Evolution

Evolution

Black – FALSE

Red - TRUE

1.     The evolution of major groups of animals and plants is not an observed fact.

2.     Evolution is not something you should either believe in, or not believe in.

3.     Evolution is a not a process which involved the origin of life.

4.     Evolution is not primarily concerned with the origin of humans.

5.     According to evolution, people did not come from monkeys a long time ago.

6.     Evolution was not first proposed and explained by Charles Darwin.

7.     Evolution is not also known as ‘natural selection’.

-Natural selection is the pressure exerted by the environment/community for the species to adapt.

8.     Evolution is something which happened only in the past, it is not happening now.

9.     Evolution is something which happens to individual organisms.

10. Evolution is a totally random process, a series of ‘accidents.

11. Evolution is only a theory.

-It is not! (molecular evidence)

12. There is actually very little evidence for evolution.

13. Fossils reveal many problems which evolution cannot explain.

14. Biological, medical and agricultural research is increasingly based on the assumption that evolution occurs.

15. Evolution has been tested and challenged many times, but has always been supported by the results.

16. Dinosaurs lived during the time of early humans.

17. Evolution involves individuals changing in order to adapt to the environment.

-Evolution is over many generations, not suddenly develop the desired characteristics. ADAPTATION =/= EVOLUTION!

18. There is considerable observed evidence against evolution.

19. Science can productively study the past, based on evidence, so evolution is a proper subject for science.

20. The formation of complex structures, like the eye, can be readily explained by evolution.

21.  21. A volcano erupted on an island. The ash released from the volcano changed the acidity (pH) of the soil from the level it had been for hundreds of years. This significant change resulted in new environmental pressures on species in the soil. Which of the following is a likely outcome of these pressures?

-Some species will disappear from the soil because they do not have individuals with traits that allow them to survive in more acidic soil.

-Only some species will generate the needed mutations to adapt to the change in pH; other species will become extinct.

-Most species gain additional genetically-based traits, and this increase in complexity allows them to live in the more acidic soil.

-Individuals in each species will evolve the traits necessary to survive under these new conditions.

22. Bacillus thuringienses (Bt) bacteria produce a natural insecticide. Widespread use of Bt has lead to Bt resistance among insects. Why is this occurring?

-Individual insects that have mutations providing resistance to Bt can survive in the presence of Bt. The survivors pass this Bt resistance on to their offspring.

-Bt-resistant insects increase in the population by chance. There are so many insects that some of them are resistant to each type of insecticide.

-In the presence of Bt, individual insects evolve to become Bt resistant.

-Natural selection causes insects to generate genes providing resistance to Bt.

23. A given plant population is pollinated exclusively by a particular bee. A wet spring leads to a disease that wipes out all of the bees in the plant’s habitat. What is the likely outcome for this plant population?

-A mutation will arise which will allow the plants to be pollinated by other insects.

-Because they need to change their pollinators, some plant individuals will adapt to be pollinated by other insects.

-This plant population will die off.

-Enough variation exists within the plant population to allow it to adapt to any environmental challenge.

24.

-A seal is more closely related to a horse than to a whale.

-A seal is more closely related to a whale than to a horse.

-A seal is equally related to a horse and a whale.

-A seal is related to a whale, but is not related to a horse.