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Biogeography and Natural Selection

Total questions: 25

Worksheet time: 21mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

What is is the study of how and why plants and animals live where they do?

a)

Evolution

b)

Adaptive Radiation

c)

Biogeography

d)

Biogeology

2.
A scientist puts 100 houseflies in a sealed container; then sprays an insecticide into the container.  Ninety-six of the flies die.  Four survive.  The scientist lets the survivors mate and produce offspring, then repeats the experiment with 100 offspring.  Fifty-six of them survive the spray.  This experimental result is evidence of – 
a)
adaptive radiation 
b)
speciation
c)
natural selection
d)
extinction
3.
Which statement does not accurately describe natural selection?
a)
Individual organisms change their genes to adapt to their environment
b)
The genetic composition of a population changes from one generation to the next
c)
More advantageous traits become more common in population
d)
Beneficial and useful traits are inheritable
4.
Survival of the Fittest and Evolution were proposed by what scientist?
a)
Steven Hawking
b)
Albert Einstein
c)
Charles Darwin
d)
Isaac Newton
5.
Why are advantageous traits more likely to be passed onto offspring?
a)
Because they are more likely to survive and reproduce.
b)
Because they come from dominant alleles.
c)
Because they come from recessive alleles.
d)
Because the trait is an acquired phenotype.
6.

All primates have the following features EXCEPT:

a)

large brains

b)

arms that rotate at the shoulders

c)

grasping hands

d)

bipedalism

7.

The ability to walk upright on two legs is called:

a)

bipedalism

b)

quadropedalism

c)

bicyclepedalism

d)

tripedalism

8.

Modern humans and their closest relatives (gorilla, chimpanzee, and organgutan) belong to the same family. Members of this family are called:

a)

hominids

b)

primates

c)

homo sapiens

d)

Lucy

9.

Which hominid species is most closely related to Homo sapiens?

a)

Homo habilis

b)

Australopithecus afarensis

c)

Homo neanderthalensis

d)

Homo heidelbergensis

10.

This helps primates to find ripe fruits and more nutritious leaves.

a)

grasping hands

b)

slow growth

c)

large brain

d)

color vision

11.

Primates grow slowly and have fewer offspring because...

a)

Large brains take longer to develop

b)

They are larger than most other mammals

c)

Primates have color vision and grasping hands

d)

Primates are just cool like that

12.

What is evolution?

a)

When animals move to warmer climates in the winter

b)

How organisms change across many generations

c)

The migration of different species through the seasons

d)

Ancient rock layers and the fossils they contain

13.

Why was having a larger brain advantageous for early hominins?

a)

It made them able to walk upright

b)

It helped them to see better

c)

It increased intelligence and helped them hunt and survive

d)

It prevented them from making dangerous weapons

14.

According to the theory of evolution, which of the following statements is true?

a)

Humans evolved from chimpanzees

b)

Chimpanzees evolved from humans

c)

There is no evolutionary relationship between humans and chimpanzees

d)

Humans and chimps evolved from common ancestors

15.

If the fossil record of human evolution is incomplete, why do scientists still believe humans evolved from ape-like ancestors?

a)

Because existing evidence in the fossil record strongly suggests it

b)

Because scientists make a lot of money by promoting the theory of evolution

c)

Because the theory of evolution is more than 100 years old, which means it must be correct

d)

Because humans and apes look similar to one another

16.

If you wanted to excavate fossils of the earliest human ancestors, to what country might you travel?

a)

Australia

b)

China

c)

Africa

d)

Madagascar

17.
Scientists think that the closest living relative to humans are... 
a)
lemurs
b)
monkeys
c)
gorillas
d)
chimpanzees
18.

Which group contains lemurs, monkeys, gorillas, and humans?

a)

primates

b)

anthropoids

c)

hominoids

d)

hominins

19.
True or false: 
There have been many species of humans.
a)
True
b)
False
20.
Modern Humans are classified as the species...
a)
Homo habilis
b)
Neanderthal
c)
Homo sapiens
d)
Hominid
21.

A/An (orangutan / human / gorilla / kangaroo) is not a hominid.

a)

Kangaroo

b)

Human

c)

Gorilla

d)

Orangutan

22.

Lemurs are found on the island of:

a)

Australia

b)

Sulawesi

c)

New Guinea

d)

Madagascar

23.

Lemurs are thought to have arrived on the island by having:

a)

Rafted over the water

b)

Swung through trees

c)

Hopped aboard a cargo ship

d)

Evolved from dinosaurs

24.

What happened to all of the other ancient human-like species that we find fossil skeletons of? Why aren't they alive today?

a)

Homo sapiens outcompeted them for food and killed them off whenever possible

b)

they all went extinct on their own due to lack of adaptations for survival

c)

they never went extinct, but instead mated with one another and mixed into the gene pool of Homo sapiens

d)

Scientists do not know for sure, but any of these answers are possible answers

25.

Who is Turkana Boy?

a)

the very first Homo sapien to walk Earth

b)

the only full fossil skeleton ever found of a Homo erectus - he was a young boy

c)

an ancient neanderthal full grown man that reproduced with Homo sapiens

d)

the scientist who discovered the first ever fossil skeleton of a Homo sapien in Turkana Valley, Africa