Exam 17: The Evolution of Plant and Fungal Diversity

The incomplete decay of dead plants during the Carboniferous period led to

Which of the following statements regarding ferns is true?

Which of the following statements correctly describes the alternation of generations in a plant life cycle?

During the Carboniferous period, photosynthesis in immense swamp forests removed ________ from the atmosphere, which produced a drier, cooler global climate and promoted the success of ________.

In all plants, the zygote and earliest stages of the developing embryo are

After reading the paragraphs below, answer the questions that follow. Scientists believe that a shift from pollination by insects to pollination by birds occurred several times over the course of angiosperm evolution. Two researchers designed an experiment to investigate how these shifts might evolve using two species of monkey flower (Mimulus spp.). M. lewisii has violet-pink flowers and is pollinated by bumblebees. M. cardinalis has orange-red flowers and is pollinated by hummingbirds. The researchers switched flower-color genes between the two species. As a result of the gene transfer, they produced a variation of M. cardinalis with dark pink flowers (instead of the original orange-red) and a variation of M. lewisiis with orange flowers (instead of the original violet-pink). Plants of both genetically altered varieties were placed in their original habitats and observed. The genetically altered variety of M. cardinalis was visited by bumblebees 74 times more often than plants with the original color flowers. The genetically altered variety of M. lewisii was visited by hummingbirds 68 times more often than plants with the original color flowers. -The evolution of easily modified flower colors that can make plants attractive to animals was an important factor in angiosperm evolution because

Red maples and other wind-pollinated plants invest relatively little in producing ________ but must invest a great deal in producing ________ to achieve good pollination rates.

Most familiar types of mushrooms, along with puffballs and shelf fungi, are

According to this figure, at what time in the evolutionary history of plants did vascular systems likely first evolve?

A cocklebur is dispersed by ________, whereas most fleshy, edible fruits are eaten by animals that ________.

Corn, rice, wheat, fleshy fruits such as apples and berries, and many spices are all produced by

The ancestors of land plants were probably ________ that lived in ________.

You enjoy learning about history by studying gravestones throughout North America. You notice that gravestones from 1900 and earlier usually host many types of lichens. But in one cemetery, lichens are entirely absent, even from old gravestones. Given what is known about lichens, the cemetery without lichens probably

Two characteristics shared by gymnosperms and angiosperms that are absent from earlier plant groups and represent key adaptations to life on dry land are

To cross-fertilize flowers A and B, one would first remove flower A's immature ________ and later transfer pollen from flower B to flower A's ________.

Corn, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers all contain seeds and are derived from the ovary of a flowering plant. Therefore, in scientific terms, they are ________.

The dominant stage of the moss life cycle is the

Different kinds of mycorrhizae occur in different ecosystems. For example, as you walk up a mountain, you might find one type of mycorrhizae in lower regions and a second, different type of mycorrhizae in higher regions. Why are there mycorrhizae specific to certain ecosystems?

Ferns and mosses are similar because both

One of the factors that helps animal-pollinated flowering plants transfer pollen to plants of the same species is that