DP Biology Questionbank

The images show a structure found on members of a phylum of green plants.

To which phylum does the earthworm Lumbricus rubellus belong?

Explain how natural selection can cause traits such as drought resistance to develop in wild plants.

The graph shows the proportion of a bacterial population of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, displaying resistance to the antibiotic tetracycline.

[Source: © All rights reserved. Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System Report, 2016. Public Health Agency of Canada. Adapted and reproduced with permission from the Minister of Health, 2022.]

What can be deduced from this graph?

A. Bacteria with beneficial adaptations survive and pass on their genes.

B. Immunity to tetracycline is triggered by over-use of the antibiotic.

C. Genetic variation in this bacterial population is increasing.

D. Use of tetracycline inhibits the growth of antibiotic-resistant N. gonorrhoeae.

Describe the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Living organisms have been placed in three domains: archaea, eubacteria and eukaryote. Distinguish archaea from eubacteria.

Based on the taxa shown, deduce a difficulty in gathering data to study turtle ancestry.

Prickly pear cactus plants are well adapted to desert conditions. The stems are the flattened structures visible in the image and the leaves are reduced to spines. The white spots in the image are groups of spines.

[Source: Stan Shebs/Wikimedia. File licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]

Which characteristic describes the advantage of one of their adaptations?

A. Leaves are reduced to spines to lose less carbon dioxide.

B. Spines increase surface area for more photosynthesis.

C. Stems are flattened to allow more water to be stored between periods of rain.

D. Waxy cuticle on the stems is very thin to allow rapid absorption of rain.

State two features that are found only in mammals.

List two types of evidence used to determine which species belong in the same clade.

Data regarding the presence (+) or absence (–) of five traits in several different species are shown in the table.

Which cladogram best represents the relationship between the five species?

Discuss whether there is evidence in the data that colour plays a role in the survival of the snails.

Birds, bats and humans are all vertebrates with pentadactyl limbs. Birds and bats use their forelimbs to fly whereas humans can use them to lift and manipulate objects. Outline how the bird, bat and human forelimb can be used to illustrate the concept of homologous structures.

Which organism is a member of the filicinophyta? (Note that these are not to scale)

[Source: A: Sanjay ach/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
B: Vaelta/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
C: Andrey Zharkikh/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
D: courtesy of Caroline Needham]

Which pentadactyl limb is adapted for flight?

[Source: adapted from Volkov Vladislav Petrovich, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homology_(biology)#/media/File:Homology_
vertebrates-en.svg and Zebra.element, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bat_mouse_forelimbs.png]

Lichens are returning to the forests of the industrial areas of the United Kingdom due to strict pollution control.

What is the expected outcome in the population of peppered moths (Biston betularia)?

A. Increased numbers of light-coloured peppered moths
B. Increased industrial melanism in peppered moths
C. Increased predation of peppered moths
D. Increased speciation of peppered moths

Taxonomists aim to place species into genera, families and higher taxa according to their evolutionary origins. This is known as natural classification.

Explain the usefulness of natural classification in biodiversity research.

Which of these structures is not homologous?

State two characteristics of plants from the phylum you stated in (a)(i).

On the islands of the St Kilda chain, off the coast of Scotland, there are small birds called St Kilda wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes hirtensis). They look similar to wrens on the mainland of Scotland (Troglodytes troglodytes indigenus), but they are larger and there are differences in the colour of their feathers.

What is the most likely explanation for these differences?

A. Convergent evolution

B. Stabilizing natural selection

C. Gradual divergence

D. Exposure to similar selection pressure

Explain how cladistics can be used to investigate evolutionary relationships.

Describe the risk to the human population of indiscriminate use of antibiotics.

All of the leaves in the image are from Solanum, a wild genus of tomato.

[Source: Courtesy: National Science Foundation, Credit Leonie Moyle.]

State one cause of variation in a plant such as the tomato.

Explain the development of antibiotic resistance in terms of natural selection.

The cladogram was constructed using DNA base sequences from six species. Which node indicates the greatest difference in base sequences?

[Source: © International Baccalaureate Organization 2018]

C. nemoralis is a mollusc. Identify two external features that distinguish this snail from an arthropod.

The image shows an organism belonging to the Kingdom Animalia.

The bird and bat wings share homologous bone structures whereas the insect wing does not. Outline the conclusion that can be drawn about the evolution of these wings, based on homologous structures.

Scientists studying ground finches (Geospiza fortis) on the island of Daphne Major in Galapagos found great differences in the shapes of the beaks.

[Source: Public domain.]

What is the explanation for this variation in beak shape between the birds?

A. Ground finches grow larger beaks if there is competition for food.

B. They belong to different species.

C. They are adapted for different diets.

D. The more a beak is used by a ground finch, the larger it becomes.

Which factor(s) would favour evolution by natural selection?

I. Long lifespans

II. Favourable characteristics acquired by individuals during their lifetime

III. Variation within a species

A. II only

B. III only

C. I and II

D. I and III

Using the data in the graph, distinguish between the distribution of C. nemoralis shells in woods and fields.

The cladogram shows some major orders of placental mammals and is based on biochemical evidence.

[Source: © International Baccalaureate Organization 2019]

Which conclusion can be drawn from evidence in the cladogram?

A. Primates and Sirenia have not evolved from a common ancestor.

B. Primates and Cetacea do not form part of any clade.

C. Cetacea are less closely related to Sirenia than to Primates.

D. Xenarthra have not been changed by evolution for longer than other clades.

Describe how variation contributes to evolution by natural selection.

Outline the binomial system of classification.

The plant in the diagram has vascular tissue and reproduces by spores.

[Source: Auer, A., 2007. Nature print, Alois Auer. [image online] Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nature_print,_Alois_Auer.jpg [Accessed 10 October 2019].]

To which phylum does the plant belong?

A. Bryophyta

B. Filicinophyta

C. Coniferophyta

D. Angiospermophyta

Determine the maximum percentage of yellow base colour shells found in woods.

Balkan green lizards, Lacerta trilineata, living in mainland Greece eat mostly insects but also small amounts of plants. The same species living on Greek islands (where insects are scarce) show a greater percentage of those physical traits useful for eating plants than the mainland lizards.

[Source: Penny Turner/Wikimedia file licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en]

What is the biological explanation for these observations?

A. Variation in each lizard population allowed adaptation to occur.

B. Lizards migrated to areas where they were better adapted.

C. Lizards on the islands diverged due to lack of interbreeding with the mainland population.

D. Homologous structures have prevented separate species from evolving.

The cladogram includes four marsupial (non-placental mammal) families.

[Source: Koala image: Quartl, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Phascolarctos_cinereus#/media/
File:Friendly_Female_Koala.JPG; Wombat image: JJ Harrison, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wombat#/
media/File:Vombatus_ursinus_-Maria_Island_National_Park.jpg; Marsupial lion: Nobu Tamura,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupial_lion#/media/File:Thylacoleo_BW.jpg;
Diprotodontoidea image: Anne Musser]

Deduce the family that is most closely related to the Diprotodontoidea.

The cladogram shows some of the groups in the three domains.

[Source: Adapted from Eric Gaba (Sting, fr:Sting), Cherkash, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phylogenetic_tree.svg.]

What domains do X, Y and Z represent?

Which is an example of speciation?

A. Selective breeding to produce new varieties of the wheat Triticum aestivum with higher crop yield

B. Evolution of different courtship behaviours in separate populations of the cricket Gryllus rubens

C. Natural selection leading to an increase in the frequency of darker individuals of Biston betularia

D. Selective feeding by koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) on Eucalyptus species

Explain how genetic variation between the individuals in a species can be generated.

C. nemoralis (pictured below) is a mollusc. Identify two external features that distinguish this snail from an arthropod.

The DNA base sequences in a gene coding for a particular protein in four different species are shown. Locations where mutations have occurred resulting in changes to the base sequences are outlined in boxes.

[Source: © International Baccalaureate Organization 2019]

Which cladogram shows the most likely phylogenetic relationship between the four species, based on the data provided?

State the genus of this organism.

Cell biologists play an important role in research into disease, fertility, evolution and many
other areas of science.

Outline the evidence for evolution provided by selective breeding.

Outline the use of analogous and homologous traits in natural classification.

The image shows the northern sea nettle (Chrysaora melanaster).

[Source: Aflo, 2015. Northern sea nettle (Chrysaora Melanaster) floating, with Mackerel fry (Carangidae) Izu, Japan. [image
online] Available at: https://www.naturepl.com/search/preview/northern-sea-nettle-chrysaora-melanaster-floating-withmackerel-
fry-/0_01489405.html [Accessed 23 March 2020].]

To which phylum does C. melanaster belong?

A. Porifera

B. Cnidaria

C. Platyhelmintha

D. Annelida

State one feature of the sloth that would indicate it is a mammal.

Humans have been improving crop species for thousands of years by cross-breeding plants with desirable characteristics. The photograph shows the changes in dry cobs of corn (Zea mays) over 10 000 years.

[Source: Evolution of Maize Cobs © Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. All Rights Reserved.]

What is the name of the process that was used to produce modern corn?

A. Selective breeding

B. Adaptive radiation

C. Discontinuous variation

D. Natural selection

The diagrams show various wings.