Evolution Pre-Assessment

Which of the following is a term for a group of similar organisms that can reproduce fertile offspring?

• individual
• population
• species
• fossil

Over time, adaptions can lead populations to experience 

• environmental changes
• genetic changes
• geological changes
• extinction

what did Charles Darwin observe in finch populations of the Galapagos Islands off the coast of South America?

• different species on different islands
• all species on one of the islands
• identical species on all the islands
• the same species as North America

In natural selection, the selective agent is the

• humans
• mutations
• breeders
• environment

All rabbits living in a particular area would be an example of a(n)

• population
• species
• fossil
• individual organism

which of the folllowing is an exammple of a vestigial structure?

• the wings of a red-tailed hawk
• the hind limbs of a house cat
• the fins of sharks
• the wings of an ostrich

What is suggested by the similarity of early embryos of different species of vertebrates?

• no evolutionary relationships between the groups
• recent common ancestry
• similar environments in the past
• evolution froma distant common ancestor

Some organisms that share a common ancestor have features that have different functions, but similar structures.  These are known as

• vestigial structures
• analogous structures
• homologous structures
• fossil structures

If an organism has a vestigial structure, that structure likely once had a function in a(n)

• close relative
• early ancestor
• unrelated organism
• embryological stage

Two organisms that are closely related would have

• very similar DNA sequence
• exactly the same DNA sequences
• no proteins in common
• completely different DNA sequence