Chapter Questions
Which of the following statements about evolutionary studies is not true?Biologists study the products of evolution to understand the processes causing it.b. Biologists design molecular experiments to examine evolutionary processes operating over short time periods.c. Biologists study the inheritance of characteristics that a parent acquired during its lifetime.d. Biologists study variation in homologous structures among related organisms.e. Biologists examine why a huge variety of species may inhabit a small island cluster.
Which of the following ideas is not included in Darwin's theory?a. All organisms that have ever existed arose through evolutionary modifications of ancestral species.b. The great variety of species alive today resulted from the diversification of ancestral species.c. Natural selection drives some evolutionary change.d. Natural selection preserves advantageous traits.Natural selection eliminates adaptive traits.
The "father" of taxonomy is:a. Charles Darwin.b. Charles Lyell.c. Alfred wallace.d. Carolus Linnaeus.e. Jean Baptiste de Lamarck.
The wings of birds, the legs of pigs, and the flippers of dolphins provide examples of:a. vestigial structures.b. homologous structures.c. acquired characteristics.d. artificial selection.e. uniformitarianism.
Which of the following statements is not compatible with Darwin's theory?a. All organisms have arisen by descent with modification.b. Evolution has altered and diversified ancestral species.c. Evolution occurs in individuals rather than in groups.d. Natural selection eliminates unsuccessful variations.Evolution occurs because some individuals function better than others in a particular environment.
Which of the following does not contribute to the study of evolution?a. population geneticsb. inheritance of acquired characteristicsc. the fossil recordd. DNA sequencinge. comparative morphology
Which of the following could be an example of microevolution?a. a slight change in a bird population's color due to a small genetic change in the populationb. large differences between fossils found near the ground surface and those found in deep rock layersc.the sudden disappearance of an entire genusd. the direct evolutionary link between living primates and humansa flood that drowns all members of a population
Which of the following ideas proposed by Lamarck was not included in Darwin's theory?a. Organisms change in response to their environments.b. Changes that an organism acquires during its lifetime are passed to its offspring.c. All species change with time.d. New variations may be passed from one generation to the next.e. Specific mechanisms cause evolutionary change.
Medical advances now allow many people who suffer from genetic diseases to survive and reproduce. These advances:a. refute Darwin's theory.b. support Lamarck's theory.c. disprove descent with modification.d. reduce the effects of natural selection.e. eliminate adaptive traits.
The belief that evolution is progressive or goal-oriented is called:a. gradualism.b. uniformitarianism.c. taxonomy.d. orthogenesis.e. the modern synthesis.