Deck 4: Evolution: History and Evidence

Question 1

The eighteenth century comparative anatomist,__________,became convinced that change had occurred during the history of life on earth,but he thought that organisms degenerated from their previous state.

A)Baptiste
B)Cuvier
C)Buffon
D)Lamarck
E)Linnaeus

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Jean Lamarck proposed a theory of evolution involving

A)natural selection.
B)organismic change.
C)organic selection.
D)inheritance of acquired characteristics.
E)consistent revolution.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Studies in __________ record patterns of animal distribution and seek to understand them.

A)biogeography
B)distributional biology
C)ecology
D)geography of animals
E)paleontology

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following is not a main point in Darwin's theory?

A)Inherited variations exist.
B)All organisms have far less reproductive potential than first thought.
C)There is a constant struggle for existence.
D)Adaptive traits will be perpetuated in subsequent generations.
E)Organisms produce more offspring than resources can support.

Question 5

Alfred Wallace based his theory of evolution on observations made while he was on a zoological expedition to the

A)Galápagos Islands.
B)Canary Islands.
C)Malay Archipelago.
D)west coast of Australia.
E)Malagasy Republic.

Question 6

Darwin's most important publication was

A)Principles of Geology.
B)On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
C)The Theory of Uniformitarianism.
D)Essay on the Principle of Population.
E)The Galápagos Expedition.

Question 7

An adaptation

A)only occurs as a result of need.
B)is not a heritable change.
C)may be behavioral, physiological, or morphological.
D)is never perpetuated by natural selection.
E)will lead to enhanced reproductive success in any given environment.

Question 8

The theory of uniformitarianism was based on the idea that the forces that shaped the earth included

A)special creation.
B)gravitational forces.
C)catastrophic events.
D)geologic uplift.
E)planetary interactions.

Question 9

__________ are evidences of past life preserved in stone,coal or other materials.

A)Blocks
B)Bones
C)Shells
D)Leaves
E)Fossils

Question 10

According to Charles Darwin,organic evolution is "descent with modification," which simply means

A)populations change over time.
B)characteristics acquired during the lifetime of an individual are passed on to all descendants of the individual.
C)the fittest always impose change on the less fit.
D)inherited variations decline as reproductive potential is modified.
E)when a change occurs in a population, the change is modified before being passed to the next generation.

Question 11

The idea of evolution did not originate with Charles Darwin.For example,the Greek philosophers __________ believed that living organisms changed over long time periods.

A)Aristophanes and Empedocles
B)Empedocles and Aristotle
C)Cato and Aristophanes
D)Aristotle and Plato
E)Cato and Plato

Question 12

Darwin found fossil remains of several extinct species in South America.He considered the fossils to be evidence that

A)numerous catastrophic events had occurred.
B)acquired characteristics are inherited.
C)the species composition of the planet had changed over time.
D)all life forms are immortal.
E)horses and sloths were closely related.

Question 13

Before publication of On the ORIGIN of Species by Means of Natural Selection,Darwin published a short summary of his theory alongside a paper written by ______________,who had independently arrived at many of the same conclusions.

A)Charles Lyell.
B)Jean Lamarck.
C)Georges Buffon.
D)Alfred Wallace.
E)James Hutton.

Question 14

Lyell and Hutton espoused the idea that natural forces such as wind,rain,and geological uplift,rather than catastrophic events,shaped the earth.This idea was known as

A)the geological concept of evolution.
B)anticatastrophism.
C)natural selection.
D)sedimentarianism.
E)uniformitarianism.

Question 15

__________,grandfather of Charles Darwin,believed in the common origin of all animals.

A)Erasmus Darwin
B)Charles Lyell
C)Jean Lamarck
D)Georges-Louis Buffon
E)James Watson

Question 16

Darwin observed __________ in the Galápagos Islands; today they are used as a classic example to illustrate great adaptive radiation.

A)finches
B)beetles
C)barnacles
D)fossils
E)tortoises

Question 17

In his observations of the tortoises on the Galápagos Islands,Darwin concluded that

A)long-necked tortoises acquired their long necks by stretching to reach vegetation.
B)those tortoises were not related to tortoises on the mainland.
C)each island species was derived from a different mainland ancestor.
D)where vegetation was sparse, long-necked tortoises were favored because they could reach higher to get their food.
E)short-necked tortoises had resulted because of spontaneous generation.

Question 18

Most modern scientists agree that

A)Lamarck's theory of evolution is scientifically sound.
B)evolution is not a scientific certainty.
C)Buffon's theory is the only possible explanation for evolution.
D)there is nothing more to be learned about evolution.
E)Darwin's theory is the most plausible explanation of how evolution occurs.

Question 19

At the beginning of his voyage on the H.M.S.Beagle,Darwin read Charles Lyell's book

A)Principles of Geology.
B)Evolution.
C)The Theory of Natural Selection.
D)The Uniformitarian Principle.
E)The Age of Catastrophy.

Question 20

Darwin began gathering the evidence to support his theory of evolution while he served as the naturalist on the H.M.S.

A)Lamarck.
B)Tortoise.
C)Galápagos.
D)Sloth.
E)Beagle.

Question 21

An important component of Darwin's theory is that

A)natural populations contain genetic variation.
B)acquired characteristics can be inherited.
C)genes are the basic hereditary units.
D)variations are never harmful.
E)non-adaptive traits tend to become more frequent.

Question 22

Pelvic bones in whales are examples of

A)convergent structures
B)analogous structures
C)homologous structures
D)vestigial structures
E)differential structures

Question 23

Similar structures in unrelated organisms that arise through convergent evolution are called

A)nonadaptive structures.
B)analogous structures.
C)differential structures.
D)homologous structures.
E)convergent structures.

Question 24

_______ characteristics and structures evolve between species because these species share a common ancestry.

A)Non-adaptive
B)Analogous
C)Differential
D)Homologous
E)Convergent

Question 25

A type of absolute dating that uses the degree of change in regions of DNA relies on a concept called the

A)genetic timescale
B)molecular clock
C)evolutionary hourglass
D)dating constant
E)DNA degradation theory

Question 26

Thomas Malthus believed that poverty,war,plague,and famine result from a shortage of resources due to the human population's potential to

A)increase geometrically.
B)pollute the air.
C)cause species to become extinct.
D)pollute their water supply.
E)destroy the tropical forests.

Question 27

Microevolution is described by which of the following?

A)Changes in the frequency of alleles in a population
B)Changes in the frequency of alleles in an individual
C)Changes in anatomical structures found in a population when compared to ancestral forms of the species
D)Changes in anatomical structures found in an individual when compared to ancestral forms of the species