Quiz: Natural Selection (Honors)

Some scientists before Darwin had proposed that living things could change over time. Why was Darwin’s theory of evolution more powerful and useful than the proposals of the other scientists during his lifetime?

• Darwin explained how mutations in the DNA could confer an advantage, providing a genetic inheritance mechanism for evolution.

• Darwin proposed that individual organisms can acquire non-inherited traits in their lifetime and pass them on.

• Darwin used logical evidence-based reasoning, including comparing living organisms to each other and to fossils, to argue how living things could change.

• Darwin hypothesized that evidence from DNA and genes would explain how evolution occurs.

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Darwin observed a variety of tortoises on the Galapagos Islands. These observations provided evidence for which of these statements?

• Species vary locally.

• Species vary over time.

• Island species are identical to mainland species.

• Island species are unrelated to mainland species.

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Darwin collected and studied a variety of fossils. The fossils provided clues to ancient organisms. As Darwin concluded, how did ancient organisms compare to modern species?

• The ancient organisms were identical to modern species.

• The ancient organisms were larger or smaller than modern species, but otherwise identical.

• The ancient organisms were similar to modern species, but differed in several ways.

• The ancient organisms were very different from modern species, and lacked any significant similarities.

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Which conditions are necessary for natural selection to occur? Select ALL of the answers that apply.

• Inheritable adaptations vary among individuals

• The population size is small

• More individuals are born than can survive

• Fitness varies among individuals

• The environment remains unchanging

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Match each example of Darwin’s observations to the statement for which it provides evidence.

• Finch birds with a variety of beak shapes live on the Galapagos Islands.

• Species vary globally.

• Rabbits live in grasslands in Europe, but not in South America and Australia.

• Species vary locally.

• Modern organisms resembled fossils.

• Species vary over time

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A variety of plants and animals live in a forest ecosystem. According to

Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution, which of these forest organisms has the

greatest fitness?

• a fox that eats many rabbits, and then is eaten by a bear

• a large, healthy wolf that does not find a mate

• a female squirrel that has many offspring

• a lone pine tree that grows in the middle of the forest

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Artificial selection has produced a wide variety of crop plants, livestock, and pets. Which characteristic of artificial selection makes it different from natural selection?

• Humans, not the environment, select which organisms survive and reproduce.

• Adaptations develop gradually over many generations.

• The offspring that are reproduced are genetically identical.

• All offspring survive and reproduce.

Match each of Charles Darwin’s ideas to the earlier scientist(s) whose work influenced Darwin’s idea.

• There is a struggle for existence.

• James Hutton and Charles Lyell

• The environment of organisms may change over time.

• Jean Baptiste Lamarck

• The inheritable traits of species may change over time as individuals acquire new traits.

• Thomas Malthus

Other biologists of Charles Darwin’s time had proposed that living things had changed over time. Which feature distinguished Darwin’s theory of evolution from the proposals of the other biologists?

• an argument that species could change

• an explanation of natural selection as a mechanism for change

• undeniable evidence of the origin of life

• an explanation that a individual's acquired traits can be passed on to offspring

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Many kangaroo rats live in the Sonoran Desert of the southwestern United States. They have a variety of adaptations for living in the hot, dry desert. Under which circumstance would the kangaroo rats of the Sonoran Desert be MOST LIKELY to develop new adaptations by natural selection?

• Variations decrease among the kangaroo rats of the Sonoran Desert.

• The climate of the Sonoran Desert changes, becoming colder and wetter.

• The climate of the Sonoran Desert remains constant for many years.

• Natural predators of the Sonoran Desert kill many kangaroo rats each year.

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