BIO102 Final Exam (Introduction to Evolutionary Biology and Ecology) | Practice Test / Quiz / MCQs

1. A woman who is a carrier (heterozygous) for a recessive disease marries a man who is also a carrier.What is the likelihood that their child will be both healthy and not a carrier of the disease?

2 out of 4.3 out of 4.1 out of 4.0 out of 4.

3. Which of the following is NOT true of genetic drift?

It can result in one allele representing 100% of the gene pool.It can prevent the maintenance of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.It results in populations of better-adapted individuals.It contributes to evolutionary change.

5. The abundance of Imaginary Owls is influenced by their fox predators, their lemming prey, and the availability of their nesting sites.Assuming that their population is density-dependent, what you expect to happen to their carrying capacity if there were a sudden, large increase in the lemming population?

The carrying capacity would increase.With the limitation on prey removed, this population would no longer have a carrying capacity.The carrying capacity would decrease.The carrying capacity would not change.

6. In cases where the assumptions of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium are met, why will a recessive trait that is present at a very low frequency remain in a population instead of disappearing over generations?

Immigration of individuals with the recessive trait will increase its frequency in a population.The recessive allele is also present in heterozygous individuals, ensuring that the trait will reappear in further generations.Most recessive alleles are beneficial and so are therefore selected for.Mutations will lower the frequency of the dominant allele by changing it to the recessive, thus keeping the recessive trait in the population.

7. In general, across all species on the planet, which has been more important for the maintenance of genetic variation: selection or genetic drift?

Selection.Genetic drift.Neither one is responsible for the majority of observed variation.Both are very important; usually it is impossible to tell which is more important.

8. What is a long-term evolutionary benefit for populations that are in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

Alleles present at high frequencies will remain present at high frequencies, ensuring that assortative mating can occur between individuals with similar phenotypes.The population will have reduced genetic variability, ensuring that deleterious traits will not increase in frequency.The population will by definition not be affected by natural selection, ensuring that they are less likely to be affected by mutations or disease.The population will maintain genetic variability, ensuring that there will be variation for any future selective forces to act on.

9. You observe that mussels growing at Halibut Point State Park have much thicker shells than do mussels growing at the Plymouth pier.You also observe that there are many more predatory snails, which feed on mussels by drilling through their shells, present at Halibut Point than in Plymouth. Why might greater shell-thickness in mussels be an induced rather than a constitutive (always present) trait?

Selection can only act on induced traits.The cost of making a thicker shell is too great to be worth doing except in the presence of many snail predators.Constitutive shell thickness results in less genetic variability, leading to less variation in shell thickness for the next generation.Induced traits are expressed more strongly than constitutive traits, making the mussels less vulnerable to predators.

10. In the deep sea, near hydrothermal vents that spew what seem like toxic chemicals, life still miraculously exists: it is composed of bacteria that are able to convert the hydrogen sulfide from the vents into food through the process of chemosynthesis.Other marine animals like snails, shrimp, and mussels eat the bacteria.They in turn are eaten by octopuses, fish, and crabs.Some of the chemosynthetic bacteria live inside of giant clams; they provide the clams with food, and the clams provide them with necessary elements like nitrogen (and with protection from snails, shrimp, and mussels).Based on what you know about the flow of energy, which animals would be more abundant, the snails or the octopuses, and why?

The snails, because they are present at a higher trophic level.The snails, because energy is lost at each trophic level and they are lower in the food chain.The octopuses, because they expend less energy in getting what they need to eat than snails do.The octopuses, because they would have more types of species to eat.

11. Name the type of isolation mechanism that is operating: Western deer-mice are unable to interact, or mate, with eastern deer-mice because the Mississippi River divides them.

Habitat isolation.Gametic isolation.Behavioral isolation.Temporal isolation.

13. Which of the following is an example of a population bottleneck and its effects?

A population of guppies in a large lake becomes divided when an earthquake causes a barrier to form, splitting the lake in half.Many generations later, the guppies in one half are all bright-colored and those in the other are all dull-colored.Being heterozygous for sickle-cell anemia (healthy but a carrier) makes people less susceptible to malaria.In areas where the malaria is common, a higher number of people have the allele for sickle-cell anemia.A species of South American monkey is hunted to near extinction.One hundred years later, the monkeys' abundance has increased, but each individual is a near genetic twin of every other monkey.Only twelve people, one of whom has a rare allele, survive a crash-landing on an uninhabited island.Four hundred years later, a huge proportion of the island's inhabitants have this rare allele.

15. The Miller-Urey experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the Earth's first organic molecules:

Were rained down from outer space within meteorites.Were synthesized through the processes taking place and chemicals formed in geysers.Were synthesized through the processes taking place and chemicals formed in deep-sea hydrothermal vents.Were synthesized from inorganic molecules in the early atmosphere.

16. Which of the following is true about mutation and recombination in sexually reproducing species?

Mutation and recombination are different terms for the same occurrence.Mutations are often triggered by the recombination process and, in large populations, will then increase in frequency.In large populations, recombination can produce so much variation on its own that mutation is not necessary for hundreds of generations.The effects of mutation and recombination are generally considered to be at odds.

17. Which of these is NOT one of the reasons why Mendel would have had difficulty reaching his conclusions if he had studied height in humans instead of seed traits in pea plants?

Humans cannot self-pollinate (or reproduce asexually as well as sexually).Humans have much longer generation times than pea plants.Height in humans is polygenic.Height in humans is X-linked.

20. Choose the type of speciation pattern exhibited in this example: Tortoises in a single large population are separated by an earthquake that splits the area into several sections.Generations later, tortoises from one section cannot breed with those from another if they are brought into contact.

Adaptive radiation.Sympatric speciation.Parapatric speciation.Allopatric speciation.

21. Which of these observations/experiments does NOT suggest the occurrence of inter-specific competition between Species A and B?

When Species A is removed from an area, the range of Species B within that area increases.The removal of Species A leads to an increase in the density, number of offspring, and growth rate of Species B.When raised alone, Species A and Species B are each present in lower densities than when raised together.Species A is present in the high intertidal area of a beach and Species B occupies the same niche in the lower intertidal.

22. Which of following is NOT a prediction of Darwin's that has been supported by later discoveries and research?

All of these are predictions of Darwin's.Darwin suspected that nature did not make leaps and that gaps in the fossil record would be filled, better supporting his argument for evolution; since then, transitional fossils have been found for many species.Darwin suspected that understanding embryonic development would illuminate evolution; since then, developmental biologists have discovered that much variation is caused by shared 'master genes' which are turned on and off in different ways for different oDarwin suspected that humans were animals (an unpopular idea at the time); since then, geneticists have found that the genomes of all living things include some genes that are shared across all kingdoms, proving our common ancestry.

23. For an autosomal trait that displays typical Mendelian inheritance, you would expect a phenotypic ratio of 3:1 in offspring if the individuals that mated:

Were a heterozygous individual and a homozygous recessive individual.Were each homozygous recessive for that trait.Were each heterozygous for that trait.Were made up (that is, the ratio is not possible).

24. What are the two primary forces determining the distributions of biomes on earth?

Temperature and primary productivity.Temperature and precipitation.Primary productivity and aridity (dryness).Biodiversity and precipitation.

25. Why do haploid organisms undergoing selective pressures change their gene frequencies (over generations) much more quickly than diploid organisms?

Haploid organisms have only one copy of each gene, which allows selection to act directly without recessive alleles being hidden in dominant phenotypes.Diploid organisms have to reproduce sexually, which dilutes each individual's genomic material in the next generation.Haploid organisms produce more offspring than diploid organisms, meaning more individuals on whom selection can act are present.Diploid organisms generate less variation in each generation, leading to less genetic variability on which selection can act.

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25 Questions

❤ If you liked Fatskills, consider supporting us by checking out The Life Manuals You Never Got.

About | Explore | User Guide | Topics | Subjects | Doubt Solver | Career Aptitude Test | Answers | Free Tools | OSHA Basics Quiz | What Should We Know? Privacy | Terms |

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All trademarks, logos and brand names are the property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, trademarks and brands does not imply endorsement.

About | Explore | User Guide | Topics | Subjects | Doubt Solver | Career Aptitude Test | Answers | Free Tools | OSHA Basics Quiz | What Should We Know?
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Without work one finishes nothing. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
© 2026 Fatskills.com