Biology Unit Questions: Evolution
Name ____________________________________________ Date _______________ Period _________
1. Describe the influences that James Hutton and Charles Lyell had on Charles Darwin.
2. According to ____________________ theory on inherited acquired traits, the long legs of certain
shore birds could be acquired by frequent wading and then passed on to offspring.
3. Many theories, such as the flat-earth theory and the geocentric theory, were widely and adamantly
accepted, yet they are now rejected. Explain why it was so difficult to change scientists’ minds on
these theories.
4. Many scientists find serious flaws in the theory of evolution. If this theory is truly flawed, why is it
so strongly supported in the scientific world?
5. How did Lamarck’s theory state a population of giraffe’s would evolve to have longer necks?
6. Which step in the universal theory of evolution lacks the most evidence? Explain how this is a
problem for evolutionists.
7. List five forms of evidence supporting evolution and evaluate the effectiveness of each form of
evidence.
8. Populations of white, brown, and black rabbits were introduced into a new area. After the first few
cold winters only the white rabbits could be found. Explain what may have happened to the brown
and black rabbits.
9.
Farmer Tom only breeds the largest hogs, the fastest horses, and the cows that produce the most
milk. After many generations what will be the outcome? Explain this in terms of artificial selection.
10. According to the figure below, modern whales have a vestigial pelvis and a femur. What does this
evidence imply about ancestors of modern whales?
11. Coevolution and convergent evolution both describe rates of evolution. Explain the differences and
give an example of each.
12. Which of the following is an example of convergent evolution?
A) A strain of HIV is resistant to a drug treatment that another strain is not.
B) One species of rabbit is eaten by its predator faster than another.
C) Sharks and lizards have both developed an eye lens for sight.
D) Adaptive radiation
E) Penguins, bats, humans and whales use homologous structures for different purposes
13. Which of the following BEST describes the theory of punctuated equilibrium?
A) Tiny changes in a species add up to negligible changes over time.
B) Biological changes occur quickly over a short period of time followed by long periods of
time of little or no change.
C) Biological change occurs slowly and steadily over a long period of time.
D) Events that have occurred throughout the history of life have caused the extinction of
species.
E) A background evolution rate of gradual changes is the control group used for comparing
mass evolution rates
14. Of the following, which is not a requirement for natural selection to occur?
A) Individuals in populations show variations
B) Variations can be inherited
C) All offspring inherit the best traits
D) Organisms have more offspring than can survive on available resources
E) Variations
15. A man treated his home with a pesticide that kills roaches. The first application of the pesticide
killed 92% of the roaches. Two months later he applied the pesticide to his home again, but the second
application killed only 65% of the roaches. What would best explain the decrease in the effectiveness of
the pesticide?
A) The pesticide is effective only against mature roaches.
B) Once roaches learned how to fight the pesticide, they taught others.
C) The surviving roaches were naturally resistant to the pesticide, and that resistance was
inherited by their offspring.
D) The pesticide caused some of the roaches’ digestive systems to mutate and metabolize the
pesticide.
E) The pesticide’s decrease in potency due to being stored between the first and second
spraying caused it to be less effective
16. Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection to explain why
A) there is a large variety of living organisms
B) living organisms show little change
C) Mendel’s laws of heredity are true
D) birds are able to inhabit isolated islands
E) flies aren’t spontaneously generated
17. In the diagram below B, C, and D represent organisms that exist in the present time and show a
striking similarity to each other in their bone structure. In the
diagram, letter A most
likely represents
A) homologous structures
B) a common ancestor
C) an acquired characteristic
D) geographic distribution
E) convergent evolution
18. The fact that at least one species of resistant
bacteria has
developed for almost every antibiotic is evidence for which condition?
A) The bacteria have adapted and could be evolving into a different species.
B) The bacteria have learned to mimic other species.
C) There is no variation in the bacteria population.
D) The antibiotics are being made differently
E) Bacteria have an ability to physically adapt to each different antibiotic
19. Under what conditions might a population of a short type of sunflower be identified as a new
species?
A) They are able to breed with sunflowers from the original population.
B) They are unable to breed with the sunflowers of the original population.
C) They appear as a new color.
D) They produce twice as many blooms as the original sunflower population.
E) They have a different genotype than the tall type sunflower
20. Why are the structures shown below considered to
be homologous?
A) They belong to organisms that evolved
from separate ancestors.
B) They are the result of geographic isolation
C) They belong to organisms that probably
evolved from a common ancestor
D) They are the result of sympatric speciation
E) They developed through convergent
evolution to solve the same evolutionary
challenge
21. According to the theory of natural selection, why are some individuals more likely than others to
survive and reproduce?
A) They pass on to their offspring new characteristics they acquired during their lifetimes.
B) They are better adapted to exist in their environment than others.
C) They do not pass on to their offspring new characteristics they have acquired during their
lifetimes.
D) They tend to produce fewer offspring than do others in the same environment.
E) They are in the right place at the right time
22. The diagram below shows a comparison of nitrogen base sequences in the DNA of some organisms
to those of a human. According to this diagram, humans may be most closely related to the:
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
gorilla
ancestral primate
orangutan
chimpanzee
none of the above
23. What is occurring when unrelated species living in different parts of the world, but with similar
niches, evolve similar traits and structures?
A) Genetic drift
B) Parallelism
C) Identical mutation patterns
D) Divergent evolution
E) Convergent evolution
24. Scientists can estimate more accurately at what point various groups of organisms diverged
evolutionarily from one another by using which source of information?
A) Fossil record
B) DNA evidence
C) Migration patterns
D) Genetic equilibrium
E) Historical observations
25. Blood proteins in horses are chemically similar to blood proteins in monkeys. This similarity
suggests that horses and monkeys
A) can interbreed
B) evolved at the same time
C) live in the same habitat
D) have analogous structures
E) have a common ancestor
26. The diagrams below represent stages in the embryonic development of four organisms. The
similarities in embryonic development shown in the diagram suggest that these organisms
A) are all members of the same species
B) all undergo external development
C) may have evolved from a common ancestor
D) have adaptations for the same environment
as adults
E) have experienced embryonic convergent
evolution