Chapter 22 Biodiversity: Evolution By Natural Selection

What term refers to overturning existing ideas with radically different ones, forming the foundation of modern science?

• A) Transformation

• B) Revolution

• C) Evolution

• D) Progression

Answer: B) Revolution

Which of the following is NOT an example of a revolutionary scientific theory mentioned in Chapter 22?

• A) Copernicus's heliocentric model

• B) Newton's laws of motion and gravitation

• C) The germ theory of disease

• D) Mendel's laws of inheritance

Answer: D) Mendel's laws of inheritance

What is the term for the prevailing belief in Western civilization for over 2000 years, which stated that species were supernaturally, not naturally, created?

• A) Evolution

• B) Transformationism

• C) Typological thinking

• D) Natural selection

Answer: C) Typological thinking

Who believed that organisms represented perfect, unchanging essences created by God and acknowledged only slight variations within species?

• A) Charles Darwin

• B) Plato

• C) Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck

• D) Aristotle

Answer: B) Plato

Aristotle proposed that species are fixed types arranged linearly based on size and complexity. What did he call this concept?

• A) Evolution

• B) The scale of nature

• C) Population thinking

• D) The great chain of being

Answer: B) The scale of nature

True or False: Lamarckian evolution suggests that species change due to the inheritance of acquired characters.

Answer: True

True or False: Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace rejected the concept of linear and progressive evolution.

Answer: True

True or False: Darwin's observations in the Galapagos led him to propose that similar species on islands shared a common ancestorunctional structures in organisms.

Answer: True

True or False: Vestigial traits are functional structures in organisms.

Answer: False

True or False: Natural selection is a goal-directed process in which organisms evolve to become perfectly adapted to their environments.

Answer: False

Who introduced the first formal theory of evolution in 1809, initially influenced by the scale of nature?

• A) Charles Darwin

• B) Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck

• C) Aristotle

• D) Alfred Russel Wallace

Answer: B) Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck

What did Charles Darwin describe as "descent with modification" in the context of evolution?

• A) Gradualism

• B) Vestigial traits

• C) Natural selection

• D) Genetic drift

Answer: A) Gradualism

What evidence supports the claim that species are not fixed types?

• A) The age of the Earth

• B) Vestigial traits

• C) Uniformitarianism

• D) The great chain of being

Answer: B) Vestigial traits

Which scientist's work confirmed the occurrence of extinction and revealed that over 99% of species that ever lived are extinct?

• A) Charles Darwin

• B) James Hutton

• C) Baron Georges Cuvier

• D) Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck

Answer: C) Baron Georges Cuvier

What do we call the structures that are reduced or non-functional and are similar to ancestral ones, such as vestigial leg bones in some snakes and wingless birds?

• A) Homologies

• B) Vestigial traits

• C) Transitional features

• D) Analogies

Answer: B) Vestigial traits

Biologists have documented contemporary populations evolving in response to environmental changes. Which term is used to describe this process?

• A) Genetic drift

• B) Speciation

• C) Microevolution

• D) Gradualism

Answer: C) Microevolution

What is the term for an individual's ability to produce surviving, fertile offspring compared to others in the population?

• A) Genetic drift

• B) Biological fitness

• C) Adaptation

• D) Heritability

Answer: B) Biological fitness

What is the term for a heritable trait that enhances an individual's fitness in a specific environment compared to individuals without that trait?

• A) Evolution

• B) Mutation

• C) Adaptation

• D) Genetic drift

Answer: C) Adaptation

Which process can change allele frequencies over time but is not driven by adaptation?

• A) Natural selection

• B) Genetic drift

• C) Speciation

• D) Gradualism

Answer: B) Genetic drift

Which of the following statements is true regarding the concept of "descent with modification"?

• A) It implies that evolution is a linear and progressive process.

• B) It explains observations better than special creation.

• C) It suggests that traits are always genetically constrained.

• D) It claims that natural selection leads to perfection.

Answer: B) It explains observations better than special creation

What term describes the belief that species are supernaturally, not naturally, created, prevailing in Western civilization for over 2000 years?

• A) Evolution

• B) Creationism

• C) Speciation

• D) Typological thinking

Answer: D) Typological thinking

Who proposed that species are fixed types arranged linearly based on size and complexity, from minerals to humans?

• A) Plato

• B) Charles Darwin

• C) Aristotle

• D) Lamarck

Answer: C) Aristotle

What term describes the concept of a heritable trait that enhances an individual's fitness in a specific environment compared to individuals without that trait?

• A) Natural selection

• B) Genetic drift

• C) Adaptation

• D) Mutation

Answer: C) Adaptation

Which term refers to the similarities in skeletons, muscles, and organs due to common ancestry?

• A) Homology

• B) Convergence

• C) Genetic drift

• D) Speciation

Answer: A) Homology

What is the term for the formation of new species from preexisting ones?

• A) Microevolution

• B) Extinction

• C) Speciation

• D) Gradualism

Answer: C) Speciation

Which term refers to the concept that not all traits are adaptive, and some may be vestigial or result from silent mutations that do not change the phenotype?

• A) Genetic drift

• B) Natural selection

• C) Non-adaptive traits

• D) Microevolution

Answer: C) Non-adaptive traits

What term describes the process of manipulating pigeon populations to observe the inheritance of traits, as used by Charles Darwin?

• A) Artificial selection

• B) Genetic drift

• C) Speciation

• D) Mutation

Answer: A) Artificial selection

What term refers to the process of populations evolving through changes in allele frequencies over time?

• A) Gradualism

• B) Genetic drift

• C) Microevolution

• D) Natural selection

Answer: C) Microevolution

Which term describes the concept that adaptations do not occur because organisms want or need them, and mutations creating new alleles occur randomly?

• A) Purposeful evolution

• B) Non-adaptive evolution

• C) Genetic drift

• D) Lamarckism

Answer: B) Non-adaptive evolution

What term describes a scientific theory that is a radically different idea, overturning existing concepts and forming the foundation of modern science?

• A) Gradualism

• B) Revolution

• C) Adaptation

• D) Fossilization

Answer: B) Revolution

Who proposed that species change due to the inheritance of acquired characters, where an individual's phenotype changes in response to the environment and is passed to offspring?

• A) Charles Darwin

• B) Plato

• C) Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck

• D) Aristotle

Answer: C) Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck

What term refers to structures that are reduced or non-functional and are similar to ancestral ones, such as vestigial leg bones in some snakes?

• A) Analogies

• B) Vestibules

• C) Homologous traits

• D) Vestigial traits

Answer: D) Vestigial traits

Which term describes the concept that natural selection often occurs in changing environments, leading to different adaptive traits in different seasons or locations?

• A) Genetic drift

• B) Environmental adaptation

• C) Temporal variability

• D) Seasonal selection

Answer: B) Environmental adaptation

What term describes the concept that evolution is not synonymous with natural selection and that other processes like genetic drift and mutation can also change allele frequencies?

• A) Gradualism

• B) Neo-Darwinism

• C) Evolutionary convergence

• D) Pluralism

Answer: D) Pluralism

Who introduced the first formal theory of evolution in 1809, initially influenced by the scale of nature?

• A) Charles Darwin

• B) Plato

• C) Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck

• D) Aristotle

Answer: C) Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck

What term describes the concept that traits may be subject to fitness trade-offs, where optimizing one trait compromises another?

• A) Genetic drift

• B) Trade-off adaptation

• C) Pleiotropy

• D) Speciation

Answer: B) Trade-off adaptation

Which term refers to the process of manipulating pigeon populations to observe the inheritance of traits, as used by Charles Darwin?

• A) Artificial selection

• B) Genetic drift

• C) Speciation

• D) Mutation

Answer: A) Artificial selection

What term describes the concept that adaptations do not occur because organisms want or need them, and mutations creating new alleles occur randomly?

• A) Purposeful evolution

• B) Non-adaptive evolution

• C) Genetic drift

• D) Lamarckism

Answer: B) Non-adaptive evolution

Which term refers to the concept that evolution is not synonymous with natural selection and that other processes like genetic drift and mutation can also change allele frequencies?

• A) Gradualism

• B) Neo-Darwinism

• C) Evolutionary convergence

• D) Pluralism

Answer: D) Pluralism