Think you’ve got your head wrapped around Special Topics in Evolution? Put your knowledge to
the test. Good luck — the Stickman is counting on you!
Q. Which is NOT evidence that life on Earth had an extraterrestrial origin?
Comets contain organic material such as coal
Organic compounds are common in space
Cellular life could be formed in frozen space mixtures
Uracil has extraterrestrial origins
All of the above are evidence that life on Earth has extraterrestrial origins.
Q. Which is not a possible step in the scientifically proposed early origins of life?
Organic molecules form in oxygen-free environment
Coacervates develop DNA polymerase
Coacervates spontaneously divide to produce "daughters"
Coacervates fuse together
Coacervates produce metabolites to promote integrity
Q. Why isn't DNA a proposed molecule of early genetic material?
It cannot catalyze reactionsl
It cannot easily mutate
It has limited secondary structures
All of the above
None of the above
Q. What was the purpose of the Miller-Urey experiment?
It didn't have a purpose, it was an accident
To determine what the early elements on Earth were
To see if electrical energy was sufficient to catalyze chemical reactions to form biological molecules
To see if RNA was capable of self-catalyzing its own replication
To make proto-cellular life
Q. Which is not true of radiocarbon dating?
It measures the decay of carbon-14
It can be used to date fossils that are millions of years old
It works best to date biological materials
All of the above
None of the above
Q. Which of the following does not describe the "primordial soup?"
Filled with coacervates
It is a product of abiogenesis
It was proposed by Alexander Oparin
It formed from extraterrestrial material
All of the above
Q. Which of the following is NOT a level of Linnean taxonomy?
Group
Phylum
Order
Class
Species
Q. Which of the following is NOT a flaw in the RNA world hypothesis?
Scientists have not made a self-replicating RNA enzyme
The early Earth was too hot to explain how the biomolecules that are formed in the lab are made
Meteorites are believed to collide with the Earth, disrupting possible "soups" from making life
None of the above are flaws
All of the above are flaws
Q. What LEAST describes the origins of chloroplasts in cells?
Chloroplasts are prokaryotic cells
There was DNA exchange between the host cell and chloroplast
They were formed under the colonial theory
Chloroplasts developed the ability to photosynthesize energy prior to being in eukaryotic cells
None of the above
Q. What does symbiotic theory propose?
Organisms work best together
Multicellular organisms are formed by different cells coalescing together
Multicellular organisms are formed by differentiation of function of a colony of cells
Most organelles are formed by endosymbiosis
None of the above