Biology Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The dodo is the extinct bird in question.

The tambalacoque tree of Mauritius was said to need its seeds to pass through the dodo's gut before they would germinate, so no new trees grew after the bird was hunted out in the seventeenth century. The link is disputed, but the story is the standard illustration of coextinction.

Answer: A

The placenta is formed by the union of foetal and uterine tissue.

The foetal chorionic villi interlock with the maternal endometrium, so nutrients, oxygen and waste pass between the two circulations without the blood ever mixing. It also secretes hormones that maintain the pregnancy.

Answer: C

Bones do not secrete the hormones that regulate blood calcium.

Parathormone from the parathyroid raises blood calcium and calcitonin from the thyroid lowers it; bone is the store they act on, not the source. Bones do provide muscle attachment, protect organs and make blood cells in the marrow.

Answer: A

Spermology is the study of seeds, from the Greek sperma.

It covers seed structure, dormancy, germination and storage - the basis of seed technology and of gene banks.

Answer: C

The oath taken by medical graduates comes from Hippocrates.

The Hippocratic Oath binds the physician to act for the patient's benefit, to do no harm and to keep confidence. Modern graduates usually take a revised version, such as the Declaration of Geneva.

Answer: A

The placenta is not a part of blood - it is an organ formed in pregnancy from foetal and uterine tissue.

Blood consists of plasma with red cells, white cells and platelets suspended in it.

Answer: D

Plants growing on sand are psammophytes, from the Greek psammos, sand.

They cope with a shifting, dry, nutrient-poor substrate with long spreading roots and the ability to be buried and grow through. Lithophytes grow on rock, chasmophytes in crevices, and oxylophytes on acid soil.

Answer: A

The study of flowers is anthology, from the Greek anthos, flower.

The word's ordinary sense - a collection of poems - comes from the same root, a gathering of flowers. Palynology is the study of pollen and phenology of seasonal timing.

Answer: A

Agar-agar is prepared from red algae, chiefly Gelidium and Gracilaria.

It is a gel-forming polysaccharide from the cell wall, and it is the standard solidifying agent for microbiological culture media because almost no bacterium can digest it.

Answer: C

Mendel worked on the garden pea, Pisum sativum.

It suited him because it is normally self-pollinating but can be crossed by hand, grows quickly, and has clear either-or characters - tall or short, round or wrinkled, green or yellow - with no intermediates.