Which of the following is not an observation or inference on which natural selection is
based?
a. There is heritable variation among individuals.
b.
... [Show More] Poorly adapted individuals never produce offspring.
c. Species produce more offspring than the environment can support.
d. Individuals whose characteristics are best suited to the environment generally leave
more offspring than those whose characteristics are less well suited.
e. Only a fraction of an individual's offspring may survive. - b. Poorly adapted individuals
never produce offspring.
Which of the following observations helped Darwin shape his concept of descent with
modification?
a. Species diversity declines farther from the equator.
b. Fewer species live on islands than on the nearest continents.
c. Birds can be found on islands located farther from the mainland than the birds'
maximum nonstop flight distance.
d. South American temperate plants are more similar to the tropical plants of South
America than to the temperate plants of Europe.
e. Earthquakes reshape life by causing mass extinctions. - c. Birds can be found on
islands located farther from the mainland than the birds' maximum nonstop flight
distance.
Within six months of effectively using methicillin to treat S. aureus infections in a
community, all new infections were caused by MRSA. How can this result best be
explained?
a. S. aureus can resist vaccines.
b. A patient must have become infected with MRSA from another community.
c. In response to the drug, S. aureus began making drug-resistant versions of the
protein targeted by the drug.
d. Some drug-resistant bacteria were present at the start of treatment, and natural
selection increased their frequency.
e. The drug caused the S. aureus DNA to change. - b. A patient must have become
infected with MRSA from another community.
The upper forelimbs of humans and bats have fairly similar skeletal structures, whereas
the corresponding bones in whales have very different shapes and proportions.
However, genetic data suggests that all three kinds of organisms diverged from a
common ancestor at about the same time. Which of the following is the most likely
explanation for these data?
a. Humans and bats evolved by natural selection, and whales evolved by Lamarckian
mechanisms.
b. Forelimb evolution was adaptive in people and bats, but not in whales.
c. Natural selection in an aquatic environment resulted in significant changes to whale
forelimb anatomy.
d. Genes mutate faster in whales than in humans or bats. [Show Less]