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Question 01

From what refugia did animals recolonize Europe after the last Ice Age?

a) France and Switzerland

b) Sicily and Sardinia

c) Spain, Italy, and the Balkans

d) Anatolia and Crete

Question 02

What feature of the human mitochondrial tree suggests that Homo sapiens originated in Africa?

a) Human mitochondria from Africa are more closely related to Homo erectus mitochondria than other human mitochondria.

b) Human mitochondria are less diverse in Africa than elsewhere.

c) Human mitochondrial DNA is highly diverse within Africa and Africa contains the oldest coalescent.

d) Human mitochondrial DNA outside Africa is monomorphic.

Question 03

What can we conclude from the observation that all human mitochondria are descended from one female who lived roughly 200,000 years ago?

a) All humans are descended from a very small population, less than 10 individuals.

b) All humans are descended from a single female.

c) The only interesting part of the statement is the age estimate, and it is very inaccurate.

d) Homo sapiens originated 200,000 years ago.

Question 04

What does the transspecies polymorphism in MHC alleles that we share with chimpanzees tell us?

a) That the immune system in humans and chimpanzees functions with similar principles.

b) That human population sizes must never have been much smaller than about 10,000 since the split with chimpanzees.

c) That humans and chimpanzees suffer exactly the same diseases.

d) That humans and chimpanzees belong to the same species.

Question 05

The geological evidence (the age of the rocks) tells us that the Hawaiian Islands:

a) are all 5 million years old.

b) were once connected to Central America.

c) formed in the northwest and moved to the southeast.

d) formed in the southeast (now youngest) and moved to the northwest (now oldest).

Question 06

Arthropods in Hawaii colonized islands:

a) arom oldest to youngest.

b) at random.

c) from the surrounding continents, each island separately.

d) from Micronesia.

Question 07

What can we conclude from the fact that carnivores arrived in Madagascar about 40 million years later than primates, who arrived about 20 million years after Madagascar separated from Africa?

a) That Madagascar was connected to Africa by a land bridge for at least 60 million years.

b) That Madagascar was isolated by deep water and dispersal of mammals from Africa to Madagascar was quite rare.

c) That carnivores originated after primates.

d) That primates are better swimmers than carnivores.

Question 08

Which of the following statement is correct?

a) The Tethys Sea formed along the north coast of Antarctica and Australia about 200 million years ago.

b) The Tethys Sea formed between South America and Africa about 100 million years ago and was the predecessor of the Atlantic.

c) The Tethys Sea formed along the south coast of Europe 300 million years ago but was rapidly erased by continental drift.

d) The Tethys Sea formed along the south coast of Laurasia (North America + Eurasia) about 200 million years ago and persisted in the east for nearly 180 million years.

Question 09

If a plant clade dispersed primarily along the margins of the Tethys Sea, then we would expect to find representatives of it in which regions?

a) China, Japan, and Western North America.

b) Europe, China, and Western North America.

c) China, Europe, and Eastern North America.

d) Europe and Western North America.

Question 10

We think that ectoparasitic hymenoptera evolved from endoparasitic hymenopotera because:

a) it makes logical sense; it could not have been otherwise.

b) the phylogenetic tree shows that the endoparasitic condition was probably ancestral.

c) it takes more evolutionary change to produce an ectoparasite than an endoparasite from a free-living ancestor.

d) the cytoplasmic parasites of hymenoptera have a phylogenetic tree that suggests this scenario.

Question 11

The phylogeny of carnivorous plants shows us that:

a) all pitcher plants belong to a single clade.

b) all flypaper plants belong to a single clade, as Darwin thought.

c) all pitcher plants are derived from one flypaper clade.

d) pitcher plants originated several times, independently, from flypaper ancestor, converging on the same morphology.

Question 12

The concept of ecomorph as applied to Anolis lizards in the Caribbean refers to:

a) different morphologies in similar habitats.

b) similar morphologies in different habitats on the same island.

c) different morphologies on different islands.

d) similar morphologies in similar habitats on several different islands.

Question 13

To investigate the phylogeography of ecomorphs, it is essential that:

a) ecomorphs be defined as clades.

b) ecomorphs be defined independently of clades.

c) morphology be used to define relationships.

d) ecology be used to define relationships.

Question 14

What is the most interesting conclusion from this Caribbean Anole study?

a) The same series of ecomorphs evolved on different islands from different ancestors.

b) Different ecomorphs evolved on the same island from different ancestors.

c) The same ecomorph evolved on different islands.

d) Different ecomorphs evolved on different islands from different ancestors.

Question 15

The key insight of the method of independent contrasts is that:

a) each species is an independent sample.

b) each genus is an independent sample.

c) changes that occur in one clade are independent of changes that occur in another clade.

d) clades are independent samples.

Question 16

Light-demanding species have similar sized seeds to their shade-tolerant congeners, but shade-tolerant genera have larger seeds than their light-demanding confamiials. What does this suggest?

a) Seed size evolves rapidly in response to shading.

b) Seed size evolves at about the same rate as the difference suggested by the generic distinction.

c) Seed size evolves very slowly.

d) Seed size is unrelated to habitat.

Question 17

Would Hoffmann and Franco have designed their experiment on 9 congeneric pairs of forest and savannah plant species as they did before Felsenstein published his insight into independent contrasts?

a) Yes, the experimental design is the obvious one to use.

b) No, they would probably have used more species and fewer genera.

c) No, people did not understand how to deal with the confounding effects of ancestry before the method of independent contrasts was explained.

d) Yes, because Felsenstein just formalized what everyone knew informally.

Question 18

Why might we expect mate fidelity to be correlation with life expectancy?

a) Because the same ecological conditions that select for long life select for mate fidelilty.

b) Because long life selects for a good memory in general, and a good memory allows one to recognize a previous mate.

c) Because only long-lived organisms mate many times.

d) Because mating is complex, individuals differ in mating and nesting abilities, long-lived species mate many times, and mate fidelity allows individuals with good memories to adjust to and compensate for the peculiarities of their partners.

Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 14.

Chapter 14

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