statistics to determine population growth?
demography
What single factor accounts for most of the variation in skin pigmentation among indigenous peoples around the world?
ambient ultraviolet radiation
Which of the following organisms is the closest relative of the gibbon?
human
The logistic model of population growth predicts that, as N increases and gets closer to K:
none of these answers is correct
A population will grow if its net replacement rate, R0, is greater than zero.
False
A survivorship curve that first rises steeply and then drops at later ages is:
impossible
The sum total of an organism’s interaction with the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment would represent its:
niche
Which transitional fossil helps to illustrate the gradual evolution of the tetrapod limb?
Tiktaalik
What are the typical coalescent times of total genetic diversity in the global human population?
250,000 years
Based on the following life table, this population:
Age class lx mx
0-1 1.0 0
1-2 0.3 1
2-3 0.2 3
3-4 0.1 1
is stable
The fundamental niche must be bigger or the same size as the realized niche.
True
Certain mite species feed on nectar and are transported from flower to flower via the nostrils of hummingbirds. Because mites neither harm nor benefit hummingbirds, this interaction is described as:
Commensalism
Place these transitional fossils in the correct temporal order, from oldest (earliest) to youngest. Remember what each one represents:
Acanthostega, Morganucadon, Basilosaurus, Ardipithecus
