Question

12.

Nest parasites are species of birds that lay eggs in the nests of other birds, where their eggs will be incubated and their young fed by the breeding pair of another species. The parasitized pair often do not recognize that there are additional eggs in the nest, or do not recognize the eggs as those of parasites. The parasitized nest often results in fewer offspring surviving for the parasitized breeding pair, but survival of the parasites' offspring. If this represents a case of the “Red Queen,” then which of the following would you expect to evolve in the parasitized species?

		ability to recognize foreign eggs in the nest and remove them
		ability to recognize when the parasite species is in their territory
		ability to abandon a parasitized nest and wait for the next year to reproduce
		ability to parasitize nests of other songbirds in the area

11.

A general trend in global biodiversity is a gradient of:

		increasing diversity moving from the equator toward the poles.
		decreasing diversity moving from the equator toward the poles.
		increasing diversity moving out from continental margins to the interior.
		decreasing diversity moving from continental margins to the interior.

10.

Some biologists believe that the latitudinal gradient in species diversity reflects the fact that high latitudes recently lay beneath large glaciers. If there had been no recent ice age, would we still expect to see a latitudinal diversity gradient?

		No, without the ice ages, biomes at high latitudes would be older, with more time for the diversification of species.
		No, without polar ice (large ice formation around the pole), warm ocean currents like the Gulf Stream would carry more heat to high latitudes, making them more productive and, so, supporting more diversity.
		Yes, with or without recent glaciation of high latitudes, there is still less energy available at high latitudes to support diverse biomes.
		Yes, nutrient availability would still be lower at high latitudes.

Answer 1

Answer

12. The parasitic birds lay their egg by parasitizing other birds nests. The host songbirds will incubate and look after these eggs. These parasitic birds have the ability to recognize not only their species and they can also recognize the song of the host species. Thus, this ability to recognize their own species based on the songs of the other host birds allows them to parasitize nests of other songbirds in the area.

Therefore, the correct answer is option (d).

11. The increase in biodiversity occurs from poles to the tropics in another way the species diversity is high in the lower latitudes when compared to the higher latitudes. As one moves away from the low latitudes the diversity decreases. The species hypothesis suggests that due to the higher population the rate of extinction is low at the equator and the diversity decreases when one moves from the equator toward the pole.

Therefore, the correct answer is option (b).

10. At high latitudes, the species diversity is less when compared to species diversity at low latitudes. Though the species diversity decreases at this point there are still a wide variety of biomes living beneath these large glaciers. Thus, there is little energy still available to support these biomes irrespective of whether glaciation occurred or not.

Therefore, the correct answer is option (c).