Anchor 7 - Theory of Evolution

Which statement provides the best scientific evidence that chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys come from a common ancestor?

• They live in similar habitats.

• They exhibit similar behaviors.

• They have similar nutritional needs.

• They have similar genetic sequences.

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Cactus plants, which grow in deserts, have a thick waxy coating that helps prevent water loss. The sharp spines of the plant provide protection from predators.

Which statement best explains why cactus plants evolved to have these traits?

• The genes of individual cactus plants mutated to develop these traits.

• Individual cactus plants developed these traits to fill an environmental niche.

• Cactus plants with these traits were better able than other cactus plants to interbreed with invasive species.

• Cactus plants with these traits were better able than other cactus plants to survive and pass these traits on to their offspring.

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Cytochrome c is a protein needed for aerobic cellular respiration. It is found in nearly all organisms. The amino acid sequence of cytochrome c can be different in different organisms.

The table below shows the number of differences observed when the amino acid sequences of cytochrome c in different organisms are compared.

Which of the following conclusions is best supported by this data?

• Snakes are more closely related to silk moths than to chickens.

• Chickens and snakes evolved more recently than horses or whales.

• Whales and penguins evolved more recently than any of the other organisms.

• Horses and whales are more closely related to each other than they are to other pairs of organisms.

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Sperm whales have vestigial hip bones. A small percentage of sperm whales also have vestigial hind limbs. Which statement best explains the presence of these vestigial structures in sperm whales?

• Sperm whales evolved from ancestors that walked on land.

• Sperm whales are in the process of evolving into land mammals.

• These structures are acquired by each individual sperm whale during its lifetime.

• These structures resulted from sperm whales having a long period of embryonic development.

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The diagram below represents several undisturbed rock layers and the fossils they contain.

According to this fossil record, which of the following organisms became extinct first?

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Walking sticks are insects that live on plants. In one walking stick species, the insects may have either a striped body or a body without stripes. In a region where these walking sticks live, the dominant vegetation is a plant with needle-like leaves that resemble the walking stick’s striped body.

According to natural selection, which of the following is the most likely result if there are large numbers of walking stick predators in the region?

• Walking sticks without stripes will reproduce faster.

• Walking sticks with stripes will become more common.

• Walking sticks will develop a new, spotted pattern for their bodies.

• Walking sticks will live on rare plant species rather than the dominant species.

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The pictures below show three plant species that look similar.

Which type of evidence would best determine whether the species are recently descended from a common ancestor?

• DNA sequences

• flowering times

• habitat distributions

• fossil record

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A scientist observes two butterflies with similar wing patterns. Which of the following observations would best show that the two butterflies belong to the same species?

• The butterflies share a habitat.

• The butterflies pollinate the same flowers.

• The butterflies mate with each other and produce fertile offspring.

• The butterflies make a chrysalis and not a cocoon for metamorphosis.

Insects that are camouflaged in their environment are less likely to be eaten by birds. The graph below shows the distribution of body color in a population of an insect species.

The insects live on trees. A black fungus begins to grow on the trees where the insects live.

Which of the following graphs shows the most likely distribution of body color in the insect population after several years of fungus growth?

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Which is true about random mutations?

• They are always negative

• They are always positive

• They remove variation from a population

• They introduce new variation into a population

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