Evolution quiz

Miller's experiment produced which compounds from simple gases?

The forelimbs of whales, bats, cheetahs and humans are examples of:

Which of the following is an example of convergent evolution?

Hugo de Vries based his mutation theory on work with:

Darwin's finches show:

Which of the following is NOT a factor affecting Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

The hominids that lived in East African grasslands about 2 million years ago, hunted with stone weapons but essentially ate fruit, were:

The brain capacity of Homo habilis was between:

When more individuals acquire a value other than the mean character value, the type of natural selection is:

Single-step large mutation is called:

What is industrial melanism? Name the organism in which it was studied. (2 marks)

What were the two key concepts of Darwin's theory of evolution? (2 marks)

How does the theory of panspermia explain the origin of life? (2 marks)

Why are the wings of a butterfly and of a bird called analogous organs? (2 marks)

Explain how gene flow differs from genetic drift. (2 marks)

What did Lamarck propose about the evolution of the long neck in giraffes? Why is his theory not accepted? (2 marks)

What is meant by fitness in Darwinian terms? (2 marks)

Name two placental mammals and their marsupial counterparts that show convergent evolution in Australia. (2 marks)

How do fossils provide evidence for evolution? (2 marks)

When did agriculture begin and when did pre-historic cave art develop, according to the account of human evolution? (2 marks)

In a population, the frequency of allele a is 0.3. Calculate the frequency of allele A and of genotypes AA, Aa and aa under Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. (3 marks)

Out of 2,500 individuals in a population, 100 show a recessive disorder. Calculate q, p and the expected number of carriers. (3 marks)

In a population of 400 snails, 256 have dark shells (AA and Aa) and 144 have light shells (aa). Calculate the allele frequencies and the number of heterozygous snails expected at equilibrium. (3 marks)

A bacterial population doubles every 20 minutes. If one mutant cell resistant to an antibiotic appears in a culture and only resistant cells survive after the antibiotic is added, how many resistant cells will there be after 4 hours? What does this show about evolution? (3 marks)

The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and life appeared about 500 million years after its formation. Calculate when life appeared (in years ago) and what fraction of Earth's history has had life. (3 marks)

Read the passage and answer the questions. On a voyage around the world aboard HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin observed small black birds on the Galapagos Islands. They looked alike but had different beaks: some crushed seeds, some ate insects and some fed on cactus. (i) What name is given to these birds? (ii) Explain how one ancestral seed-eating form gave rise to many types. (iii) Name this evolutionary process. (5 marks)

Read the passage and answer the questions. In a village, farmers sprayed the same insecticide every season. Within a few years the insecticide no longer controlled the pests. Scientists found that the surviving pests had a gene that allowed them to break down the chemical. (i) Was the resistance gene caused by the insecticide? Explain. (ii) Explain how the resistant population arose. (iii) What type of natural selection is this? (5 marks)

Read the passage and answer the questions. A small group of 20 birds was blown by a storm to a remote island. By chance, they carried a rare allele for red feathers at a high frequency. A few generations later, most birds on the island had red feathers. (i) Name the phenomenon. (ii) Why does it occur more often in small populations? (iii) How does it change allele frequencies compared with natural selection? (5 marks)

Read the passage and answer the questions. In 1953, a young scientist created conditions similar to the early Earth in a closed flask with methane, hydrogen, ammonia and water vapour at 800 degrees C and passed electric sparks. After a week, he found amino acids in the water. (i) Name the scientist. (ii) Which hypothesis did this experiment support? (iii) Why was oxygen not included in the flask? (5 marks)

Read the passage and answer the questions. A museum display shows skulls of Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Neanderthal man and Homo sapiens arranged in order. The brain size increases from left to right. (i) What was the brain capacity of Homo erectus and of Neanderthal man? (ii) Which of these used hides to protect the body and buried their dead? (iii) Where did Homo sapiens arise and migrate to? (5 marks)

Describe Miller's experiment with a labelled diagram. Explain how it supported the theory of chemical evolution proposed by Oparin and Haldane. (6 marks)

Explain the evidence for evolution from comparative anatomy, palaeontology and biochemistry. Draw labelled diagrams of homologous forelimbs of vertebrates. (6 marks)

State and explain the Hardy-Weinberg principle. Describe the five factors that affect equilibrium, and draw graphs of the three types of natural selection. (6 marks)

Explain adaptive radiation and convergent evolution with examples from Darwin's finches and Australian marsupials. Draw a labelled diagram of adaptive radiation in marsupials. (6 marks)

Give an account of human evolution from Dryopithecus to Homo sapiens. Draw a flowchart or timeline showing each stage with its time period and brain capacity where known. (6 marks)