Name: ___________________________________ Period: ________ Date: ________________
ID: A
Animal Evolution and Diversity Practice
Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question. Indicate your answer choice with
an UPPER CASE letter in the space provided.
For the following items, match the extant vertebrate groups with the descriptions.
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1. Which are the most abundant and diverse of the extant vertebrates?
A. ray-finned fishes B. birds C. amphibians D. nonbird reptiles E. mammals
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2. Three major groups: egg-laying, pouched, and placental
A. amphibians B. nonbird reptiles C. chondrichthyans D. mammals E. birds
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3. What is the single unique characteristic that distinguishes extant birds from other extant
vertebrates?
A. a hinged jaw B. feathers C. an amniotic egg D. flight E. a four-chambered heart
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4. May have lungs, or gills, and may use skin as a respiratory surface
A. amphibians B. nonbird reptiles C. chondrichthyans D. mammals E. birds
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5. Internal fertilization, amniotic egg, skin that resists drying, heavy bones
A. amphibians B. nonbird reptiles C. chondrichthyans D. mammals E. birds
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6. Which era is known as the "age of reptiles"?
A. Cenozoic B. Mesozoic C. Paleozoic D. Precambrian E. Cambrian
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7. Which of the following is a shared characteristic of all chordates?
A. scales B. jaws C. vertebrae D. dorsal, hollow nerve cord E. four-chambered heart
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8. What is a distinctive feature of the chondrichthyans?
A. an amniotic egg B. unpaired fins C. an acute sense of vision that includes the ability to
distinguish colors D. a mostly cartilaginous endoskeleton E. lack of jaws
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9. Which of the following is a diploblastic phylum of aquatic predators?
A. Cnidaria B. Annelida C. Mollusca D. Arthropoda E. Echinodermata
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10. Which of the following are the only extant animals that descended directly from dinosaurs?
A. lizards B. crocodiles C. snakes D. birds E. mammals
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11. In which vertebrates is fertilization exclusively internal?
A. chondrichthyans, osteichthyans, and mammals B. amphibians, mammals, and reptiles
C. chondrichthyans, osteichthyans, and reptiles D. reptiles and mammals E. reptiles and
amphibians
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12. Why is the amniotic egg considered an important evolutionary breakthrough?
A. It has a shell that increases gas exchange. B. It allows incubation of eggs in a terrestrial
environment. C. It prolongs embryonic development. D. It provides insulation to conserve
heat. E. It permits internal fertilization to be replaced by external fertilization.
1
Name: ______________________
ID: A
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13. Which of these is not considered an amniote?
A. amphibians B. nonbird reptiles C. birds D. egg-laying mammals E. placental mammals
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14. The number of legs an insect has, the number of vertebrae in a vertebral column, or the number of
joints in a digit (such as a finger) are all strongly influenced by
A. haploid genomes. B. introns within genes. C. heterotic genes. D. heterogeneous genes.
E. Hox genes.
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15. Which extant chordates are postulated to be most like the earliest chordates in appearance?
A. lancelets B. adult tunicates C. amphibians D. reptiles E. chondrichthyans
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16. What is the probable sequence in which the following clades of animals originated, from earliest to
most recent?
1. tetrapods
2. vertebrates
3. deuterostomes
4. amniotes
5. bilaterians
A. 5 → 3 → 2 → 4 → 1 B. 5 → 3 → 2 → 1 → 4 C. 5 → 3 → 4 → 2 → 1 D. 3 → 5 → 4
→ 2 → 1 E. 3 → 5 → 2 → 1 → 4
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17. The endoskeletons of most vertebrates are composed of calcified
A. cartilage. B. silica. C. chitin. D. dentin. E. enamel.
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18. A terrestrial mollusc without a shell belongs to which class?
A. chitons B. bivalves C. gastropods D. cephalopods
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19. Which of these characteristics added most to vertebrate success in relatively dry environments?
A. the amniotic egg B. the ability to maintain a constant body temperature C. two pairs of
appendages D. claws E. a four-chambered heart
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20. Which of the following is (are) unique to animals?
A. cells that have mitochondria B. the structural carbohydrate, chitin C. nervous conduction
and muscular movement D. heterotrophy E. both A and C
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21. Almost all of the major animal body plans seen today appeared in the fossil record over 500 million
years ago at the beginning of the
A. Cambrian period. B. Ediacaran period. C. Permian period. D. Carboniferous period.
E. Cretaceous period.
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22. Arthropods invaded land about 100 million years before vertebrates did so. This most clearly
implies that
A. arthropods evolved before vertebrates did. B. extant terrestrial arthropods are better adapted
to terrestrial life than are extant terrestrial vertebrates. C. ancestral arthropods must have been
poorly adapted to aquatic life, thus experienced a selective pressure to invade land.
D. vertebrates evolved from arthropods. E. arthropods have had more time to co-evolve with
land plants than have vertebrates.
2
Name: ______________________
ID: A
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23. Which of the following statements about tapeworm feeding methods is correct?
A. They have complete digestive tracts. B. They use degenerate mouths to ingest some of their
food. C. As adults, they live and feed in the host's bloodstream. D. They are autotrophic.
E. They absorb nutrients across their body walls.
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24. Which of the following organisms are deuterostomes?
A. molluscs B. annelids C. echinoderms D. chordates E. both C and D
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25. Which of the following is a characteristic of adult echinoderms?
A. secondary radial symmetry B. spiral cleavage C. gastrovascular cavity D. exoskeleton
E. lophophore
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26. Whatever its ultimate cause(s), the Cambrian explosion is a prime example of
A. mass extinction. B. evolutionary stasis. C. adaptive radiation. D. A and B only E. A,
B, and C
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27. Which is characteristic of all mammals, and only of mammals?
A. a four-chambered heart that prevents mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood B. giving
birth to live young (viviparous) C. parental care of offspring D. having glands to produce
nourishing milk for offspring E. using the rib cage to assist in ventilating the lungs
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28. While working in your garden, you discover a worm-like, segmented animal with two pairs of
jointed legs per segment. The animal is probably a
A. millipede. B. caterpillar. C. centipede. D. polychaete worm. E. sow bug.
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29. All of these might have been observed in the common ancestor of chondrichthyans and
osteichthyans, except
A. a mineralized, bony skeleton. B. scales. C. lungs. D. gills. E. a swim bladder.
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30. Which group's members had (have) both lungs and gills during their adult lives?
A. sharks, skates, and rays B. lungfishes C. lancelets D. amphibians E. ichthyosaurs and
plesiosaurs
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31. In which of these extant classes did jaws occur earliest?
A. lampreys B. chondrichthyans C. ray-finned fishes D. lungfishes E. placoderms
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32. A radially symmetrical animal that has two embryonic tissue layers probably belongs to which
phylum?
A. Porifera B. Cnidaria C. Platyhelminthes D. Nematoda E. Echinodermata
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Animal Evolution and Diversity Practice [Answer Strip]
A
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13.
E
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23.
E
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14.
E
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24.
A
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1.
D
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2.
B
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3.
A
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15.
A
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25.
B
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16.
C
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26.
D
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27.
A
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4.
B
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5.
B
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6.
D
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7.
D
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8.
A
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17.
C
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18.
A
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28.
E
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29.
A
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19.
B
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30.
C
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20.
A
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B
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31.
9.
D
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10.
A
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21.
D
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11.
E
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22.
B
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12.
B
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32.
ID: A