Evolution Review Quiz
1. Animal fossils are more plentiful than plant fossils because animals contain
a. hard parts such as bones, teeth, and shells.
b. soft parts such as flesh and hair.
c. large amounts of water.
d. small amounts of chemicals.
2. What is relative dating?
a. Using the half-life of radioactive elements to determine the age of fossils
b. Comparing the ratio of bone to cartilage in fossils
c. Comparing the location of fossils in sediment layers
d. Comparing the size of fossils in sediment layers
3. Why is absolute dating considered to be more accurate?
a. The position of fossils in the sediment layers are stable over time
b. The fossil layers rarely shift due to earthquakes or volcanic activity
c. Radioactive elements break down over a known steady rate
d. The amount of bone to cartilage in fossils is already known
4. Plants that grow on the shaded forest floor often have larger leaves than plants that grow in an open field.
How does this adaptation help the forest plants?
a. Large leaves keep the insects warm
b. Large leaves attract insects to the plants
c. Large leaves gather light for the plants
d. Large leaves gather water for the plants
5. What is Natural Selection?
a. The ability of an organism to evolve a new trait when needed in the environment.
b. The ability of an organism to lose a trait when it is no longer needed.
c. The process in which members of a species that are best suited to the environment survive and
reproduce at a higher rate than other members of the species
d. The theory that organisms change over time
6. A farmer sprayed his fields with a new insecticide to rid his crops of grasshoppers. Twenty-four hours later
nearly all the grasshoppers were dead. A few, however, survived. Each year he continues to spray his fields
with the insecticide, but fewer and fewer of the grasshoppers die. Which of the following best explains the
results?
a. The insecticide caused a mutation in the species.
b. The grasshoppers learned to fight off the insecticide.
c. The insecticide caused a side effect of immunity that was passed on to the next generation of
grasshoppers.
d. A few mosquitoes in the first population were immune and passed this trait to their offspring.
7. How do mutations change populations over time?
a. Most mutations are harmful and cause species to become extinct
b. Most mutations cause abnormal disease in species
c. Mutations generally have no effect on a population since they are simple changes in DNA
d. Mutation can produce adaptations in organisms that help them survive better in their environment
8. The way a plant or animal species adjusts to the environment is known as
a. variation.
c. adaptation
b. behavior.
d. existence
9. The praying mantis has few predators. Yet it is adapted to look just like the twigs and small branches where
it is usually found. This adaptation helps the praying mantis to survive by
a. hiding it from other predators looking for the same food
b. hiding it while it waits for its prey.
c. keeping its body at the same temperature as its environment.
d. allowing it to avoid others of its own kind.
Look at the picture to answer questions 16-18.
10. What occurred to the environment after layer C?
a. There was an earthquake and the land was covered by an ocean.
b. There was an event that caused the ocean to dry up and it became land.
c. Most of the land organisms were animals
d. Most of the land organisms were predators
11. Which fossils are the oldest in the diagram above?
a. A
b. B
c. C
d. D
12. The human appendix is a vestigial structure. How is it evidence of evolution?
a. It provides evidence that organisms have lost traits as they were no longer needed in the
environment
b. It provides evidence that organisms have evolved similar structures that have different functions.
c. It provides evidence that humans and apes have a common ancestor
d. It provides evidence that the diet of humans has changed in the last 100 year
13. The forearm of a human, the wing of a bird, and the flipper of a whale are called
___________________________ because they have a similar structure but function differently in different
habitats.
a. Vestigial structures
c. Artificially selected structures
b. Homologous structures
d. Naturally selected structures