Human Evolution
Mock Exam
Course Introduction
Human Evolution is a comprehensive course that explores the biological and cultural development of Homo sapiens from our earliest primate ancestors to modern humans. Through the examination of fossil evidence, genetic data, and archaeological discoveries, students will investigate the processes of natural selection, adaptation, and speciation that have shaped our lineage. The course also delves into the evolution of bipedalism, brain development, language, tool use, and societal organization, providing insights into how environmental and social factors influenced human evolution. By tracing the origins and migrations of ancient populations, this course provides a deeper understanding of what it means to be human from both a scientific and anthropological perspective.
Recommended Textbook
Evolution 1st Edition by Carl T. Bergstrom
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Chapter 1: An Overview of Evolutionary Biology
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Q1) Each time a species goes extinct
A)there are evolutionary consequences.
B)part of the evolutionary history of life on Earth is lost.
C)a twig on the tree of life is lost forever.
D)All of the above
Answer: D
Q2) The study of evolutionary biology has influenced the techniques used by the health and livestock industries in which of the following ways?
A)Physicians often prescribe antibiotics in combination.
B)Livestock producers have entirely eliminated the use of antibiotics in animal feed.
C)Pharmaceutical companies now recommend that physicians prescribe the highest safely tolerated doses of new antibiotics.
D)A and C
E)All of the above
Answer: A
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3
Chapter 2: Early Evolutionary Ideas and Darwins Insight
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Q1) Greek philosophers,including Aristotle,developed a keen appreciation for the study of natural history.Which of the following contributions to the study of natural history did Aristotle make?
A)His book, Physics and Natural History of Animals
B)Distinguishing among 500 species of birds, mammals, and fishes
C)Proposing a taxonomy of nature-a classification system of life
D)All of the above
Answer: D
Q2) After Aristotle,one advance in scientific methodology came through the use of logic.This allowed thinkers to
A)formulate and test hypotheses based on evidence.
B)recognize the significance of testing one's hypotheses.
C)move carefully from facts to general principles.
D)B and C
E)All of the above
Answer: C
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4
Chapter 3: Natural Selection
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Q1) The results of the Lenski and Travisano experiment on cells in 12 replicate lines of E.coli illustrate the fact that
A)evolution by natural selection is sometimes significantly affected by chance events, such as random mutations, and the order in which they happen.
B)evolution by natural selection is often a predictable, repeatable process.
C)A and B
D)None of the above
Answer: C
Q2) Natural selection is a process by which
A)the characteristics of individuals change over time.
B)the characteristics of populations change over time.
C)Both of the above
D)None of the above
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Phylogeny and Evolutionary History
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Q1) Which of the following statements about pedigrees and phylogenies is true?
A)Both show the splitting and the recombining of branches or lineages over time.
B)A pedigree tells us about the ancestry of individuals, whereas most phylogenies tell us about the ancestry of populations.
C)Both expand as one looks backward in time.
D)All of the above
Q2) A trait that is similar in one or more species even though it was not present in their common ancestor is called a A)homology.
B)synapomorphy.
C)homoplasy.
D)symplesiomorphy.
Q3) Consider a population in which the coat color of a population or species changes from light to dark over evolutionary time.Using this example,draw an evolutionary tree to illustrate each of the following evolutionary conditions:
A.A derived trait
B.A homoplasy
C.A symplesiomorphy
Q4) What are the differences between rooted and unrooted phylogenetic trees?
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Chapter 5: Inferring Phylogeny
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Q1) How many different unrooted tree arrangements are possible for a phylogenetic tree relating four species?
A)Three
B)Four
C)Two
D)Seven
Q2) Why do some evolutionary biologists have philosophical concerns about using distance methods to construct evolutionary trees?
Q3) Does the Fitch algorithm indicate the most likely character states for the ancestral node?
Q4) Bootstrap resampling
A)can be used with any technique for phylogenetic inference.
B)can only be used with the model-based frameworks of maximum likelihood or Bayesian inference.
C)does not yield statistical significance levels.
D)is used to determine the minimum number of character changes necessary to explain a given tree.
E)A and C
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Chapter 6: Transmission Genetics and the Sources of
Genetic Variation
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Q1) By what process does the cell construct proteins from RNA sequences?
A)Transcription
B)Hydrogen bonds
C)Splicing
D)Translation
E)Crossing-over
Q2) What protein is used to organize DNA within a chromosome?
Q3) Mendel's law of segregation states that
A)each diploid individual has two copies of every gene.
B)only one copy of each gene is found in a gamete.
C)traits from each parent are permanently blended in offspring.
D)A and B
E)None of the above
Q4) In a _________ mutation,part of a chromosome is transferred to a nonhomologous chromosome.
A)deletion
B)inversion
C)translocation
D)fission
E)fusion
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Chapter 7: The Genetics of Populations
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Q1) Consider a diploid population in which a single locus has only two alleles,A and A ,whose respective allele frequencies equal p and q.The summation of p+q would equal
A)0.25
B)0.5
C)1
D)1.5
E)2
Q2) Pacific salmon hatch in streams and grow up out in the Pacific Ocean.At the end of their life,they mate once then die.Assuming that not all salmon survive life in the ocean and that those who do survive produce equal numbers of offspring,this would be an example of _________ selection.
Q3) Consider a human illness in which individuals homozygous for a deleterious,recessive allele suffer from a disease with a selection coefficient of s = 0.85 (i.e.,a relative fitness of 0.15).At equilibrium,the nondeleterious allele has a population frequency of 0.95.What is the mutation rate from the healthy allele to the deleterious allele?
Q4) Name three predictions generated from the Hardy-Weinberg model.
Q5) List five assumptions of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
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Chapter 8: Evolution in Finite Populations
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Q1) Greater prairie chickens,large birds related to grouse,once maintained population sizes of hundreds of thousands on the North American Great Plains.As more and more of the native grassland was converted to farms,the number of greater prairie chickens declined,and the species nearly went extinct due to loss of habitat.Assume that a locus segregating for two alleles,A and a,each with a frequency of 0.5,existed in greater prairie chickens before the reduction of habitat.Further,assume that this species was fragmented into genetically isolated populations,containing very limited numbers of individuals.What effect on allele frequencies would one expect to find in the greater prairie chicken populations after the losses and fragmentation of habitat?
Q2) Population bottlenecks occur when
A)a large number of genetically diverse individuals found a new population.
B)population size dramatically increases.
C)a consistently large population experiences a brief period of small size.
D)drift in consistently small populations become fixed for a single allele.
E)inbreeding is high.
Q3) How are the neutral theory of molecular evolution and the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium similar?
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Chapter 9: Evolution at Multiple Loci
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Q1) Consider two loci (A,B)each with two alleles (Aa,Bb).The frequency (f)of A is known to be 0.3,the frequency (f)of b is known to be 0.25,and the coefficient of linkage disequilibrium (D)between loci A and B is known to be 0.15.What is the expected haplotype frequency of h B? Please show your work.
Q2) Which of the following can generate linkage disequilibrium?
A)Drift
B)Selection
C)Mutation
D)Migration
E)All of the above
Q3) Consider a population with two loci (A,B),each with two alleles (A,a; B,b).What are the haplotype frequencies in this population if the allele frequencies are A = 0.5,a = 0.5,B = 0.7,b = 0.3?
A)AB = 0.35, Ab = 0.15, aB = 0.35, ab = 0.15
B)AB = 0.45, Ab = 0.05, aB = 0.25, ab = 0.25
C)AB = 0.4, Ab = 0.1, aB = 0.3, ab = 0.2
D)AB = 0.125, Ab = 0.25, aB = 0.25, ab = 0.125
E)Cannot be determined based on the information provided
Q4) Explain why a population may never reach its most fit phenotype.
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Chapter 10: Genome Evolution
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Q1) Factors that contribute to overall genome size include
A)small genetic elements capable of self-catalyzing their movement.
B)selection on cell size.
C)selection on replication speed.
D)A and B
E)All of the above
Q2) Eukaryotic genome size is
A)tightly correlated with organismal complexity.
B)not well correlated with organismal complexity.
C)largest in humans.
D)typically smaller than prokaryotic genome size
E)approximately the same in all eukaryotes.
Q3) GC content refers to
A)the G-value paradox.
B)the C-value paradox.
C)the fraction of G and C nucleotides in the genome.
D)A and B
E)All of the above
Q4) What are transcription factors and how do they address the G-value paradox?
Q5) Why are transposons considered selfish genetic elements?
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Chapter 11: The Origin and Evolution of Early Life
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Q1) Deletion experiments of E.coli have determined the minimal set of metabolic pathways.When these pathways were compared to a closely related species,W.glossinidia,an endosymbiotic organism that obtains resources from its host,researchers found that
A)the gene sets match perfectly.
B)E. coli was more specialized and had fewer metabolic pathways.
C)W. glossinidia had fewer metabolic pathways.
D)the genomes were not comparable.
Q2) Which of the following is not a hypothesis for the origin of viruses?
A)Viruses are escaped selfish genetic elements.
B)Viruses are the remnants of parasitic cellular organisms, selected for reduced size.
C)Viruses are relics of the RNA world.
D)Viruses are escaped genes from modern genetic engineering experiments.
Q3) Ribozymes are
A)capable of replicating RNA.
B)capable of copying RNA into DNA.
C)proteins.
D)RNA enzymes.
Q4) Why can't we use modern atmospheric conditions to infer the origin of life?
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Chapter 12: Major Transitions
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Q1) Charles and Mary Brown have proposed that one reason cliff swallows live in colonies is that colonies serve as information centers.As a bird returns to its nest with food,other adults can observe the prey caught and follow the bird to where it is foraging,thereby increasing individual foraging success.This fits with which of Maynard Smith and Szathmary's processes of major transitions?
A)Economies of scale
B)Sacrifice of the ability to reproduce
C)Information transfer
D)The evolution of developmental complexity
Q2) Which of the following is not a reason that volvocine algae are ideal for studying the evolution of individuality?
A)They transitioned to multicellularity relatively recently.
B)Within the group, there are multiple, separate transitions to germ and soma lines.
C)The group exhibits extensive variation in their degree of multicellularity.
D)They readily form aggregate slugs.
Q3) Why does genetic imprinting inhibit parthenogenesis?
Q4) What are apicoplasts,and what is the advantage of using them as a drug target for the treatment of malaria?
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Chapter 13: Evolution and Development
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Q1) The idea that life evolves from simple to complex began with A)Darwin.
B)William Bateson.
C)the ancient Greeks.
D)J. F. Meckel.
E)Etienne Serres.
Q2) Although many human characters are neotenous compared to a chimpanzee,head growth is not.In the fetus of both species,brain and head growth start at approximately the same developmental stage and progress at the same rate.Soon after birth,chimpanzee brain and head growth stops.Human brain and head growth continues for several years after birth.Thus,relative to head growth,reproduction is occurring at a later stage.Assuming that chimpanzees represent the ancestral condition,explain what type of heterochrony humans have in brain development.
Q3) Crabs have claws on their front legs and many sets of walking legs (which lack claws)on segments posterior to the claws.Crabs can regenerate legs if they are lost.A walking leg was removed and tissue from the claw was transplanted onto the stump.If homeobox genes are responsible for the differentiation of leg types,what would you predict would happen to the stump? What might be an analogous experiment from the chapter?
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Chapter 14: Species and Speciation
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Q1) In the past,many hominins coexisted,such as Paranthropus robustus and Paranthropus boisei.Imagine that these species were not prezygotically isolated and occasionally formed hybrids.Why might sterility or inviability of hybrids be limited to one sex? In which sex would this occur,and what pattern does this represent?
Q2) Hybrids with chromosomal inversions often have A)a doubling of chromosomes.
B)superior environmental performance across a cline. C)dysfunctional gametes. D)speciated.
Q3) Host specificity of Rhagoletis pomonella reduces gene flow between the apple and hawthorn races by 4% to 6% in each generation.This is an example of A)allopatric speciation.
B)assortative mating.
C)secondary contact.
D)resource competition.
Q4) How does the evolutionary species concept differ from the phylogenetic species concept?
Q5) How can reproductive isolation in plants be mediated through pollinators?
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Chapter 15: Extinction and Evolutionary Trends
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Q1) Describe how mean and variance of a trait value change in the absence of an evolutionary trend as a lineage diversifies.Use +,-,or = to indicate an increase,a decrease,or no change,respectively.You can use one,two,or all of the symbols to describe the possible changes in both mean and variance.Mean: Variance:
Q2) The earliest Homo sapiens fossils are about 200,000 years old.Could you use radiocarbon dating to determine the age of fossils from that period? Briefly justify your answer.
Q3) The probability of extinction via predation is particularly high when
A)predator and prey have coevolved over long periods of time.
B)prey populations are stressed by additional environmental factors.
C)predators are a new arrival to the prey's habitat.
D)the prey species is long lived and has a low birthrate.
E)B, C, and D
Q4) What is a sink population?
A)A large panmictic population comprising all members of a species
B)A metapopulation
C)A local population that would likely decline to extinction without immigration
D)A local population in which emigration rate exceeds immigration rate
E)A and B
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Chapter 16: The Evolution of Sex
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Q1) What are coadapted gene complexes?
A)Genes that are located on the same chromosome
B)Codominant alleles
C)Favorable combinations of alleles at different loci
D)Any epistatic interaction between different loci
E)A and C
Q2) Why is the cost of sex sometimes referred to as the "cost of males"?
A)Males do not contribute genes to the next generation.
B)Males do not produce new offspring.
C)With finite resources, males take the place of offspring-producing females.
D)Sperm cells do not contribute any substantial energy resources to the eggs they fertilize.
E)B, C, and D
Q3) What are the two immediate benefits to sexual reproduction in unpredictable environments,according to Kondrashov?
Q4) You catalog all obligate asexual species within a family of insects and notice that asexual species are rare,and they are all members of genera that consist predominantly of sexual species.You conclude that the asexual species tend to be short lived.Why?
Q5) Why do pathogens tend to evolve faster than their hosts?
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Chapter 17: Sexual Selection
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Q1) Consider a group of closely related species that vary in the average number of males a single female will mate with.Given the results of studies from the literature,which of the following patterns of sperm competition would you expect to see in each of the species?
A)Sperm competition will show a positive relationship to the number of males per female.
B)Sperm competition will show a negative relationship to the number of males per female.
C)Sperm competition will show no relationship to the number of males per female.
D)Cannot predict based on the information provided
Q2) To study sperm competition in beetles,you sample a population that is effectively monogamous,as chances of meeting more than one mating partner in nature are extremely low.In the lab,you pair multiple individuals to create a polygamous mating system,but you also maintain a monogamous control line.Would you expect sperm competition in the polygamous line to increase,decrease,or remain the same relative to the monogamous control line (assuming there was heritable variance for this trait in the population)?
Q3) Why is there a correlation between testis size and sperm competition in beetles?
Q4) What are the four major models of the evolution of female mate preferences?
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Chapter 18: The Evolution of Sociality
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Q1) In an analysis of independent contrast,researchers found that fetuses in polyandrous species of primates had faster growth rates than those in monogamous species.What did the researchers conclude from these results?
A)Fetuses develop faster to "make room" for offspring from a different male.
B)Extracting more resources from the mother maximizes offsprings' inclusive fitness in polyandrous species.
C)Fast fetal growth rates are always optimal.
D)Fetal growth rates represent phylogenetic constraints and are unrelated to mating systems.
Q2) Imagine you are studying horns in male deer,and you hypothesize that horns are costly honest signals that help to prevent male fights.What three predictions should you use to test your hypothesis?
Q3) Assume that the cost of fighting is four times greater than the benefit gained from the resource that is being fought over.What is the probability with which an individual should play dove in the mixed Nash equilibrium of the hawk-dove game?
Q4) Name the three familial conflicts.
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Chapter 19: Coevolution
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Q1) Which of the following is a difference between genetic and cultural transmission?
A)Only cultural transmission involves the transfer of information.
B)Only genetic transmission is prone to errors (mutations).
C)Cultural transmission can work both vertically and horizontally.
D)None of the above
Q2) When researchers examined the effects of withholding nitrogen from Bradyrhizobium japonicum,they used a "split root" treatment in which half of a soybean plant's root mass received gaseous nitrogen,whereas the other half did not.Why did the researchers use this split root treatment?
A)They were economizing on experimental soybean plants.
B)They were testing whether different parts of the root react differently to the absence of nitrogen.
C)They were testing the range of nitrogen in which soybean plants can thrive.
D)They were testing whether the potential "retaliation" against cheating symbionts was specific to root nodules that did not fix nitrogen.
Q3) How can cultural transmission of male songs facilitate the early stages of species formation in Darwin's finches?
Q4) Define "obligate mutualism" in one sentence.
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Chapter 20: Evolution and Medicine
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Q1) What two main factors are responsible for the asymmetry in the coevolutionary arms race between microbial pathogens and their multicellular hosts?
Q2) Ask a question about fever at each of Tinbergen's four levels (1,2,3,and 4)of explanation.Limit your answer to one sentence for each level.
Q3) Which of the following is an example of a trade-off imposed on an organism that results in a medical problem?
A)Patients who became infected by a novel flu strain had had no previous exposure to that particular strain.
B)Sturdier bones would prevent fractures but would also slow down organisms mobility.
C)The crossing of air and food pathways in humans increases the risk of choking.
D)Recent changes in human diet contribute to metabolic diseases.
Q4) Many wild mushrooms make delicious food,but some are highly toxic and can result in a fatal meal.Apply the principle of asymmetric harm to mushroom identification,and recommend a strategy for mushroom identifiers.
Q5) What combination of the characteristics of Huntington's disease puzzled J.B.S.Haldane?
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