SC 139 - First Exam 2006

Links on Numbers go to relevant passages in the online textbook.

MULTIPLE CHOICE.

On the line to the left, place the letter of the choice that best answers the question.
Three Points Each. NOTE: "e" answers are never the correct answer.

 

1.  The main reason why specimens are sectioned is to

_______           a. Make them transparent
                        b. Keep them preserved
                        c. Make the separate pieces more easily analyzed
                        d. Put some in the experiment group and some in the control group
                        e. Fill the stadium evenly

 

2.  In cells, membranes are mostly used for

_______           a. Determining male and female                     b. Physical protection
                        c. Removing wastes                                      d. Isolating special chemical processes
                                                e. Showing off your fashion sense

 

3.  One of the most important aspects of both Darwin’s and Wallace’s data gathering:

_______           a. It was done in the tropics                    b. It was done over a long period of time
                        c. It involved many islands                     d. They each used a large group of people
                                            e. They used very nice penmanship

 

4.  Convergent evolution has its best examples when features are

_______           a. Analogous and homologous                        b. Analogous but not homologous
                        c. Homologous but not analogous                   d. Neither analogous nor homologous
                                                        e. Very, very convergey

 

5.  One of Darwin’s main inspirations for his ideas came from

_______           a. Dog breeding                 b. Genetic studies                c. Dinosaur fossils
                        d. Embryo studies             e. His obsession with Victorian snack crackers

 

6.  Which is the best example of an experimental artifact?

                        a. Measurements are all taken in metric units
                        b. A special bee hive is made with a glass side for observation
_______           c. Baboons are very aggressive because an observer has "spooked" them
                        d. When drugs are given, many subjects’ symptoms improve
                        e. Something known about Picasso and Monet

 

7.  What Robert Hooke called cells were specifically

_______           a. Empty cell membranes                             b. Empty cell walls
                        c. A mixture of animal and plant cells            d. Mineral chambers
                                                      e. Just cubicles

 

8.  Resolution of a microscope could also be called

_______           a. Magnification limit             b. Focusing limit            c. Specimen size limit
                        d. Cost                                 e. Um, Benjy-?

 

9.  Which two structures are analogous but not homologous?

_______           a. Car tire and horse’s neck            b. Shark’s tail and boat propeller
                        c. Human hand and bat wing          d. Grasshopper leg and spider web
                                        e. Student head and empty dumpster

 

10.  The apparent limitation on how big a cell can be is probably related to

_______           a. Its overall shape                                 b. Its volume and surface ratio
                        c. If it’s multicellular or not                    d. Its nucleus or nuclei
                                                       e. Zoning laws

 

11.  Without Alfred Russel Wallace, the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
                might never have been

_______           a. Developed             b. Translated into Danish            c. Applied to animals
                        d. Published              e. Annoying students all over the world

 

12.  Which approach to classification is most concerned with the appearance of key features?

_______           a. Cladistics                 b. Systematics                 c. Ontology
                        d. Phylogeny                             e. Key featurism

 

 

SHORT ANSWER.

Answer any eight of the following questions for 4 Points Each.
Note: if you answer more than eight, only the first eight will be corrected.
You can get partial credit on these answers.

 

1.  Briefly explain how each would work in a human drug trial:
Blind
Study:		 Double-
blind
Study:
2.  The two most common imaging (beam) systems for microscopes:
 

 
3.  What two discredited ideas are attributed to Lamarck?
 

 
4.  What were the third and fourth Kingdoms to break off of the original two Kingdoms of Life?
 

 
5.  What is the current best definition of a species?

 

 
6.  Briefly explain why fundamentalists once believed that the idea of extinction was contrary to Scripture.

 

 
7.  What are two different types of circumstances that may have led to mass extinctions?
 

 
8.  Briefly explain how uniformitarianism was first applied to determine the approximate age of the Earth.

 

 
9.  Briefly explain the hypothesis of ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.

 

 
10.  Briefly explain how postmodernism has been applied to science.

 

 
11.  What is the function of homeogenes?

 

 
12.  Put these taxonomic groups in the proper order from smallest to largest: class, family, genus, kingdom, order, phylum, species, subfamily.
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
13.  What two rates together tend to determine the evolutionary rate?
 

 
14.  Give the definition of colonial organism.

 

 
15.  In science, what is the most common form of peer review?

 

 

LONG ANSWER.

Answer any four of the following questions for Eight Points Each.
Note: if you answer more than four, only the first four will be corrected.
You can get partial credit on these answers.

 

1.  What are four different concepts or ideas that influenced Darwin’s development and publication of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection?
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
2.  For four of the six basic Kingdoms of Life, give the name of the Kingdom and enough features to clearly set that Kingdom’s members apart from those of the other five.
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
3.  Give the relevant steps between a change in environment and the production of a new species from a population there, according to Darwin’s theories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.  Fill in:

Binomial nomenclature is the term given to rules about naming ______________.

What are three
of those
rules?

  
 

 
 

 

5.  What are the four statements of the Cell Theory?
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

6.  What are four different starting circumstances that can lead to formation of fossils?
 

 

 
 

 

 

Link to Answer Key

BONUS QUESTIONS.

Answer as many as you are able. Wrong answers will not result in points being lost from the main exam. You can get partial credit on these answers.

Which of the original Greek "natural Kingdoms" did not include living things? Three Points.

 

Which is the biggest Kingdom, in terms of having the most individual organisms in it? Three Points.

 

When Redi ran his meat-and-maggot experiment, what did he have to change to satisfy his critics? Three Points.

 

What major problem made it difficult to increase the magnification abilities of glass lenses? Three Points.

 

Darwin’s father wanted him to continue the "family business." What did Daddy Darwin do (Two Points), and why didn’t Charles want to do it (Two Points)?

 

 

What are the two different types of iguanas found on the Galapagos Islands? Two Points each.

 

 

What are vestigial structures A) supposed to be (Three Points), and what else B) might they be (Three Points)?

A                                                                                     B

 

Why are there so few dinosaur fossils found in New York State? Three Points.

 

 

Radioactive carbon dating doesn’t work on anything over about 60,000 years old. Why not? Three Points.


 
     

 

Michael McDarby.

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