Natural Selection and Evolution

Question 1

What were biological sciences defined in terms of rather than scientific data and extrapolation in the 1700s and 1800s?

Answer 1

Natural Theory

Question 2

What did scientists use to “debunk” natural theology to explain scientific findings?

Answer 2

Scientific data and extrapolation

Question 3

What is “descent with modification” caused by?

Answer 3

Natural Selection

Question 4

Charles Darwin built on the ideas of other scientists to develop which theory?

Answer 4

The Theory of Natural Selection

Question 5

Who did Charles Darwin agree with that evolution occurs within a species overtime yet proposed a different mechanism from Darwin’?

Answer 5

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Question 6

Was Lamarck’s mechanism correct?

Answer 6

No

Question 7

What was Lamarck’s mechanism called and what did it say?

Answer 7

It was called the inheritance of acquired traits and stated that if a trait was unused by an individual in a species, it wouldn’t be passed down to offspring.

Question 8

Why was Lamarck’s theory notable?

Answer 8

It was notable because of its emphasis on an organism’s adaptation to its environmental surroundings.

Question 9

What was the mechanism called that Darwin proposed and claimed caused changes in species?

Answer 9

Natural Selection

Question 10

What were Darwin’s ideas influenced by?

Answer 10

Ideas proposed by other scientists, observing plant and animal breeding, and biogeography.

Question 11

Who was the geologist that proposed that what happens now also happened in the past and what is another word for that theory?

Answer 11

Charles Lyell proposed uniformitarianism which states that what happens now also happened in the past.

Question 12

What is gradualism?

Answer 12

The theory that processes over a long period of time account for large-scale changes in the Earth’s physical characteristics

Question 13

What did Darwin conclude that represented distinct time periods during the Earth’s history?

Answer 13

Darwin concluded that strata and the fossils inside represented distinct time periods during the Earth’s history.

Question 14

Who proposed that population size remains fairly steady despite its capacity for exponential growth?

Answer 14

Thomas Malthus

Question 15

What factors bring down population size?

Answer 15

Some factors include disease, wars, and limited resources.

Question 16

What species and how many different types of that species did Darwin study on the Galapagos Islands?

Answer 16

Darwin studied 12 different types of finches on the Galapagos Islands.

Question 17

What link did Darwin discover through his studies?

Answer 17

Darwin’s studies enabled him to make a link between the origin of a new species and the environment in which these species reside.

Question 18

What is the Theory of Natural Selection?

Answer 18

It argues that an organism’s reproductive success is reliant on how well it adapts to its environment.

Question 19

What is an example of Natural Selection?

Answer 19

Finches in the Galapagos Islands adapted their beak structure to find food.

Question 20

What affects the production of offspring and causes competition between species?

Answer 20

Not enough environmental support/resources.

Question 21

What is an individual’s genetic background depended on for within a population?

Answer 21

Survival of individuals depend on their genetic background.

Question 22

Why do offsprings become more “fit” for their environment?

Answer 22

They have traits that promote survival.

Question 23

How do genetic variations and mutations benefit a species’s population?

Answer 23

They benefit a species’s population by providing variability and diversity which benefits the reproduction of the population.

Question 24

Why do finches’ beaks change size during different season and what type of variation is this example of adaption?

Answer 24

This genetic variation allows them to change to get a better advantage in the resource competition that comes during different seasons when resources are scarce.

Question 25

How does finches’ beaks changing size benefit their species?

Answer 25

This variation benefits the species by giving them a competitive advantage promoting them to survive (survival of the fittest).