BIL 106 – Biology of Animals
Krempels – Fall 2014
Exam III
Choose the BEST answer. Two points each.
1. Given their current distribution, the Afrotheria most likely are descended from an ancestor
that lived most recently in
a. Pangaea
b. Laurasia c. Gondwanaland d. Antarctica
e. Newark
Refer to this list of animals, and match each one with the closest description in #2-6.
a. Tenrec
c. Sengi
e. Hyrax
b. Aardvark
d. Elephant
2. This highly intelligent animal has a complex social structure, with family groups led by a
dominant female/matriarch. D - Elephant
3. The single species has a long nose, no teeth, and a sticky tongue for collecting insect prey. B - Aardvark
4. These small herbivores have complex vocalizations that appear to have syntax (i.e.,
meaningful arrangements of vocalizations to create, effectively, sentences) E - Hyrax
5. One species of this little insectivorous tribe, found on Madagascar and in parts of the African
mainland, is the only mammal that can stridulate, like a cricket. A - Tenrec
6. These small, fast moving insectivores have a very high metabolic rate. They escape
predators by dashing down elaborate trails in their habitat that they have memorized. C - Sengi
7. Which of the following is true of manatees and dugongs?
a. They are semi-aquatic, coming onto land to rear their young.
b. They lack any vestiges of hind limbs, even internally.
c. Various species can be found in freshwater, brackish water, or marine environments.
d. They have both gills and lungs, and so can breathe under water.
e. They are carnivorous.
8. If an animal bears altricial young, the babies are defined as being
a. well formed and able to care for themselves shortly after birth.
b. helpless, and reliant on their parent for care and feeding at birth.
c. born into a pouch, where they nurse until old enough to fend for themselves.
d. incubated in eggs laid in a nest.
e. fed on mother’s milk for at least three months after birth.
9. Which of the following traits is NOT exhibited by marsupials, such as the kangaroo and koala?
a. fleshy, muscular lips
c. hair
e. egg-laying
b. mammary glands
d. amniotic egg (derived form)
10. Similar body structures can evolve from completely different ancestral sources if natural
selection drives things that way. Such evolution, which can create ecological equivalents that are not derived
from a common ancestor (e.g., the kangaroo and the deer are both browsers, but one is a marsupial while the
other is placental) is known as
a. ecological niche
c. genetic drift
e. convergent evolution
b. adaptive radiation
d. migration
11. Which of the following might you find in a cloaca?
a. fecal matter
b. eggs
c. sperm
d. urinary waste
e. any of these
12. Monotreme mammals such as the echidna and platypus
a. give birth to live young that develop in a pouch
b. have leg joints that position the legs under the body, to offer maximum support
c. lack teeth as adults
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
13. Like birds, lizards and snakes lack teeth, and use their powerful jaws to crush and tear prey
to be swallowed in large chunks.
a. true
b. false
c. thanks for that image
Match the heart to the of animal that has it in #14-17.
a. two-chambered heart
b. three-chambered heart
14. Bald Eagle C
15. Goldfish A
c. four-chambered heart
16. Chamaeleon B
17. Alligator C
(Be sure to answer all four questions above! Don’t skip to #18 too soon.)
18. In snakes and lizards, the function of the Jacobson’s Organ (also known as the
vomeronasal organ) is
a. enhancing color vision
d. olfaction/smell
b. detecting gravity for balance
e. infrared detection
c. to facilitate the sense of touch
19. In birds, the air sac system is designed to
a. allow aquatic birds to float
d. contain the internal organs
b. provide air to fill the hollow skeletal bones
e. store oxygen in diving birds
c. decrease mass without sacrificing body volume
20. In birds, the function of the crop is to
, whereas the function of the gizzard
is to
.
a. store toxic nitrogenous waste; store ingested food
b. act as a urinary bladder; filter the blood to remove nitrogenous waste
c. shorten the tail feathers; distribute pigment along the feather shaft
d. serve the same function as the mammal stomach; grind food into small pieces
e. collect stones for mineral nutrients; crush the stones to extract the nutrients
Match the type of nitrogenous waste to the correct description in #21-25.
a. ammonia
b. urea
c. uric acid
21. This is the least toxic of the three types of nitrogenous waste, but it requires very little water
to be flushed from the body. C
22. The white, crystalline portion of a bird poop is composed of this. C
23. You excrete most of your nitrogenous waste through your kidneys as this compound. B
24. This is the most toxic of the three types of nitrogenous waste, and it requires a great deal of
water to be diluted and flushed from the body. A
25. In terms of energy expenditure, this type of nitrogenous waste is the most “expensive” to
produce, but it contains more nitrogen atoms than the other two types. C
26. The function of the oil droplet in the cone photoreceptor of a bird, lizard, or turtle is to
a. filter the spectrum of light entering the pigmented area of the photoreceptor
b. keep the photoreceptor lubricated and pliable
c. block harmful ultraviolet radiation from entering the eye
d. provide color to the eye, which functions in behavioral displays and communication
e. facilitate night vision
27. Which of the following is the closest relative of a pink flamingo?
a. fruit bat
c. Nile crocodile
e. yard gnome
b. gliding lizard
d. dragonfly
28. In birds, the upper maxilla and lower mandible are fused and covered with a keratinous
sheath to form the
a. primary flight feathers
c. pelvis
d. coverts
b. secondary flight feathers
d. bill
29. Which of the following is not found in any diapsid animals?
a. diaphragm
b. lungs
c. feathers
d. scales
e. intromittent organ/penis
30. Which of these fish is most closely related to the tetrapod animals?
a. Coelacanth
c. Rainbow Trout
b. Great White Shark
d. Bottlenosed Dolphin
e. Squidward
31. Many birds, such as chickens and pigeons, have a somewhat flattened eyeball, whereas
others, such as eagles, owls, and hawks, have an eyeball that is almost tubular in shape. The former type of
eye confers
, whereas the latter type confers
a. daytime vision; nighttime vision
d. high resolution vision; high sensitivity to light
b. color vision; black and white vision
e. protection from UV; Infrared vision
c. a wide field of vision; high visual acuity
Questions #32-36 are from the film you saw in class, The Secret World of Bats.
32. Which of the following is true of bats?
a. almost all of them carry rabies virus d. many species are important seed dispersers
b. all species feed on blood
e. all of the above are true of bats
c. most species are blind
33. In some regions of Asia, people eat bats because
a. bat meat is higher in protein than other local meats
b. bat flesh is believed to be an aphrodisiac
c. bat flesh is highly prized for its excellent flavor
d. bats are agricultural pests
e. they taste like chicken
34. Which of the following types of bats is an important pollinator of desert cacti?
a. blood-feeding bats
c. insectivorous bats
e. fish eating bats
b. frugivorous bats
d. nectivorous bats
35. A mother bat
a. usually bears a single baby per year
b. will nurse any of the babies in the same cohort as her own baby
c. can never carry her young with her while in flight
d. cannot identify her own baby among the hundreds clinging to the bat cave wall
e. when annoyed, throws her baby to the floor of the cave, where it is eaten by beetles
36. Which continent has no bats?
a. Australia
b. Antarctica
c. Eurasia
d. North America
37. The scutes and scales of a crocodile are homologous to a bird’s
a. feet
b. beak
c. feathers
d. uropygial glands
e. Africa
e. teeth
38. Of the three main types of crocodilians, which shows few or no teeth when its mouth is closed?
a. crocodile
b. gharial
c. Komodo Dragon
d. alligator
39. The main reason that alligators in the Everglades are considered keystone species is because
a. they keep bird populations from exploding and taking over the Everglades.
b. their droppings provide valuable fertilizer that sawgrass needs to grow.
c. they eat the introduced, exotic Burmese Pythons and keep their populations low.
d. they dig holes that serve as water reservoirs in dry season, supporting many other species.
e. they taste like chicken.
40. A riparian animal is defined as one that
a. swallows prey whole or in large chunks
b. lives along riverbanks or other freshwater shores
c. is highly territorial
d. feeds on amphibians
e. is a burrowing animal
41. In turtles, which sex has the sexy, inward-curved (concave) plastron?
a. males
b. females
c. intersex
d. both sexes
42. Discarded plastic bags and balloons that end up in the ocean are a major danger for sea
turtles because
a. turtles mistake them for jellyfish, eat them, and suffer fatal intestinal blockages.
b. the bags degrade and the harmful petrochemicals in them pollute the water.
c. the plastics they are made from leach harmful hormone mimics into the water.
d. the turtles get their heads trapped in them and suffocate.
e. turtles get so distracted playing with them that they forget to eat and starve to death.
43. The Tuatara, which lives only in New Zealand
a. is rare and endangered
d. lacks external ears
b. looks like a lizard, but is not a lizard
e. all of the above
c. is considered a living fossil
44. Which group of reptiles has greater species diversity than any other?
a. crocodilians
b. lizards
c. snakes
d. tuataras
e. turtles
45. A chamaeleon changes the color and pattern of its skin primarily in response to
a. the color of its background
c. climate change
e. a good caffeine rush
b. its emotional/hormonal state
d. humidity
46. All lizards are
a. ectothermic and poikilothermic
b. endothermic and poikilothermic
c. ectothermic and homeothermic
d. endothermic and homeothermic
47. Which of the following can be found in both some lizards and some snakes ?
a. external ears
c. legs
e. none of the above
b. movable eyelids
d. venom
48. Pit organs in boas, pythons, and pit vipers process the infrared signature of prey as
a. a chemosensory (smell) stimulus
d. a visual stimulus
b. a tactile/touch stimulus
e. a heat stimulus
c. a taste stimulus
49. The study of reptiles and amphibians, Herpetology, is derived from the Greek word
herpeton, meaning
a. “scaled animal”
c. “poisonous creature”
e. “slimy little creep”
b. “primitive beast”
d. “crawling thing”
50. Among snakes, the vipers (rattlesnakes, cottonmouth, etc.) and elapids (cobras, mambas,
kraits, etc.) are venomous, but all colubrid snakes (the most diverse snake group, including species such as
gopher snakes, corn snakes, king snakes, and garter snakes) are non-venomous.
a. true
b. false
c. we will have to do an experiment on this
BONUS QUESTIONS – Two points each. No penalty for wrong answers.
51. The ecologically convergent equivalent of a placental anteater is the marsupial
a. Tasmanian Wolf
c. Numbat
e. Flying Phalanger
b. Tasmanian Tiger Cat
d. Spotted Cuscus
52. Small songbirds are more likely to migrate
, whereas predatory birds are more
likely to migrate
.
a. in winter; in summer
c. at night; in daylight
e. annually; monthly
b. in headwinds; in tailwinds
d. in warm weather; in cold weather
53. The venom of elapid snakes (e.g. cobras, mambas, coral snakes) kills primarily by
a. destroying cells and causing tissue death
d. causing severe muscle spasms
b. acting on the nervous system to paralyze prey e. converting to alcohol and getting
c. causing instant cardiac arrest
prey too drunk to run away
We like to praise birds for flying. But how much of it
is actually flying, and how much it is just sort of coasting from the previous flap?
-- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey