In the past, mass extinctions encouraged the rapid evolution of surviving species (1 point)
• by changing developmental genes.
• by making new habitats available to them.
• because they killed all organisms that had coevolved.
• because they spared all organisms that had evolved convergently.
The Australian flying phalanger is a marsupial flying squirrel. Its appearance, behavior, environment, and diet closely resemble those of the American flying squirrel, a placental mammal. This resemblance is most likely due to (1 point)
• adaptive radiation.
• convergent evolution.
• coevolution.
• gradualism.
Gradualism is a pattern of evolution in which (1 point)
• a single species evolves into several closely related species.
• several distantly related species develop similarities.
• a species evolves at a slow, steady pace.
• a species has periods of little evolution interrupted by periods of rapid evolution.
Mass extinction would most likely result from which of the following events? (1 point)
• A disease kills off a single species of predator within an ecosystem.
• A wildfire burns a national park.
• Global temperatures drop several degrees after several massive volcanic eruptions.
• A massive earthquake strikes North America.
