Biology 211 Unit 1 Test Questions and
Answers (100% Verified)
What is the difference between a hypothesis and a theory? - ✔️✔️Hypothesis: Testable
prediction
Theory: Explanation for a natural phenomenon
What makes a well-accepted scientific theory? - ✔️✔️Supported by evidence
Incorporates relevant laws
What are the 5 fundamental characteristics that all living organisms have? - ✔️✔️Energy
Cells
Information
Reproduction
Evolution
What does the cell theory state? - ✔️✔️All organisms are made of cells
Cells arise from preexisting cells, not spontaneously
What two things are implied by the cell theory and the theory of evolution by natural
selection? - ✔️✔️1. All species come from preexisting species
2. All species trace their ancestry back to a single common ancestor
Who came up with binomial nomenclature? - ✔️✔️Carolus Linnaeus
What two things does the binomial nomenclature naming system include? - ✔️✔️Genus and
species
What is a synapomorphy? - ✔️✔️A shared, derived trait
What group includes the ancestral population and all descendants? - ✔️✔️Monophyletic
What group is an unnatural group that doesn't include the most recent common ancestor? -
✔️✔️Polyphyletic
What group includes the ancestral population and some descendants? - ✔️✔️Paraphyletic
What is a homology? - ✔️✔️A similarity in organisms due to common ancestry
What is a homoplasy? - ✔️✔️A similarity in organisms due to reasons other than common
ancestry
Arises independently
What is convergent evolution? - ✔️✔️Natural selection favors similar solution to the same
problem
What is cladistic approach? - ✔️✔️Reconstructing relationships by identifying
synapomorpheis
What is the principle of parsimony? - ✔️✔️The most likely explanation or pattern is the one
that implies the least amount of change
What is a fossil? - ✔️✔️Any physical trace left by an organism that lived in the past
How do fossils form? - ✔️✔️Parts of an organism get buried in sediment
What are the 4 types of fossils? - ✔️✔️Intact, compression, cast, and permineralized
What are the 4 limitations of the fossil record? - ✔️✔️Habitat, Temporal, Abundance, and
Taxonomic/Tissue Bias
What is habitat bias? - ✔️✔️Organisms living where sediment is actively deposited is more
likely to fossilize
What is taxonomic/tissue bias? - ✔️✔️Organisms with hard parts are more likely to fossilize
due to slow decay
What is temporal bias? - ✔️✔️Recent fossils are much more common than ancient fossils
What is abundance bias? - ✔️✔️Organisms that are abundant, widespread, or present on Earth
for long periods of time leave evidence much more often
What is stratigraphy? Does it give relative or absolute dates? - ✔️✔️Method of evaluating rock
layers: Those closer to the surface are younger and those further below are older. It gives
relative dates.
What is radiometric dating based on? Does it give absolute or relative dates. - ✔️✔️Well-
studied decay rates of certain radioactive isotopes
It gives absolute dates
What is the half-life of carbon-14? For how many years back can this method be used? -
✔️✔️5,700 years
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