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Biology
Cells, Genes & Evolution
From the inside of a cell to the logic of natural selection.
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What is generally considered the basic unit of life?
Evolution & Natural Selection
Natural selection is easy to state and easy to get slightly wrong. These ten questions cover the mechanism itself and the observations that support it.
About this topic
Natural selection needs only three things to be true: individuals vary, some of that variation is inherited, and it affects how many offspring they leave. Given those, the makeup of a population has to shift over generations. The logic is simple enough that Darwin's supporters were reportedly annoyed at not having thought of it first. The common misunderstandings are worth knowing too. Individuals do not evolve, populations do. Selection cannot plan ahead. Fitness is measured in surviving offspring rather than strength. This quiz works through the mechanism, the classic evidence from finches and fossils, and the version of the story that Lamarck got wrong.
Questions & answers
Evolution & Natural Selection: all 10 questions and answers
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
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1On which ship did Charles Darwin make the voyage that shaped his thinking?
- A HMS Endeavour
- B HMS Challenger
- C HMS Victory
- D HMS Beagle Correct
Answer: D. HMS Beagle
Why: Darwin sailed from 1831 to 1836, invited largely as a dining companion for captain Robert FitzRoy. The specimens and notebooks from those five years supplied him with material for the rest of his life.
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2What does natural selection act on?
- A The long-term needs of the species
- B The effort an individual puts into surviving
- C Inherited variation that affects survival and reproduction Correct
- D Traits an organism acquires during its lifetime
Answer: C. Inherited variation that affects survival and reproduction
Why: Only heritable differences can be passed on, so selection works by changing which variants are common in the next generation. An individual never evolves during its life; the population it belongs to does.
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3Which idea about inheritance did Lamarck propose?
- A That change happens only by random chance
- B That traits acquired during life are passed to offspring Correct
- C That species never change at all
- D That all living things share one common ancestor
Answer: B. That traits acquired during life are passed to offspring
Why: Lamarck suggested a giraffe stretching for high leaves would pass a longer neck to its young. He was right that species change over time, which put him well ahead of most of his contemporaries, but wrong about how.
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4A bat's wing and an insect's wing are an example of what?
- A Analogous structures Correct
- B Homologous structures
- C Vestigial structures
- D Transitional forms
Answer: A. Analogous structures
Why: Both are wings, but they are built from completely different tissue and evolved separately for the same job, which is convergent evolution. Homologous structures, such as a bat wing and a human arm, share the same underlying bone plan inherited from a common ancestor.
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5Which feature of the Galapagos finches varies most closely with their diet?
- A Wing length
- B Feather colour
- C Tail length
- D Beak size and shape Correct
Answer: D. Beak size and shape
Why: Beaks range from heavy seed-crushers to fine probes for insects, with each form suiting the food available on its island. Peter and Rosemary Grant later measured average beak size shifting within a couple of years on Daphne Major as drought changed which seeds were left.
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6Why do populations of bacteria become resistant to an antibiotic?
- A The antibiotic changes into a weaker compound
- B Bacteria develop resistance because they need it
- C Resistant individuals survive the drug and pass on their genes Correct
- D Individual bacteria get used to the drug over time
Answer: C. Resistant individuals survive the drug and pass on their genes
Why: A few cells in any large population already carry a resistance mutation or a plasmid picked up from elsewhere; the drug clears out the rest and leaves them room to multiply. It is natural selection running fast enough to watch across a weekend in a lab.
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7What does the word fitness mean in evolutionary biology?
- A How well an animal defends territory
- B Success in leaving surviving offspring Correct
- C Physical strength and stamina
- D How long an individual lives
Answer: B. Success in leaving surviving offspring
Why: Fitness is counted in descendants, not muscle, so a small short-lived animal that breeds prolifically is fitter than a powerful one that leaves none. This is why the phrase "survival of the fittest", which Darwin borrowed from Herbert Spencer, misleads so many people.
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8What usually starts the split of one species into two?
- A A population becoming separated so the groups stop interbreeding Correct
- B A single individual developing an unusual trait
- C A sharp rise in the total population
- D A change in the climate of the whole range
Answer: A. A population becoming separated so the groups stop interbreeding
Why: Once gene flow stops, mutation and selection accumulate differently in each group until they can no longer produce fertile offspring together. Rivers changing course, mountains rising and sea levels cutting off islands have all done this.
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9What is genetic drift?
- A The slow movement of genes along a chromosome
- B The gradual loss of DNA as an organism ages
- C Deliberate breeding for a chosen trait
- D Random change in how common gene variants are between generations Correct
Answer: D. Random change in how common gene variants are between generations
Why: Drift is chance rather than advantage deciding which variants get passed on, and it dominates in small populations. A founder group settling a new island can end up with a strange mix of variants purely because of who happened to be aboard.
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10What is a vestigial structure?
- A A structure that appears only in the embryo
- B A trait that evolved twice independently
- C A body part that has lost most of its original function Correct
- D An organ found only in fossil species
Answer: C. A body part that has lost most of its original function
Why: The hip bones buried in a whale and the stunted wings of flightless birds are leftovers from ancestors that used them fully. They shrink rather than vanish because once a structure costs almost nothing there is little pressure to remove it.
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