Evolution and natural selection
19 review questions with answers for Evolution and natural selection. Read them here, or play the set as a class game on the projector. Free to host, and students join with a code.
Scientist who set out evolution by natural selection in On the Origin of Species (1859)?
- Charles DarwinRight answer
- Gregor Mendel
- Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
- Alfred Russel Wallace
What this set covers
Darwin and Wallace, natural selection, variation, mutation, adaptation, selective breeding, fossils, speciation and extinction all appear, with peppered moths, Darwin's finches, antibiotic resistance and the pentadactyl limb as examples.
- Common mix-up
- Students often mix up natural selection and selective breeding: in natural selection the environment favors some individuals, while in selective breeding humans choose the parents they want.
- Review tip
- Retell the peppered moth story in five steps, using the words variation, selection pressure, survival, reproduction and allele frequency, then repeat it for antibiotic resistance.
All 19 questions and answers
Scientist who set out evolution by natural selection in On the Origin of Species (1859)?
Answer: Charles Darwin
Naturalist whose 1858 letter from south-east Asia, describing the same idea, prompted Darwin to publish?
Answer: Alfred Russel Wallace
Rejected idea that characteristics acquired during a lifetime are passed to offspring?
Answer: Lamarckism
Process by which individuals best suited to their environment survive and reproduce more?
Answer: Natural selection
Change in the inherited characteristics of a population over many generations?
Answer: Evolution
Differences between individuals of the same species?
Answer: Variation
Original source of new alleles in a population?
Answer: Mutation
Feature that helps an organism survive in its environment?
Answer: Adaptation
Humans choosing parents with useful characteristics to produce offspring with those traits?
Answer: Selective breeding
When an antibiotic is used, the bacteria that are killed first are the…?
Answer: Non-resistant ones
Preserved remains or traces of organisms found in rock?
Answer: Fossils
Formation of a new kind of organism that can no longer interbreed with the original population?
Answer: Speciation
Two organisms belong to the same species if they can breed to produce…?
Answer: Fertile offspring
Permanent loss of every member of a species?
Answer: Extinction
Separation of populations by a barrier such as a mountain range, which can lead to new species?
Answer: Geographical isolation
Dark peppered moths became more common in sooty industrial areas because they were…?
Answer: Better camouflaged
Feature of Darwin's finches that differs between species, matching their diets?
Answer: Beak shape
Islands where Darwin studied finches and giant tortoises?
Answer: Galápagos Islands
Five-digit bone pattern shared by a bat's wing, a whale's flipper and a human arm?
Answer: Pentadactyl limb
Play it as a class game
Play this set opens it in splycr, where you can host it for your class straight away. Hosting needs no account: put the room code on the projector, and students join from a phone with the code and their first name. Each question plays as multiple choice, and the three wrong options were written for that question.