Copyright 2014 Edmentum - All rights reserved. AP Biology Unity and Diversity Blizzard Bag 2014-20151. The sawfish, also known as the carpenter shark, lives in estuaries off the coast of Australia. A scientist performs several investigations of the serrated snout, or "saw", of the sawfish. Which investigation would most likely provide the strongest evidence of the evolutionary advantage of the snout? A. Comparing the physical properties of the sawfish snout and the snouts of similar fish. B. Comparing the physical properties of adult sawfishes and juveniles that lack long, serrated snouts. C. Observing how the sawfish uses its snout in its natural habitat. D. Removing the snout from a dead sawfish and testing its strength and sharpness. 2. Cytochrome c is a protein involved in cellular respiration. Although cytochrome c has been isolated and identified in a wide variety of species, the amino acid sequence of the protein differs slightly among the species. The table compares the cytochrome c of many species with the human protein. The data provides the strongest evidence for which conclusion? A. Cytochrome c evolved independently in most modern species. B. Humans lack a common ancestor with non-mammalian vertebrates. C. Pigs and sheep are more closely related to one another than to humans. D. Humans share a more recent common ancestor with monkeys than with sheep.
3. Plastids are plant organelles that carry out photosynthesis. In an experiment, scientists sequence and compare the DNA that codes for plastids in five plant species, designated A to E. The data table shows the percent variation of nucleotide sequences between comparable plastid DNA for each pair of species. Which conclusion is best supported by the data? A. The two species that are most closely related are B and D. B. Species C is the common ancestor of the other 4 species. C. The two species that are most closely related are A and C. D. Species A is the common ancestor of the other 4 species. 4. In England, before the Industrial Revolution, light-colored peppered moths were more common than the dark-colored variety. Then, when soot darkened the trees, the dark-colored moths became more common. Scientists have proposed that the darker tree bark provided camouflage to the darker moths, while allowing predators to see and capture the lighter moths. The example of the peppered moths best illustrates what concept of evolution theory? A. Reproductive isolation is necessary for species to evolve new traits. B. When the environment changes, individuals adapt, relocate, or perish. C. Genetic diversity acts as a selective mechanism on a population. D. Environmental change may act as a selective mechanism on a population.
5. For many growing seasons, the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, has been eating a farmer's pea crop. In 2003, the farmer switched to a strain of pea plants that was advertised as resistant to being eaten by A. pisum. The farmer continued to plant this strain each year, but it became less resistant as time passed. The line graph shows the population of the pea aphids in the farmer's field over 10 seasons. Which explanation for the data is consistent with the theory of evolution by natural selection? A. Individual aphids either evolved or perished. B. At first, the new strain of pea plants was resistant to the aphids, but over time, some of the plants developed mutations and became vulnerable to being eaten by the aphids. C. Individual aphids gradually evolved new adaptations that enabled them to eat the new food source. D. A small number of aphids had heritable variations that enabled them to eat the new food, and those aphids survived and reproduced. 6. Longer length is considered a desirable trait in a certain population of farmed fish. A parent generation of the fish is analyzed. A small group of longer fish is selected from the parent generation to produce offspring. The graph compares the mean length of this small group with the mean length of the entire parent population. The selected fish are then allowed to produce offspring. What is the most likely mean length of the offspring? A. 18 inches B. 20 inches C. 15 inches D. 12 inches
7. Penicillin was the first true antibiotic, which is a drug that kills bacteria. It became widely used in the 1930s and 1940s after its effectiveness was discovered. Since its discovery, many other antibiotic agents have been successfully developed. Today, however, many strains of bacteria are resistant to penicillin and other antibiotics. Data from one hospital is summarized in the graph. The graph shows the yearly percentage of hospital-acquired bacterial infections that were resistant to at least one of the commonly prescribed antibiotics. This example of antibiotic resistance illustrates which principle of evolution? A. Evolution does not occur today, although many changes to living things simulate evolutionary processes. B. Evolution occurs today, but only among bacteria and other microorganisms. C. Evolution occurs today, but only in ways that human actions affect or control. D. Evolution occurs today, and for the same reasons that it occurred in the past.
8. Scientists study three related species of songbirds in a tract of forest. They count the numbers of eggs that females lay each spring, as well as the number of chicks that survive after 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year. In these species, the birds are sexually mature at 1 year. The chart shows the scientists' data. Songbird Offspring Species A Species B Species C Eggs per season (average) Number of chicks after 1 month (average) Number of chicks after 6 months (average) Number of chicks after 1 year (average) 4.3 9.0 5.2 3.1 4.3 2.6 1.5 2.0 1.0 1.2 0.8 0.5 Based on the data, which species has the highest degree of evolutionary fitness for its environment? A. Species B B. Species C C. Species A D. All three species are equally fit. 9. A scientist is studying a trait controlled by a pair of alleles A and a in a large population of organisms. The scientist's data show that 15.0% of the individuals in the population are homozygous recessive aa for a particular trait. What is the frequency of the heterozygous genotype? A. 0.375 B. 0.474 C. 0.774 D. 0.613
10. The three diagrams compare the hearts of fish, amphibians, and mammals. These differences in heart organization provide evidence for which concept of evolutionary theory? A. Evolution always acts to increase the complexity of an organ or other body feature. B. Evolution has occurred in all species. C. Evolution occurred at the same rate throughout Earth's history. D. Evolution stops when it reaches a certain ideal design, such as the mammalian heart. 11. Which scientific observation provides the strongest evidence that all organisms alive today share an ancient common ancestor? A. The genetic code is essentially universal among all species of organisms. B. Organisms in different environments have analogous structures. C. Over 99 percent of species that ever existed are now extinct. D. Fossils of similar species have been found on continents that were once connected.
12. The diagram represents a population of bacteria before and after an antibiotic is administered. The genetic diversity of the population is reduced, and the overall population becomes resistant to the antibiotic. Which statement identifies one of the reasons why antibiotic resistance increased from the original to final population? A. Antibiotics transfer new gene combinations to some of the bacterial cells but not others. B. Some bacterial cells undergo immediate genetic changes to adapt to their changing environment. C. Resistant bacterial cells immigrate to replace a portion of those in the original population. D. Mutations that occur during bacterial cell division give rise to variation among the bacterial cells. 13. A student is researching a fossil that is part of a collection at a university. The illustration and data table describe this fossil. The student states that the fossil is a vertebra from a large animal, such as a mastodon. He concludes that the animal could not have been a dinosaur because the fossil contains 0% carbon-14. Which is the most accurate critique of the student's analysis? A. The fossil must have come from a small animal because the bones of a large animal would have been destroyed in clastic sedimentary rock. B. The fossil cannot be a vertebra because vertebrae have holes and spaces that the fossil lacks. C. The species could have, in fact, been a dinosaur because radiocarbon dating is effective only with a few thousand years. D. The species was not a dinosaur because dinosaurs lived only on land that is now Asia and Africa, not North America.
14. The diagram shows the bones of a front limb for six different organisms, each a unique species. The colors show homologous bones. The diagram provides strong evidence for which statement concerning the evolution of the six species? A. The six species are unrelated, yet evolved similarly to achieve an optimal design of limb bone. B. The six species share a common ancestor that had the same general features of limb bones. C. The six species are unrelated, yet evolved similarly to meet similar needs. D. The six species evolved in a specific linear order, with one species the common ancestor of the other five. 15. In certain plants, blooming is triggered by a change in temperature. A science student predicts that because of global climate change, these plants will become more common and widespread, and that competing plants that bloom in response to changes in the day-night cycle will become less common. The student's prediction is an application of which principle of the theory of evolution? A. Species evolve new traits and adaptations independently of environmental changes. B. Changes in the environment select the changes in populations. C. In response to environmental changes, species adapt, relocate, or perish. D. Genetic diversity helps species survive or adapt to environmental changes.