Exam 16: An Introduction to Evolution: Charles Darwin, evolutionary Thought, and the Evidence for Evolution

Scientists may compare similar genes in different species and determine what percentage of base pairs is identical.From this,it can be estimated how long ago the two species shared a common ancestor.The validity of this conclusion depends on an important assumption.This assumption is that:

Who is credited with first providing conclusive evidence of species extinction?

The scientist in Darwin's time who championed the idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics was ________.

John Endler's experiment with guppies demonstrates which of the following in regard to evolution through natural selection?

In Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology,what idea had a significant impact on Charles Darwin's thinking?

Long before Charles Darwin,Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck understood all of the following ideas about evolution except that:

Evidence that supports the theory of evolution is found in studies of:

There are fossils of dinosaurs and humans that lived at the same time in the past.

The ultimate source of genetic differences among species is:

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace both realized that most species produce many more offspring than is necessary to maintain a constant population.What might be the fate of the excess individuals?

A population of grasshoppers in the Kansas prairie has two color phenotypes,green and brown.Typically the prairie receives adequate water to maintain healthy green grass.Assume a bird that eats grasshoppers moves into the prairie.How will this affect the natural selection of grasshoppers? How might this change in a drought year?

Natural selection is regarded as a theory because:

For natural selection to occur,there must be competition for resources,competition for survival,or different reproductive success.Why is this so?

What core theme unites all of biology?

The convergence of evolutionary biology with genetics produced the unified evolutionary theory known as:

A population of deer was threatened with overpopulation until cheetahs were imported.After a couple of years,there were fewer deer,but the average running speed of the deer had increased.This is an example of:

Even though nineteenth-century scientists came to accept the fact of evolution,what was required for natural selection to be accepted as the driving force of evolution?

Alfred Russel Wallace developed his theory of natural selection about 20 years after Darwin.

Charles Darwin usually gets more credit for the theory of evolution than Alfred Russel Wallace because Darwin thought of the idea first and published a mass of evidence in its support.

Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution through natural selection immediately after returning from his trip on the HMS Beagle.