Ch8 Plant Systematics and Evolution Test Questions & Answers

Plants and Society, 8e (Levetin)

Chapter 8 Plant Systematics and Evolution

1) Who among the following is considered the "Father of Botany"?

A) Aristotle

B) Linnaeus

C) Dioscorides

D) Pliny the Elder

E) Theophrastus

2) Materia Medica, written by ________, was the most influential of the medical herbals from Roman times through the Middle Ages.

A) Aristotle

B) Linnaeus

C) Dioscorides

D) Pliny the Elder

E) Theophrastus

3) Linnaeus based his botanical classification scheme on which of the following?

A) plant genetics

B) stamen characteristics

C) leaf and stem characteristics

D) carpel characteristics

E) the number and arrangement of flower parts

4) Which of the following scientists adopted and popularized the Binomial System of Nomenclature?

A) Fleming

B) Darwin

C) Linnaeus

D) Mendel

E) None of the above are correct.

5) Which of the following is the correct way to write the binomial scientific name for red maple?

A) Acer rubrum

B) Acer rubrum

C) Acer Rubrum

D) acer rubrum

E) None of the above are correct.

6) In the taxonomic hierarchy, related genera are grouped into which of the following?

A) species

B) order

C) family

D) class

E) kingdom

7) The correct order for the botanical taxonomic hierarchy is which of the following sequences?

A) kingdom-class-division-order-family-genus-species

B) kingdom-order-family-division-class-genus-species

C) kingdom-division-class-family-order-genus-species

D) kingdom-division-class-order-family-genus-species

E) None of the above are correct.

8) Which of the following is not a problem with the biological species concept?

A) Many related plant species can interbreed.

B) Many plants within the same species cannot interbreed.

C) Plants in different species may be very similar morphologically.

D) All of these are problems with the biological species concept.

E) None of the above are correct.

9) Which of the following is the most reliable evolutionary species concept?

A) morphological species concept

B) biological species concept

C) ecological species concept

D) genealogical (phylogenetic) species concept

E) All of the above are correct.

10) How many species are estimated to be lost from the tropical rain forests per year?

A) 90

B) 900

C) 9000

D) 90000

E) None of the above are correct.

11) Approximately what percent of medicinal drugs originated from plants?

A) 5

B) 15

C) 25

D) 50

E) 75

12) Initial failure to control mealybug infestations of coffee crops in Kenya was due to which of the following?

A) overuse of pesticides

B) an identification error

C) genetic engineering

D) introduction of the wrong biocontrol agent

E) an endoparasite of the mealybug

13) Why is knowledge of biodiversity important to humanity?

A) For improvement of crop breeding programs

B) For identification of species important for soil fertility

C) For identification of plant species for medicinal drugs

D) All of the above are reasons why knowledge of biodiversity is important to humanity.

E) None of the above are correct.

14) According to your textbook, in what subject area did Charles Darwin get his college degree?

A) theology

B) geology

C) biology

D) entomology

E) evolution

15) What was Darwin's "job" aboard the HMS Beagle?

A) naturalist

B) surveyor

C) cook

D) companion to the captain

E) None of the above are correct.

16) The purpose of the voyage of the HMS Beagle was to do which of the following?

A) find proof of evolution

B) discover new plants and animals for the Royal collection

C) map the coast of South America

D) start new English settlements in South America

E) None of the above are correct.

17) What was one of the observations Darwin made in the Galapagos Islands?

A) Species on the island shared similarities to species on the adjacent mainland but with some distinct differences.

B) Species on the island did not have counterparts on the adjacent mainland as if they were separately created.

C) Species on the island were identical to species on the adjacent mainland but much smaller.

D) There were no differences between species on the island and species on the adjacent mainland.

E) All of the above statements are correct.

18) What caused Darwin to rush into publication, On the Origin of Species in 1859?

A) A letter he received from Alfred Russel Wallace outlined a hypothesis very similar to his own.

B) He lived in fear of being ostracized by the Church of England.

C) He was in ill health and wanted to publish his theory before he died.

D) He was deeply in debt and needed the money.

E) Darwin knew his hypothesis must be published before it could become a theory.

19) Which of the following is not one of the underlying premises of Darwin's theory of natural selection?

A) All natural populations tend to overproduce.

B) There is competition for scarce resources in nature.

C) Members in a species exhibit heritable differences.

D) Those individuals better adapted to their environment will survive and reproduce at a higher rate.

E) The best adapted organisms are always those that are stronger or faster.

20) One piece of information missing from Darwin's Theory of Evolution was which of the following?

A) proof that organisms actually evolve

B) an explanation for how species evolve

C) the mechanism for phenotypic variation

D) data that showed populations overproduce offspring

E) None of the above are correct.

21) What happened when bent grass was transplanted to soils contaminated with heavy metals?

A) All of the transplants perished.

B) All of the transplants survived.

C) Most of the transplants survived; a few perished.

D) Most of the transplants perished; a few survived.

E) None of the plants perished but they mutated to produce a new species.

22) The naturalist who formulated a hypothesis of evolution very similar to Darwin's was

A) Alfred Russel Wallace.

B) John Henslow.

C) Carolus Linnaeus.

D) George Clifford.

E) Frederic Chopin.

23) There is a current movement to replace the artificial Linnaean taxonomic scheme with a ________ scheme.

A) genealogical

B) phylogenetic

C) morphological

D) ecological

E) cosmological

24) What is a clade?

A) a group of individuals that share a similar morphology

B) any group of individuals or of higher taxonomic rank of any size that share common ancestry

C) a group of individuals that interbreed successfully

D) a group of individuals that are genetically similar

E) a taxonomic group assembled from individuals that look similar

25) Which of the following is not a true clade?

A) eudicots

B) paleodicots

C) monocots

D) paleomonocots

E) All of the above are true clades.

26) Cows have been bred over by farmers over centuries to produce more milk. Some cows produce so much milk, that their enlarged udders make it difficult for the cows to walk. The increased milk production of the cows is an example of which of the following?

A) recombinant DNA engineering

B) natural selection

C) artificial selection

D) sexual selection

E) animal cruelty

27) The goal of PhyloCode is to offer an alternative to which of the following?

A) the Linnaean nomenclature system

B) Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection

C) genetic engineering

D) artificial selection

E) the cladistic method of classification

28) The barcode gene used for discriminating between animals and algal species is the ________ gene.

A) rbcL

B) matK

C) coxL

D) brcA

E) Staph1

29) Why is the coxL gene less useful in both in plants and fungi as a barcode gene?

A) Plants and fungi do not produce the product of the coxL gene.

B) The nucleotide sequence of this gene is too similar in plants and fungi.

C) The coxL gene exists in too many copies in plants and fungi.

D) Plants and fungi evolve too rapidly for the gene to be of any use.

E) None of the above are correct.

30) A barcode gene used for discriminating between plant species is the ________ gene.

A) rbcL

B) nitP

C) coxL

D) brcA

E) Ecoli

31) Which of the following is a disadvantage to using DNA from organelles o obtain barcode genes?

A) Organelle DNA occurs in multiple copies.

B) Organelle DNA is more difficult to sequence.

C) No organelles have DNA.

D) Organelles are inherited only maternally; thus paternal DNA cannot be considered.

E) Organelle DNA evolves too slowly for differences to be detected.

32) The theory of Evolution by Natural Selection is best described by which of the following statements?

A) an educated guess

B) an explanation supported by all the evidence and a principle of biology that has never been disproved

C) not accepted by the scientific community

D) predicted but not proved

E) None of the above are correct.

33) Scientific names are unique because a scientific name can only be assigned to a single species.

34) The PhyloCode abandons the Linnaean ranks of the taxonomic hierarchy, recognizing only clades, not necessarily specific Linnaean ranks.

35) Species are fixed entities, unchanging over time.

36) Barcoding relies on a "genetic barcode," a short segment of DNA that is used as a standard for a particular group of organisms, and not necessarily on an "expert" for that group.

37) Most scientists would agree that losing 10 percent of the currently classified 1.4 million species would not directly affect the biodiversity of Earth.

38) In Linnaeus's sexual system of classification, "husband and wife have separate beds" indicates that the plant has imperfect flowers.

39) The phylogenetic system was a method of naming plants that included a lengthy description.

40) The four underlying conditions of Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection are as follows: variation, overproduction of offspring, competition, and the reproduction of the fittest (those that leave the most offspring).

41) The Language of Flowers refers to a Victorian practice of writing love notes on flower petals.

42) ________ is a trait that promotes survival and reproductive success of an organism in a particular environment.

43) ________ published On the Origin of Species in 1859 in which he presented his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

44) ________ is the branching sequence of evolution that illustrates the evolutionary relationships among organisms.

45) A group of organisms that can trace their descent from a single common ancestor (and also contains all descendant species) is said to be ________.

46) ________ is a clade-based alternative to the Linnaean binomial system.

47) The difference in a barcode gene's nucleotide sequence in greater ________ species than ________ a species.