BIO 182 Practice Exam 1 

1. This group includes the common ancestor and some, but not all, of the ancestor’s descendants:
a. Monophyletic b. Polyphyletic c. Molyphyletic d. Paraphyletic

2. ____ invented nested taxa, which for animals in order of least specific to most specific are ____?
a. Darwin…….domain, phylum, order, family, species, kingdom, genus
b. Freud…….. genus, kingdom, species, family, order, phylum, domain
c. Linnaeus…..kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
d. Rutherford…species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom

3. ______ have become the most widely used data for constructing phylogenetic trees:
a. DNA sequences b. Fossils c. Half lives d. Carbon dating

4. Which of the following is NOT an example that Darwin knew the earth had changed?
a. Volcanoes b. Climate change c. no change in species d. extinction of species

5. There is a mysterious disease running through a family. The grandfather is affected, his son and
daughter are not, but one of his grandsons is also affected. Based on this information, choose the
best possible explanation of this disease:
a. Dominant, autosomal b. Dominant, sex-linked
c. Recessive, autosomal d. Recessive, sex-linked

6. Incomplete dominance is when…

a. A heterozygote has an intermediate phenotype b. The alleles are both recessive
c. Both phenotypes are present in a heterozygote d. The alleles are both dominant

7. The SRY gene is the sex determining region on the Y chromosome. If SRY protein is present, the
embryo develops _____. If there is no SRY, the embryo develops _____.
a. A Y chromosome/an X chromosome b. Testes/Ovaries
c. An X chromosome/a Y chromosome d. Ovaries/Testes

8. According to ____ Law of Superposition, horizontal layers of rock represent a time sequence of
____ layers on the bottom and ____ layers on the top.
a. Cuvier, oldest, youngest b. Steno, oldest, youngest
c. Smith, youngest, oldest d. Linnaeus, youngest, oldest

9. ____ studied fossils and established extinction as a fact:

a. Cuvier b. Steno c. Smith d. Linnaeus

10. The early atmosphere probably contained ______ since there were only prokaryotes, but today
now that eukaryotes exist the atmosphere contains ______.
a. little free O2, lots of free O2 b. little H2O, lots of H2O
c. little free 12C, lots of free 12C d. little CO2, lots of CO2

11. During the Precambrian Era, specifically the _____ Period, there was: O2 buildup, extinction of
many bacterial groups, expansion of many eukaryotes, and first animals appear.
a. Venadian b. Archaean c. Proterozoic d. Hadean
12. _____ all occurred during the Mesozoic era, but early dinosaurs appeared in the ____ period
a. Permian, Carboniferous, Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician….. Carboniferous
b. Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic….. Triassic
c. Tertiary, Quaternary…..Quaternary
d. Permian, Carboniferous, Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician…..Ordovician

13. What was the cause for the K-T boundary mass extinction?
a. Oxygen depletion b. Pangaea c. Glaciation d. Meteor impact

14. Charles Darwin proposed the idea of Natural Selection, meaning that individual people change
over time.
a. True b. False

15. Choose AS MANY THAT APPLY to best sum up Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium:
a. Random mating b. Large populations c. Gene flow d. Mutations
e. Natural selection affects the survival of genotypes
f. Populations in nature always fit Hardy Weinberg conditions

16. The following two scenarios are examples of _______? “Greater Prairie Chickens in Illinois were
reduced to about 50 birds in the 1990’s.” “California Fan Palms are now restricted to a few oases in
southern California.”
a. Disruptive selection b. Founder effect c. Bottleneck effect d. Natural selection

17. 1 in 1700 US Caucasian newborns have cystic fibrosis. “C” for normal is dominant over “c” for
cystic fibrosis. What is the frequency percentage of the cystic fibrosis allele?
a. 97.6% b. 0.059% c. 2.4% d. 0.01%

18. The optimal birth weight is directly proportional to the lowest percent mortality rate. What type of
selection is occurring?
a. Directional b. Reversal c. Disruptive d. Stabilizing

19. The idea that “many species look alike because they share many alleles” is called ____ species
concept, while the idea that “species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural
populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups” is called _____ species
concept.
a. Phenotypic, genotypic b. Morphological, biological
c. Genotypic, phenotypic d. Biological, morphological

20. The 14 different species of finches colonizing on the Galapagos islands from South America are
an example of:
a. Allopatric speciation b. Sympatric speciation
c. Reproductive isolation d. Physical isolation

21. Species from a common ancestor that live in a wide array of environments is called:
a. Prezygotic reproduction b. Postzygotic reproduction
c. Evolutionary radiation d. Adaptive radiation

22. A mule would be an example of what type of –ploidy?

a. Polyploidy b. Tetraploidy c. Allopolyploidy d. Autopolyploidy
 Topics to Study! 
Taxonomy and Biodiversity
~Linnaeus
~Taxonomic levels
~Phylogeny

Genetics
~Monohybrid and Dihybrid crosses
~Recessive vs. Dominant
~Homozygous vs. Heterozygous
~Gene vs. Allele
~Phenotype vs. Genotype
~Pedigree
~Sex determination in humans
~Non disjunction
~Incomplete dominance vs. Co dominance vs. Pleiotropic effects vs. Epistasis

History of Life on Earth

~Fossils
~Radiometric Dating
~Steno vs. Cuvier vs. Smith vs. Wegener
~Changes in atmosphere over time
~Eras and Time Periods
~Mass Extinctions (when and how)

Evolutionary Mechanisms
~Charles Darwin
~Natural Selection
~Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (allele frequencies)
~Mutation vs. Gene flow vs. Genetic drift vs. Nonrandom mating vs. Natural Selection
~Stabilizing selection vs. Directional selection vs. Disruptive selection

Species Formation
~Morphological vs. Biological species concept
~Speciation
~Reproductive isolation vs. Geographic isolation
~Allopatric speciation vs. Sympatric speciation
~Prezygotic vs. Postzygotic reproductive barriers
~Evolutionary radiation vs. Adaptive radiation