Processes of Evolution

Darwin’s and Lamarck’s theories of evolution both suggest that ______________

• species are fixed.

• the environment creates favourable characteristics on demand.

• the main mechanism of evolution depends on the use and disuse of certain organs.

• the interaction of organisms with their environment is important in the evolutionary process.

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NGSS.MS-LS2-4

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

Which of the following is a component of Darwin's original theory of evolution?

• The only traits that are inherited are those that can be acquired during one's lifetime.

• Organisms whose traits fit their environments will be the best reproducers.

• Organisms with more similar DNA are more closely related.

• The only traits that are inherited are those encoded by genes.

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NGSS.MS-LS4-4

Which of the following statement is true of evolution?

• There is forethought and planning behind evolution.

• Evolutionary changes are often not directly observable because they occur over vast expanses of time.

• Humans are the pinnacle of evolution and once they evolved, the evolution of life on this planet ceased.

• Evolution is the changes of organisms that function perfectly in their environment over time.

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NGSS.MS-LS4-4

Imagine a tree frog sitting on a limb of a tree when an arboreal snake suddenly attacks it. To escape predation, the frog leaps from the limb to the ground. The fall would be fatal, except that the frog spreads its fingers and toes, forming small parachutes that break its fall. After its initial discovery, the frog regularly escapes predators using this procedure. Through time and use, the webbing in its fingers and toes expand and stretch so that they become even more parachute-like and are more effective at breaking the frog's fall. According to Lamarck, when this frog mates with a female of the same species, he would expect that all of the frogs’ offspring ________________

• would have webbing that was a size halfway between the mother's and father's webbing.

• would have normal regular webbed fingers and toes.

• would have expanded webbing just like the father frog.

• would have no webbing between its fingers and toes.

Australia and New Zealand are very close together geographically, yet the wide variety of marsupials indigenous to Australia is not evident in New Zealand. This is probably because ____________

• Australia and New Zealand have different biogeographic origins.

• marsupials are unable to survive well in New Zealand.

• many marsupials have gone extinct in New Zealand.

• Australia is larger than New Zealand.

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NGSS.MS-LS2-4

Natural selection is based on all of the following aspects except:

• variation exists within populations.

• the fittest individual leave the most offspring.

• there are always competition for resources within populations.

• the environment tend to create favourable characteristics within populations.

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NGSS.MS-LS1-4

Scientists find that organisms on islands are different from, but closely related to similar form of organisms found on the nearest continent. This is taken as evidence that _________________

• island organisms and mainland organisms descended from common ancestors.

• island organisms and mainland organisms share the same gene pool.

• common environment are inhabited by the same organisms.

• the islands were originally part of the continent.

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NGSS.MS-LS4-2

All of the following statements are inferences of Darwin’s natural selection except:

• there is heritable variation among individuals.

• production of offspring is unrelated to the abundance of essential resources.

• often only a fraction of offspring survive because there is struggle for limited resources.

• individuals whose inherited characteristics best fit them to the environment will leave more offspring.

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NGSS.MS-LS4-4

“Evolution is the descent with modification” the statement is given by __________.

• Aristotle

• Darwin

• Lamarck

• Buffon

According to Lamarck’s theory, the organ which is used more would ________.

• disintegrate

• replenish

• develop

• remain unchanged