Self-Assessment Questions

Question 1

How do we know SARS-CoV-2 spread to humans from other mammals?
a. The family tree of this and other coronaviruses shows that it is closely related to viruses carried by several other mammals.
b. The first infected people said they had been bitten by raccoon dogs or bats.
c. There is no other possible source of the virus.

Answer 1

a. The family tree of this and other coronaviruses shows that it is closely related to viruses carried by several other mammals.

Question 2

If one strain lineage of virus consistently has more descendants than another because it spreads to more hosts, it becomes more common. This process is called
a. evolution by mutation.
b. evolution by genetic drift.
c. evolution by natural selection.

Answer 2

c. evolution by natural selection.

Question 3

How do we know SARS-CoV-2 spread to humans from other mammals?
a. The family tree of this and other coronaviruses shows that it is closely related to viruses carried by several other mammals.
b. The first infected people said they had been bitten by raccoon dogs or bats.
c. There is no other possible source of the virus

Answer 3

a. The family tree of this and other coronaviruses shows that it is closely related to viruses carried by several other mammals.

Question 4

Unlike quadrupedal apes, (walking on four limbs), humans are bipedal (walking on two). This change may have evolved because it enabled running and pursuing prey in open, grassy habitats (see Chapter 20.) This hypothesis describes the
a. proximate cause of bipedal locomotion in humans.
b. ultimate cause of bipedal locomotion in humans.

Answer 4

b. ultimate cause of bipedal locomotion in humans.

Question 5

A scientific theory is
a. a speculation.
b. a well-supported description of the causes and processes that explain diverse observations.
c. a proven fact.

Answer 5

b. a well-supported description of the causes and processes that explain diverse observations.

Question 6

A scientific fact is
a. something scientists believe, but other people don’t.
b. a statement that is known to be absolutely true.
c. a statement about the natural world that has so much evidence we can accept it as true.

Answer 6

c. a statement about the natural world that has so much evidence we can accept it as true.

Question 7

Which author inspired Darwin to think of natural selection?
a. Alfred Russel Wallace
b. Plato
c. Thomas Malthus

Question 8

Alfred Russel Wallace independently had the idea of
a. evolution.
b. natural selection.
c. genetic mutations.

Question 9

What did Darwin mean by “descent with modification”?
a. inheritance of acquired characteristics
b. natural selection
c. evolution.

Question 10

Which of these was Darwin’s, and Wallace’s, most original concept?
a. particulate inheritance
b. natural selection
c. evolution.

Question 11

Darwin’s postulate of populational change contrasts with
a. the origin of new species from a single mutated individual.
b. inheritance of acquired characteristics.
c. both.

Question 12

The Lamarckian concept of inheritance of acquired characteristics is today viewed as
a. a real but uncommon mode of evolution.
b. a hypothesis that needs to be considered in any study of evolutionary change.
c. wrong.

Question 13

The authors of the evolutionary synthesis persuasively argued that evolution is caused mostly by
a. natural selection.
b. mutation.
c. mutation and natural selection.

Question 14

The authors of the evolutionary synthesis persuasively argued that evolution is caused mostly by
a. natural selection.
b. mutation.
c. mutation and natural selection.

Question 15

The method of testing hypotheses by comparing their predictions against data is
a. unreliable, because sometimes the predictions are not supported.
b. used throughout diverse areas of science.
c. unique to evolutionary biology.

Question 16

In order to be successful, biological science must assume that
a. what is natural is good.
b. only natural causes operate.
c evolution strives toward complexity.