Exam 20: The Development of Evolutionary Thought

Darwin calculated that if reproduction was not limited, a single pair of elephants would leave roughly ____ descendants after 750 years.

Charles Darwin did NOT study the ____ during his long career.

Darwin predicted that advantageous, heritable characteristics would become less common in a population when individuals were forced to compete for limited resources.

The modern synthesis is NOT based on ____.

Based on his experiences while aboard the H.M.S. Beagle , Darwin realized that ____ provided the only plausible explanation for his observations.

As a young child, you preferred to collect shells and insects, dig through the mud around a pond, and watch birds rather than play video games. What did you have in common with Charles Darwin?

Insecticide resistance is an example of macroevolution resulting from artificial selection.

A small evolutionary shift in the size of the bill of a finch species is an example of ____.

Archaeopteryx is an important link between ____.

A concept presented by Charles Lyell, called ____, contends the geological processes that sculpted Earth's surface over long periods of time are exactly the same as the processes observed today.

New genetic variations sometimes become more common within populations because ____.

Upon Darwin's return from his voyage on the H.M.S Beagle , he spent time breeding ____.

Which morphological feature in lizards, mammals, and birds provides evidence of their descent from a shared ancestor?

Georges Cuvier and his followers developed the theory of ____, reasoning that each layer of fossils represented the remains of organisms that had died as a result of dramatic shifts in ancient environments.

Extinction is most likely an example of ____.

Which branch of biology examines the form and variety of organisms in their natural environment?

Species on oceanic islands often closely resemble species on the nearest mainland, suggesting that the island and mainland species share a common ancestry.

The notion of orthogenesis is no longer supported because we now know that evolution proceeds as an ongoing process of dynamic adjustment, not toward any fixed goal.

Early in the twentieth century, some scientists embraced the notion of orthogenesis, the idea that evolution ____.