Deck 2: Evolution: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory

Question 1

Who was the English demographer whose work on population growth greatly influenced Darwin's thinking on population adaptation?

A)Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
B)Georges Cuvier
C)Thomas Malthus
D)Charles Lyell

Answer 1

Thomas Malthus

Question 2

Which five scientific disciplines did Darwin draw on to develop his thinking about evolution?

A)geology,physical anthropology,taxonomy and systematics,demography,and evolutionary biology
B)geology,paleontology,taxonomy and systematics,geography,and evolutionary biology
C)geology,paleontology,taxonomy and systematics,demography,and biology
D)geology,paleontology,taxonomy and systematics,demography,and evolutionary biology

Answer 2

geology,paleontology,taxonomy and systematics,demography,and evolutionary biology

Question 3

What does Darwinian evolution propose?

A)Species adapt and change over time based on the environment.
B)An individual can change within its own lifetime.
C)Species adapt based on individual goals.
D)Individuals determine their own biological adaptation.

Answer 3

Species adapt and change over time based on the environment.

Question 4

What does the theory of uniformitarianism state?

A)The earth is very old,based on geologic evidence from stratigraphic layers in Scotland.
B)The natural processes operating today are the same as the natural processes that operated in the past,and the Earth is very old.
C)The uniformity of species is derived from the common ancestor of all species.
D)Processes such as earthquakes are evidence supporting catastrophism as proposed by Lamarck.

Question 5

Who was the English scientist who independently co-discovered the theory of natural selection?

A)Charles Lyell
B)Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
C)Alfred Russell Wallace
D)Carolus Linnaeus

Question 6

What happens when adaptive radiation occurs?

A)One species gives rise to multiple closely related species.
B)Several species adapt to one environment.
C)Species adapt to environments with high radiation levels.
D)An individual adapts to varying environments.

Question 7

What did Mendel's plant experiments demonstrate?

A)Traits inherited from each parent blended together in the offspring.
B)DNA was the molecule carrying the genetic code.
C)Peas were a poor choice for understanding basic hereditary principles.
D)Traits are passed on from parent to offspring as discrete units.

Question 8

Cuvier,Lamarck,and Erasmus Darwin all shared an idea of evolution.However,what key feature did their ideas all lack,which Charles Darwin would later develop?

A)proof of the great age of the Earth,necessary for evolution to take place
B)a basic understanding of inheritance
C)an understanding of diversity of life on Earth
D)a mechanism for evolutionary change

Question 9

Why is the work of Alfred Russell Wallace considered when discussing the theory of evolution?

A)He was an English naturalist who had arrived at many of the same conclusions as Darwin through his own research.
B)His work is not considered,as he was mistakenly credited with the theory of natural selection.
C)He was a British dog breeder who worked on artificial selection experiments in the same way Mendel worked on sweet peas to determine inheritance.
D)He was the most prominent scientist of the time who opposed Darwin's work on evolution.

Question 10

Without the work of x-ray crystallographer ________,DNA might not have been discovered until much later than it was.

A)James Watson
B)Francis Crick
C)Thomas Malthus
D)Rosalind Franklin

Question 11

How is the theory of uniformitarianism relevant?

A)It supports the theory of catastrophism.
B)It proves that changes to the Earth were caused by cataclysmic events like earthquakes and floods.
C)It allowed the understanding of evidence of change in the geological past by understanding what we see in the present day.
D)It demonstrates that the Earth is 4.4 billion years old,based on geologic evidence from stratigraphic layers.

Question 12

Why is Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species (1859)considered an important contribution to modern science?

A)It first coined the concept of evolution.
B)It synthesized information from diverse scientific fields in order to document and explain evolutionary change.
C)It was immediately and widely accepted by the scientific community as presenting the mechanism for evolutionary change.
D)It proposed the use of the scientific method for the first time.

Question 13

How did Lamarck contribute to the theory of evolution?

A)He discovered genetic mutation through experiments with pea plants.
B)He proposed the concept of natural selection after his voyage to the Galapagos Islands and his study of finches.
C)He proposed the first serious model of how traits are passed on from parent to offspring,through inheritance of acquired characteristics,though that idea turned out to be incorrect.
D)He proposed a concept known today as gene flow.

Question 14

What are the advantageous "attributes" to which Darwin refers now known as?

A)traits
B)genes
C)DNA
D)chromosomes

Question 15

How was Darwin influenced by Thomas Malthus's work on population growth?

A)Malthus' assertion that resource abundance closely tracked population increase forced Darwin to look to something other than overproduction of offspring as a driver in natural selection.
B)Malthus' assertion about population growth and resources provided a key condition for natural selection.
C)Darwin liked the concept of Latin taxonomic classification as it pertained to human groups.
D)Darwin was greatly influenced by research on acquired characteristics.

Question 16

With what is James Hutton primarily associated?

A)adaptation
B)catastrophism
C)uniformitarianism
D)principles of heredity

Question 17

According to Darwin,natural selection operates at the level of:

A)individuals.
B)genes.
C)populations.
D)species.

Question 18

What do the forces of evolution include?

A)gene flow,mutations,chromosomes,and genes
B)mutations,genes,and genetic drift
C)natural selection,gene flow,genetic drift,and mutations
D)natural selection,genes,alleles,and chromosomes

Question 19

What was Thomas Malthus's contribution to natural selection?

A)the binomial taxonomic system of naming species
B)the theory that the Earth's old age is based on geologic evidence resulting from cataclysmic events
C)the observation that an abundance of food would allow a population to increase geometrically and indefinitely,but there simply is not enough food so populations are limited by food supply
D)the theory that environmental resources increase in response to population pressures

Question 20

What is the "evolutionary synthesis"?

A)the concept of evolution through natural selection
B)a unified theory of evolution that combines genetics with natural selection
C)a combination of the inheritance of acquired characteristics and natural selection
D)the combination of the theory of evolution and Linnaean taxonomy

Question 21

Which of the following do fossils represent and what do they tell us?

A)extant species that tell the story of human origins
B)extinct organisms that provide a record of the history of life on the planet
C)plants that provide proof of catastrophism
D)organisms that demonstrate the age of the Earth through the process of uniformitarianism

Question 22

In your textbook,what is the lower frequency of sickle-cell anemia among present day Americans of West African ancestry,as compared to people living in West Africa,attributed to?

A)genetic drift
B)gene flow
C)new mutations
D)Tay-Sachs disease

Question 23

What did Darwin observe about adaptations?

A)They resulted from supernatural forces.
B)They did not vary among Galápagos finches living in different habitats.
C)They were physical traits that enhanced survival and reproduction.
D)They were peripheral to evolutionary change.

Question 24

Why are Darwin's finches considered good examples of natural selection?

A)They are found on every continent.
B)They originated in North America,according to fossil evidence.
C)They embody the idea of descent with modification.
D)They did not differ between populations.

Question 25

In what way did the West African Ebola pandemic of 2014-2015 demonstrate the value of an anthropological approach?

A)Careful research by anthropologists identified the first human infection,from which all the other cases ultimately came.
B)Research on chimpanzees,who are also affected by Ebola,led to the development of a vaccine.
C)A medical anthropologist discovered that quarantine,an effective way to limit the spread of disease,could also contribute to mortality,in unexpected ways.
D)Anthropologists discovered that there were five different species of Ebola.

Question 26

What are the individual genotypes in a breeding population,taken as a whole?

A)gene pool
B)DNA
C)phenotype
D)polygene

Question 27

What theory did the presence of iridium in geologic deposits around the world support?

A)The impact of a giant meteor that struck the Earth produced mass extinctions of dinosaur species across the planet.
B)Alien material was a factor in the origins of species on this planet.
C)Catastrophes occurred in the past and produced major changes in species,causing dinosaurs to adapt and eventually become mammals.
D)Cuvier's proposal of catastrophism as the theory explaining human origins is correct.

Question 28

Why was Darwin's 1859 published theory of natural selection not widely accepted by his peers? What later scientific advance was critical to the subsequent broad acceptance of natural selection as a major force in evolutionary change?

Question 29

Who was the geneticist who studied the workings of fruit flies' chromosomes?

A)Charles Darwin
B)Gregor Mendel
C)Thomas Hunt Morgan
D)Thomas Huxley

Question 30

Why is Linnaeus's taxonomic system referred to as a "hierarchy"?

A)Each species has a "higher level" genus and "lower level" species,and is placed within additional higher level categories.
B)Species are placed in a ranked list called the "Great Chain of Being."
C)Humans are considered the most evolved species.
D)Naming species officially requires approval of an appointed board of high level experts.

Question 31

Who was the scientist whose work provided the foundation for later understandings of genetics?

A)John Ray
B)Gregor Mendel
C)Charles Darwin
D)Robert Hooke

Question 32

How does gene flow differ from genetic drift?

A)Gene flow is the random change in the frequency of alleles.
B)Gene flow is the random change in a gene or chromosome.
C)Gene flow is the guiding force of evolution.
D)Gene flow is the spread of new genetic material from one gene pool to another.

Question 33

Discuss four key individuals who helped Darwin formulate the theory of natural selection.

Question 34

What were the three key observations made by Darwin that allowed him to deduce that natural selection is a primary driver of evolution?

A)Species change and adapt based on environmental pressure,individuals change within their lifetime,and offspring inherit the changes.
B)Genetic drift,gene flow,and mutations provide the change necessary in populations that affect future generations.
C)Organisms produce more offspring than survive,variation exists among members of populations,advantageous variations increase in relative frequency over time.
D)The number of adults tends to remain the same over time,individuals vary very little over time,and natural selection works on only the best of those adults in each generation.

Question 35

What are the classification levels of humans from order to species?

A)Chordata,Mammalia,Haplorhini,Hominoidea,Homo,and sapiens
B)Primates,Haplorhini,Anthropoidea,Catarrhini,Hominoidea,Hominidae,Homininae,Hominini,Homo,and sapiens
C)Primates,Strepsirhini,Catarrhini,Hominoidea,Hominidae,Homo,and sapiens
D)Mammalia,Platyrrhini,Hominoidea,Hominidae,Homo,and sapiens

Question 36

How do the diverse modern-day lemurs of Madagascar demonstrate the concept of adaptive radiation?

A)They are a closely related species that have branched from one species.
B)They are no different from ancient species of lemurs.
C)They have radiated from ancient species of monkeys.
D)They show great cultural flexibility.

Question 37

How did James Hutton give context to Darwin's later work?

A)by extensively studying fossils
B)by revealing that fossils would provide the history of past life
C)by creating the first scientific classification of plants and animals
D)by providing geologic evidence necessary for calculating the time span of evolution

Question 38

The Human Genome Project has identified the location of genes that influence diseases.What are some of these diseases?

A)the common cold,flu,whooping cough,and meningitis
B)high blood pressure,diabetes,sinus inflammation,and sickle-cell anemia
C)sickle-cell anemia,breast cancer,Tay-Sachs,and cystic fibrosis
D)thyroid disease,menopause,meningitis,and breast cancer

Question 39

Who was the scientist who coined the name Homo sapiens for human beings and placed them in a higher taxonomic group (primates)?

A)Charles Darwin
B)Georges Cuvier
C)Carolus Linnaeus
D)Robert Hooke

Question 40

How did Thomas Hunt Morgan build on Mendel's experiments?

A)by demonstrating that chromosomes carry genetic material in the form of genes
B)by studying mutations in Homo sapiens
C)by thinking that change was gradual and occurred over long time periods
D)by proposing the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics

Question 41

Discuss the forces of evolution and their role in evolution.

Question 42

What is the significance for evolutionary theory of Darwin's analysis of the Galápagos finches? Provide at least one example in your answer.

Question 43

What are some of the important scientific discoveries that laid the groundwork for Darwin's theory of evolution?