Think you’ve got your head wrapped around Evidence of Evolution? Put your knowledge to
the test. Good luck — the Stickman is counting on you!
Q. Catastrophism is
The idea that sudden, catastrophic events shape the geologic features of the earth
The idea that human selection for certain traits leads to evolution in dogs
The idea that the same animals tend to occur in the same order in the fossil record
The idea that the distribution of life on earth can tell us about organisms' evolutionary history
The idea that cats occupy a different trophic level than other carnivores
Q. Which of the following is NOT true about fossils?
Fossils in younger layers of rock tend to more closely resemble living organisms than fossils in older layers of rock
Some fossils are the remains of extinct organisms
Fossils show transitional forms
Fossils never reveal information about the age of their surrounding sediments
All of the above are true.
Q. Which of the following could potentially explain why camels are only native to Asia?
A creator only wanted camels to live in Asia
Camels evolved in Asia
Camels evolved somewhere else, migrated to Asia, and then their ancestors (in the original location) went extinct
B and C
All of the above
Q. Vestigial structures
Serve no apparent function at present, but may have been important in ancestral forms
Always evolve by convergent evolution
Appear during early development but disappear before birth
Arise by mutations to Hox genes
Are only visible in fossil species
Q. Development provides evidence for evolution by:
helping us identify homologous structures
revealing the proportion of shared DNA sequences in all vertebrates
revealing similar mechanisms for body segment formation in all animals
revealing rudiments
A, C, and D
Q. Which of these kinds of evidence would best support the notion than two species are very close relatives?
They live in the same environment
They are both omnivores
They share 99% of their DNA
They can both fly
They both have vertebrae
Q. Which of the following statements is true about artificial selection?
Artificial selection is the consumption of foods with artificial flavors and colors
In artificial selection, humans decide which individuals get to reproduce
Artificial selection is the mechanism responsible for whale evolution
Artificial selection does not lead to evolution
Artificial selection only applies to dogs
Q. The common ancestor of Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya probably lived about
200 million years ago
6 million years ago
3.9 billion years ago
17,000 years ago
65 million years ago
Q. _________ structures are inherited from a common ancestor, while __________ structures evolve independently in multiple kinds of organisms.
Analogous; homologous
Homologous; analogous
Vestigial; non-functional
Advantageous; disadvantageous
Convergent; artificial
Q. The half-life of a radioactive element is
The age of the object being dated
Half the time it takes to clean up a radioactive element
The amount of energy released when an atom of the element decays
The oldest date that can be accurately obtained using that element for radiometric dating
The time it takes for half of the original amount of element to decay