Darwin and Natural Selection

Charles Darwin was best known in the 19th century for:

• creating the idea of evolution

• creating the idea of uniformitarianism

• making the idea of evolution acceptable for scientists and the educated general public

• all of the above

Charles Darwin's ideas concerning the causes of evolution were probably formulated in his mind:

• while he was still a student at Cambridge University

• before he began his voyage of exploration around the world on H.M.S. Beagle

• during his voyage on H.M.S. Beagle, especially after he reached the Galápagos Islandsn

• during the late 1880's

Charles Darwin concluded that the 13 species of finches on the Galápagos Islands:

• were identical to 13 finch species in northwestern South America 600 miles to the east

• probably evolved from one ancestral South American species

• had all adapted to the same food sources

• B and C

Through careful observation, Charles Darwin came to understand that:

• populations of plants and animals in nature most often consist of individuals that are clones of each other

• those individuals whose variation gives them an advantage in staying alive long enough to reproduce are more likely to pass their traits on to the next generation

• populations of a species that become isolated from others by adapting to different environmental niches quickly become extinct

• all of the above

Which of the following statements is true about Charles Darwin?

• He believed that evolution was due to the inheritance of acquired characteristics.

• He supported Lamarck's explanation of how evolution occurred.

• He understood that the variation that exists in natural populations of plants or animals is the result of repeated mutations.

• none of the above

The example of the peppered moths living near English industrial cities demonstrates that:

• a change in an environment can result in the evolution of species living there

• evolution occurs so slowly that it is not possible to determine that it has happened in less than a million years

• the environment near these cities has always favored dark colored moths

The theory of evolution by natural selection was independently developed by:

• Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin

• Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace

• Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck

• Charles Lyell and James Hutton

Which of the following statements about Darwin is true?

• He failed to convince the majority of biologists and other educated people in the late 19th century that life evolves.

• He thought that the biggest and strongest animals are always at an advantage in natural selection.

• His book On the Origin of Species did not sell well and the biologists in his time did not take much notice of it.

• none of the above

Darwin and Wallace's theory of evolution by natural selection failed to explain how:

• nature operates to reduce variation in a population every generation

• new genetic varieties can appear in a population every generation

• neither of the above

The evolution of one species into two or more species as a result of different populations becoming reproductively isolated from each other is:

• adaptive radiation

• creationism

• photosynthesis