Deck 16: Evolution: the Development of the Theory

Question 1

Extinct glyptodont and living nine-banded armadillo were related according to Darwin. In what way are they related?

A) They were/are both living.
B) They are both animals.
C) Glyptodont is an ancestor and armadillo is a descendant.
D) Glyptodont is a descendant and armadillo is an ancestor,

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What is the reason that a species still exists in its environment even after this environment changes?

A) natural changes
B) adjustment
C) acclimatization
D) adaptation

Answer 2

D

Question 3

As a young child, you preferred to collect shells and insects, dig through the mud around a pond, and watch birds rather than play video games. What did you have in common with Charles Darwin?

A) an interest in geology
B) an interest in history
C) an interest in natural history
D) an interest in biogeography

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following is an example of Scala Naturae?

A) Minerals rank below plants, plants below animals, animals below humans, and humans below the gods.
B) Mosses rank below ferns, ferns below flowering plants, flowering plants below bushes, and bushes below trees.
C) Cars rank below buses, buses below trucks, trucks below cars, and buses below airplanes.
D) Blood cells rank below blood liquid, blood liquid below lymph, lymph below connective tissue, and connective tissue below skin.

Question 5

Which of the following is an example of Scala Naturae?

A) Darwin's ladder-like understanding of nature from the most complex to simplest
B) Darwin's ladder-like understanding of nature from simplest to the most complex
C) Aristotle's ladder-like understanding of nature from the most complex to simplest
D) Aristotle's ladder-like understanding of nature from simplest to the most complex

Question 6

What was a basic truth of inheritance that had been known well before Darwin's time?

A) Offspring frequently resemble their parents, offspring inherit genes from their parents, and selective breeding improves domesticated plants and animals.
B) Offspring frequently resemble their parents and selective breeding improves domesticated plants and animals.
C) Offspring inherit genes from their parents.
D) Offspring frequently resemble their parents.

Question 7

Whose quote is this: "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution"?

A) Aristotle
B) Jan Baptiste de Lamarck
C) Theodosius Dobzhansky
D) Charles Darwin

Question 8

Which of the following studies provide compelling evidence of evolutionary change?

A) studies of adaptation and historical biogeography
B) studies of adaptation and the fossil record
C) studies of adaptation, the fossil record, and historical biogeography
D) studies of adaptation, the fossil record, historical biogeography, and comparative morphology

Question 9

What was the reason Darwin was sailing aboard the HMS Beagle?

A) He was a naturalist.
B) He was a geologist.
C) He was the captain's personal physician.
D) He was the captain's dining companion.

Question 10

Which of the following is the reason for existence of vestigial structures (useless parts of the body)?

A) They must have functioned in the near past.
B) They must have functioned in ancestral organisms.
C) They must have functioned in other organisms.
D) They must have functioned in similar organisms.

Question 11

What has Health Canada recognized as the top health issue in the past decade in Canada?

A) HIV
B) bacterial antibiotic resistance
C) malaria
D) influenza

Question 12

Which of the following happened before Darwin?

A) No one had yet conceived of biological evolution.
B) Lamarck wrote about biological evolution, but had the mechanism wrong.
C) Lamarck had the idea of natural selection, but was ignored.
D) Malthus demonstrated the progression of fossils in rocks.

Question 13

Who proposed the Scale of Nature?

A) Aristotle
B) Darwin
C) Lamarck
D) Lyell

Question 14

Which of the following was NOT proposed by Lamarck's theory of evolution?

A) Changes in species are a result of natural selection.
B) Organisms change in response to their environment.
C) New characteristics are passed from one generation to the next.
D) Species change through time.

Question 15

Which of these observations did NOT influence Darwin's later thoughts about evolution?

A) North American and South American species were more similar to each other than European and African species.
B) Species on islands differed from species on the mainland closest to the island.
C) A great variety of species exist across the globe.
D) Species on different islands were very different.

Question 16

Who proposed that species change through time?

A) Charles Lyell, Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, and Alfred Russel Wallace
B) James Hutton, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Russel Wallace
C) Aristotle, Charles Darwin, and Jean Baptiste de Lamarck
D) Charles Darwin, Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, and Alfred Russel Wallace

Question 17

Which of the following is a defining characteristic of comparative morphology?

A) It compares the anatomical structures of organisms.
B) It compares the similarities of organisms.
C) It compares the differences of organisms.
D) It compares the similarities and differences of organisms.

Question 18

Which of the following is an example of biogeography?

A) studies involving travelling around the world and observing life
B) studies of the world distribution of humans
C) studies of the world distribution of fungi and animals
D) studies of the world distribution of plants and animals

Question 19

When did Darwin's voyage take place?

A) 1731 to 1736
B) 1831 to 1836
C) 1854 to 1859
D) 1931 to 1939

Question 20

What was the importance of George-Louis Leclerc's findings?

A) Most animals have not changed since their creation, and they still look the same and function in the same way as in their past.
B) Most animals have not changed since their creation, but some have evolved vestigial structures as new components.
C) Some animals must have changed since their creation, and their vestigial structures must have functioned in ancestral organisms.
D) Some animals must have not changed since their creation, and all their structures must have functioned in ancestral organisms too.

Question 21

What was the major stumbling block for the acceptance of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution when proposed by Darwin?

A) lack of a fossil record
B) lack of observational and experimental data
C) lack of a plausible theory of heredity
D) lack of evidence for artificial selection

Question 22

Which of the following was most important to lead to the science of molecular genetics?

A) research since the discovery of the structure of RNA that has led to a more thorough understanding of mutations
B) research since the discovery of the structure of DNA that has led to a more thorough understanding of mutations
C) research since the discovery of the structure of DNA that has led to a more thorough understanding of genetics
D) research since the discovery of the structure of RNA that has led to a more thorough understanding of genetics

Question 23

While collecting a diverse group of finches, Darwin noticed great variability in the shapes of their bills. However, he incorrectly assumed which of the following.

A) that birds on the same island belonged to the same species
B) that birds on the same island did not belong to the same species
C) that birds on different islands did not belong to the same species
D) that birds on different islands belonged to the same species

Question 24

Which of these observations did Darwin apply to organisms in nature?

A) Malthus's observation that England's population was growing much faster than the country's agricultural capacity
B) Malthus's observation that simple organisms evolved into more complex ones, moving up the ladder of life
C) Lamarck's observation that simple organisms evolved into more complex ones, moving up the ladder of life
D) Lamarck's observation that England's population was growing much faster than the country's agricultural capacity

Question 25

Which of the following probably influenced Darwin the most when he was developing his theory of evolution?

A) catastrophism
B) uniformitarianism
C) Scala Naturae
D) vestigial structures

Question 26

Which of the following is characteristic of adaptive traits?

A) artificially selected characteristics that make organisms more likely to survive and reproduce under a given set of environmental conditions
B) hereditary characteristics that make organisms more likely to survive and reproduce under a given set of environmental conditions.
C) naturally selected characteristics that make organisms more likely to become extinct under a given set of environmental conditions
D) hereditary characteristics that make organisms more likely to become extinct under a given set of environmental conditions

Question 27

If organisms have a huge capacity to reproduce, why aren't populations of all organisms enormous?

A) The overall number of populations constrains the size of any population.
B) Genetics constrain the size of any population.
C) Limited resources constrain the size of any population.
D) Climate factors constrain the size of any population.

Question 28

Which of these statements represents what Darwin thought of artificial selection?

A) He reasoned that if characteristics that better enable organisms to adapt to specific environmental pressures exist, then artificial selection will tend to increase those in succeeding generations.
B) He reasoned that if a person could select different characteristics when breeding organisms, then nature could do so as well.
C) Humans were selecting the characteristics they wanted in the offspring by choosing parents with those traits.
D) Humans were selecting the characteristics they wanted in the offspring by eliminating individuals that did not show these characteristics.

Question 29

Which of these statements represents what Darwin thought of natural selection?

A) He reasoned that if characteristics that better enable organisms to adapt to specific environmental pressures exist, then selective breeding could do the same.
B) He reasoned that if a person could select different characteristics when breeding organisms, then nature could do so as well.
C) Humans were selecting the characteristics they wanted in the offspring by choosing parents with those traits.
D) Humans were selecting the characteristics they wanted in the offspring by eliminating individuals that did not show these characteristics.

Question 30

Which of the following best compares microevolution with macroevolution?

A) Microevolution describes the small-scale evolutionary changes that populations undergo. Macroevolution describes larger-scale genetic changes observed in species.
B) Microevolution describes the large-scale genetic changes that populations undergo. Macroevolution describes small-scale evolutionary changes observed in species.
C) Microevolution describes the small-scale genetic changes that populations undergo. Macroevolution describes larger-scale evolutionary changes observed in species.
D) Microevolution describes the small-scale genetic changes that species undergo. Macroevolution describes larger-scale evolutionary changes observed in populations.

Question 31

Suppose that each species of Galápagos tortoise has a distinctive shell and that variations in shell size make some tortoises better adapted for defence. Imagine an island where many hunt these tortoises. Individuals with a larger shell would be more likely to survive and reproduce than would tortoises with smaller shells. These favoured individuals would pass on the genes that produce larger shells to their descendants, while those with smaller shells would not reproduce, leading to extinction. Which of the following would most likely drive this event?

A) spontaneous selection
B) hereditary selection
C) natural selection
D) artificial selection

Question 32

Which of the following is NOT an observation made by Darwin?

A) If the next generation is subjected to the same process of selection, these favourable traits will become less common.
B) Individuals within populations vary in size, form, colour, behaviour, and other characteristics.
C) Many of these variations are passed on from parent to offspring.
D) Some of the inherited variations enable some individuals to survive and reproduce better than others.

Question 33

Which of the following were integrated in a unified theory of evolution called the modern synthesis?

A) biogeography, comparative morphology, comparative embryology, genetics, paleontology, and taxonomy
B) biogeography, comparative morphology, comparative embryology, genetics, and paleontology
C) biogeography, comparative morphology, comparative embryology, and genetics
D) biogeography, comparative morphology, and comparative embryology

Question 34

Which of these concepts is closely related to adaptation?

A) selection
B) survival
C) fitness
D) hierarchy

Question 35

Which of the following best characterizes evolutionary divergence by Darwin's observation?

A) the great similarity of form of species
B) the great variety of form of species
C) differences in appearance of nutria and beaver
D) differences in bill shape and food habits of finches

Question 36

Which of the following was the specific discipline that linked Mendel's and Darwin's work?

A) modern synthesis
B) biogeography
C) population biology
D) population genetics

Question 37

What was the perceived fundamental conflict between Darwin's and Mendel's theories?

A) Darwin was a scientist while Mendel was a monk.
B) Mendel's experiments were unbiased, while Darwin set out to prove evolution by natural selection.
C) Mendel's experiments were based on simple traits while Darwin's evidence was based on complex characteristics.
D) Mendel's theory was based on experimentation while Darwin's was based on observation.

Question 38

Which of the following characteristics distinguish Darwin's theory from earlier explanations of biological diversity and adaptive traits?

A) Darwin provided purely spiritual, rather than physical, explanations for the origins of biological diversity.
B) Darwin recognized that evolutionary change occurs in groups of organisms rather than in individuals: some members of a group survive and reproduce more successfully than others.
C) Darwin described evolution as a single-stage process: variations arise within groups, natural selection eliminates unsuccessful variations, and the next generation inherits successful variations.
D) Like Lamarck, Darwin understood that evolution does not occur because some organisms function worse than others in a particular environment.

Question 39

Which two scientists evidenced evolution via natural selection as an idea whose time had come?

A) Darwin and Wallace
B) Darwin and Lamarck
C) Darwin and Malthus
D) Lamarck and Wallace

Question 40

Which of the following statements best exemplifies the principle of selective pressures?

A) the environmental pressures felt by selection
B) the environmental pressures felt by populations
C) the environmental pressures felt by species
D) the environmental pressures felt by organisms

Question 41

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
This describes larger-scale evolutionary changes observed in species.

Question 42

Which of these disciplines have been profoundly influenced by the findings of evolutionary biology?

A) genetics, molecular biology, developmental biology, systematics, and paleontology
B) molecular biology, forensic science, systematics, paleontology, and mathematics
C) forensic science, ecology, botany, astronomy, and physics
D) developmental biology, ecology, forensic science, astronomy, and paleontology

Question 43

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
This documents continuity in morphological characteristics.

Question 44

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
Ambiguous conclusions about phylogenetic relationship derived from comparative morphology can now generally be clarified by this discipline.

Question 45

Which of the following is the modern synthesis of evolution NOT based on?

A) linking Darwinism with Mendelism
B) linking population growth with variation to explain natural selection
C) interpreting microevolution and macroevolution
D) interpreting data from a wide variety of biological disciplines in an evolutionary framework

Question 46

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
A practitioner of this discipline might observe that species on oceanic islands often closely resemble species on the nearest mainland.

Question 47

Evolution by natural selection, as conceived by Darwin, is NOT based on Mendel's experiments with peas.

Question 48

Mendel did NOT influence Darwin's writing of the book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

Question 49

Which of the following is extinction most likely an example of?

A) Mendelian genetics
B) natural selection
C) macroevolutionary change
D) microevolutionary change

Question 50

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
If you observe that the arms of humans and wings of birds are constructed similarly, you would be practicing this discipline.

Question 51

Darwin understood that a major aspect of evolutionary change must reside within a species.

Question 52

Which of the following reflects genetic differences?

A) phenotypic variation among organisms
B) genotypic variation among organisms
C) genotypic and phenotypic variation among organisms
D) genotypic and phenotypic variation among populations

Question 53

Explain how observing artificial selection provides an inference for natural selection.

Question 54

Which of the following have extended the achievements of the modern synthesis of evolution, and what is the result?

A) Molecular techniques have extended the achievements of the modern synthesis, allowing precise analysis of the genetic basis of evolutionary change.
B) Molecular techniques have extended the achievements of the modern synthesis, allowing precise analysis of the genetic basis of evolutionary change and the genetic relatedness of living and extinct organisms.
C) Molecular techniques have extended the achievements of the modern synthesis, allowing the genetic relatedness of living and extinct organisms.
D) Genetic techniques have extended the achievements of the modern synthesis, allowing precise analysis of the genetic relatedness of living and extinct organisms.

Question 55

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
This provides biologists with powerful tools for exploring all aspects of life.

Question 56

The ability of the bacterium E. coli to adapt to different growth temperatures is an excellent example of which of the following?

A) experimental evolution
B) prokaryotic evolution
C) adaptive transformation
D) genetic transformation

Question 57

What are the products of evolution?

Question 58

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
Using fossil evidence is important in this discipline.

Question 59

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
This describes the small-scale genetic changes in populations.

Question 60

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
In this discipline, genetics and mathematics are combined to predict how selection and other processes such as non-random reproduction, affect a population's genetic changes through time.

Question 61

Match each person with their correct concept.
a.vestigial structures
b.evolution by natural selection
c.inheritance of acquired characteristics
d.uniformitarianism
Jean Baptiste de Lamarck

Question 62

Match each person with their correct concept.
a.vestigial structures
b.evolution by natural selection
c.inheritance of acquired characteristics
d.uniformitarianism
Charles Darwin

Question 63

Match each person with their correct concept.
a.vestigial structures
b.evolution by natural selection
c.inheritance of acquired characteristics
d.uniformitarianism
Alfred Russel Wallace

Question 64

Match each person with their correct concept.
a.vestigial structures
b.evolution by natural selection
c.inheritance of acquired characteristics
d.uniformitarianism
Charles Lyell

Question 65

Match the descriptions listed below with their correct disciplin
e.
a.population genetics
b.microevolution
c.historical biogeography
d.comparative morphology
e.macroevolution
f.the fossil records
g.molecular techniques
Species on oceanic islands often closely resemble species on the nearest mainland, suggesting that the islands and mainland species have a common ancestry.

Question 66

Match each person with their correct concept.
a.vestigial structures
b.evolution by natural selection
c.inheritance of acquired characteristics
d.uniformitarianism
George-Louis de Buffon