Biology: Benchmark 4

Darwin noticed that many organisms seemed well suited to what?

• being preserved as fossils.

• providing humans with food.

• surviving the environments in which they lived.

• Swimming from South America to the Galapagos Islands.

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The species of finches that Charles Darwin found on different islands varied in certain structural adaptations. One of the most significant adaptations that Darwin noted was

• birds' different shaped beaks.

• similarities of the birds' embryos.

• length of the birds' necks.

• Number of eggs in each bird's nest

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Based on the adaptations Charles Darwin observed in finches and tortoises in the Galapagos, he wondered:

• if species living on different islands had once been members of the same species.

• if finches and tortoises had originated from the same ancestral species.

• if all birds on the different islands were finches.

• why all tortoises on the different islands were identical.

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Biologists in Darwin's time had already begun to understand that living things change over time. How did Darwin contribute to these ideas?

• He found many fossils that showed that these changes could not possibly happen on islands.

• He figured out and explained how these changes happened and supported his ideas with evidence.

• He made guesses about how these changes happened, and wrote experiments that could be used to test these guesses.

• He was the first person to truly believe that these changes happened, and he worked very hard to convince others.

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Charles Darwin's observation that finches of different species on the Galapagos Islands have many similar physical characteristics supports the hypothesis that these finches

• have the ability to interbreed.

• acquired traits through use and disuse.

• all eat the same type of food.

• descended from a common ancestor.

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Which of the following ideas is supported by Darwin's observation of local variation among tortoises in the Galapagos Islands?

• artificial selection

• adaptation

• acquired characteristics

• tendency towards perfection

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Darwin first began to formulate his concept of evolution by natural selection after

• experimenting with animals.

• observing patterns among the geographical location of certain species.

• reading the writings of Wallace.

• agreeing with Lamarck about the driving force behind evolution.

James Hutton's and Charles Lyell's work suggest that

• Earth is several million years old.

• Earth is several thousand years old.

• all fossils were formed in the last 1000 years.

• all rocks on Earth contain fossils.

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One scientist who attempted to explain how rock formations, such as rock layers, form and change over time was

• Thomas Malthus

• James Hutton

• Charles Darwin

• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

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James Hutton's and Charles Lyell's work was important to Darwin because these scientists

• explained volcanoes and earthquakes.

• explained all geological events on Earth.

• suggested that Earth was old enough for evolution to have occurred.

• refuted the work of Lamarck, which was based on misunderstandings.

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