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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Coming Thing.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What traits did sailors notice in animals on remote islands?
(a) They were unafraid of humans, and thus easy prey.
(b) They adapted more quickly to environmental changes than animals on larger land masses.
(c) They were smaller and harder to observe than their counterparts on land.
(d) They were more varied than species on land.

2. How long after the eruption did it take for 271 species to be counted at Krakatau?
(a) 25 years.
(b) 6 months.
(c) 50 years.
(d) 10 years.

3. What doe Quammen say about this rule?
(a) It is highly controversial.
(b) It is still not established as accepted science.
(c) It required enormous statistical calculations to arrive at it.
(d) It is intuitive, but also more complicated.

4. What did Philip Darlington propose?
(a) A correction that makes this rule broadly applicable.
(b) A set of formula that measure biodiversity.
(c) A mathematical ratio between island area and number of species.
(d) A set of exceptions to this rule.

5. What did Wilson and MacArthur argue influenced the number of species on an island?
(a) The fertility of the soil, or temperature of the water.
(b) A natural rhythm of immigration and extinction.
(c) The island's distance from the mainland.
(d) The altitude of its mountains.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Quammen say lizards probably arrived at Krakatau?

2. How do scientists relate data from samples and isolates to larger areas?

3. How did Wallace put Darwin in a tough spot, according to Quammen?

4. How did sailors describe the dodo?

5. How did humans hurt the dodo population directly?

(see the answer key)

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