Chapter 19 Quiz

. When asked what the study of evolution reveals about the mind of the Creator, J. B. S. Haldane famously replied "that he has an inordinate fondness for beetles." Why did he say this?

Haldane recognized beetles as the most diverse taxon, with over 350,000 described species.

Haldane, a beetle collector, was referring to himself as the Creator.

Haldane was referring to Charles Darwin, a lover of beetles and the "creator" of evolutionary theory.

Haldane, a devoutly religious person, was expressing support for theistic evolution.

Haldane recognized that beetles had survived all five mass extinctions and must be favored by nature.

. If a clade of organisms approaches the diversity equilibrium, K, which of the following might occur?

Diversification will approach zero.

The number of taxa will stabilize.

Speciation rate will decline.

Extinction rate will increase.

Any of these could occur near diversity equilibrium.

. The rate of change of diversity depends on the

mutation rate.

rate at which taxa originate.

rate at which taxa become extinct.

Both a and c

Both b and c

. Taxa that arose recently are more likely to still be extant, which has the effect of making diversity appear to increase as we draw closer to present day. This bias, called "the pull of the Recent," can be reduced by

counting only fossil occurrences of a taxon and not counting it between its last fossil occurrence and the Recent.

selecting, at random, the same number of specimens from all the samples.

rarefaction.

adjusting the taxa count according to the amount of time and rock volume represented.

ignoring singletons and counting only those taxa that are found across geological stages.

. Which factors that may increase extinction rates is most likely to be influenced by the activities of humans?

The movement of land masses

Competitive interactions among taxa with similar niches

The effects of predators and pathogens

Major changes in the distribution or conditions of global climate

Incumbent replacement

. Which pattern best characterizes the history of extinctions on Earth?

An increasing per capita background extinction rate

Five major mass extinctions and several lesser episodes of heightened extinction rates

Three major mass extinctions and several lesser episodes of heightened extinction rates

Three major mass extinctions and a low background extinction rate

An increase in the number of mass extinctions over time

. There are two likely explanations for the observation that the background extinction rate declined during the Phanerozoic. One is that a greater number of genera and species made higher taxa less likely to go extinct. What is the other explanation?

Changes in the environment caused extinction to occur at random.

Species evolved the ability to resist extinction.

The extinction of "volatile" taxa left taxa with longer "life spans."

There was an increase in ecological specialization.

There was an increase in geographic range sizes.

. The Red Queen hypothesis proposes that the relationship between taxon age and extinction rate is

concave.

convex.

sigmoidal.

linear.

exponential.

. Evolutionary biologists and geologists recognize the "big five" mass extinctions and are actively studying a potential sixth. Which of these describes that potential sixth mass extinction?

The extinction that included the dinosaurs

The great flood of Noah

The current extinctions, caused primarily by human activities

The mass extinction that occurred in the Proterozoic, before animal life

The end-Carboniferous mass extinction, which affected plants, not animals

. Some groups of butterflies diversified rapidly after developing a tolerance to toxic alkaloids and the mechanical defenses of host plants. Such features represent a(n)

adaptive zone.

ecological opportunity.

competitive displacement.

key adaptation.

convergence.

. Charles Mitter and colleagues found evidence that herbivory promotes high diversification rates by comparing the diversity of groups of herbivorous insects with the diversity of

herbivorous mollusks.

nonherbivorous sister groups.

unrelated insect groups whose clades were the same age.

the plants that the herbivorous insects used as a food source.

the same insect groups in the fossil record.

. Refer to the graph showing a lineage-through-time plot for a clade.

What does the exponential growth tell us about the diversification of the clade in question?

The clade has reached its diversity equilibrium.

Diversification rates are increasing exponentially.

There is a constant diversification rate for the clade.

Diversification rates are greater near the tips of the tree than near the base.

The clade is becoming less diverse over time.

. Paleobiologists have suggested that competition among species for resources may limit the possible number of species to some maximum number. The pattern that would best provide evidence for such diversity dependence would be higher diversity correlated with a(n) _______ in _______ rate.

increase; origination

decrease; origination

increase; extinction

decrease; extinction

None of the above; there is no correlation between higher diversity and extinction or origination rate.

. Silvestre and colleagues found that diversity of the now extinct Canid subfamily Hesperocyoninae decreased as the diversity of the Caninae subfamily and Felidae family increased in North America. This is an example of

competitive displacement.

incumbent replacement.

character displacement.

niche partitioning.

ecological divergence.

. Insectivorous bats and fruit-eating bats, which hunt at night, occupy two _______ that differ from those of diurnal insect- and fruit-eating birds.

key adaptations

geographic distributions

adaptive radiations

adaptive zones

competitive displacements

Chapter 19 Quiz

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