Chapter 5 - Evolution & Community Ecology

A reintroduced population of wolves in a national park is 90 percent grey and 10 percent black, consistent with the wolf population in other regions. After several generations in isolation, the national park’s wolf population is 60 percent grey and 40 percent black. The wolf population has likely experienced

• natural selection.
• genetic drift.
• mutations.
• migration.

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In Madagascar, several species of lemur eat bamboo, but each species specializes in one part of the bamboo—one species eats mature bamboo stalks, one species eats bamboo shoots, and one species eats leaves. This is an example of

• speciation.
• resource partitioning.
• competition.
• niche partitioning.

Which best describes evolutionary success?

• A successful organism possesses adaptive traits and is able to pass those traits on to numerous offspring which then reproduce.
• A successful organism possesses traits that are different from traits in the rest of the population and that allow the organism to compete more successfully.
• A successful organism produces more offspring than others in the population.
• A successful organism possesses adaptive traits and produces more offspring than survive.

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Around 65 million years ago, 95 percent of the planet’s species were wiped out, and the age of the dinosaurs ended. Which of the following best explains why we still have numerous species today?

• The species that exist today were those that were not wiped out when the dinosaurs died.
• The species that exist today evolved from surviving species to fill niches left vacant by the dinosaurs.
• The species that exist today speciated due to separation among different populations.
• The species that exist today have the potential to be as numerous as the ones that went extinct.

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Which of the following best describes a successful individual in evolutionary terms?

• A successful individual possesses traits that are different from the traits of the rest of the population.
• A successful individual produces many offspring that possess unique traits.
• A successful individual is well adapted to its environment and produces offspring that survive to pass on genes.
• A successful individual will be well adapted to its environment and produce a few high quality offspring.

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Two species of finch live in the same environment. Over time, one develops a larger beak to consume larger seeds, while the other develops a narrow beak to consume more delicate seeds. This is an example of

• resource partitioning.
• character displacement.
• coevolution.
• competitive exclusion.

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In the western United States, at the southern edge of their range, moose are sometimes so severely infested with ticks that they die. The tick/moose relationship is best described as

• predatory.
• parasitic.
• symbiotic.
• mutualistic.

A beehive depends on pollen from flowers to survive. Flowers depend on bees to pollinate them. Humans tend bee hives, offering the bees a place to live in exchange for some of their honey. The relationship among these three sets of organisms is

• parasitic.
• commensalist.
• symbiotic.
• mutualistic.

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The ultimate source of energy in an ecosystem in which deer eat grass and coyotes eat deer is

• the grass.
• the sun.
• the deer.
• chemosynthesis.

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In a food web that consists of grass, mice, deer, coyotes, and hawks, which species is likely to have the greatest biomass?

• grass
• mice
• coyotes
• hawks