Biology · Science General

Evolution and Biological Adaptation

1,288 Questions

Evolution and biological adaptation focus on natural selection, speciation events, and how organisms adjust to environmental changes over time. These foundational biology concepts appear frequently in general science sections of civil services and school board examinations. Use these questions to study evolutionary theories, ancestral traits, and the fossil record.

Natural selection mechanismsSpeciation event examplesBiological adaptation traitsPanspermia hypothesis conceptsFossil record analysisMate selection theories

Evolution and Biological Adaptation Questions

Multiple choice

Theme of evolution is

  1. descent from common ancestors with modifications

  2. ascent from common ancestors with modifications

  3. descent from most advanced ancestors with modifications

  4. descent from most advanced animal species
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Descent from common ancestors with modifications is the main basis of evolution.

Multiple choice

What is the correct sequence in order of chronology? A. Mendel's law of inheritance B. Darwin's theory of evolution C. Blood circulation by Harvey D. De Vries' theory of mutation

  1. A, B, C, D

  2. B, D, A, C

  3. C, B, A, D

  4. D, B, C, A
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The chronological order is: William Harvey (Blood circulation, 1628), Charles Darwin (Theory of evolution, 1859), Gregor Mendel (Laws of inheritance, 1866), and Hugo de Vries (Mutation theory, 1901). Thus, the sequence is C, B, A, D.

Multiple choice

Which of the following theories was not proposed by Charles Darwin?

  1. Natural selection

  2. Survival of the fittest

  3. Struggle for existence

  4. Inheritance of acquired character
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The theory of inheritance of acquired characters is associated with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, not Charles Darwin. Darwin proposed natural selection, survival of the fittest, and the struggle for existence.

Multiple choice

Directions: Choose the best option to fill in the blank.

If the organism was such a ________ product of heredity and environment, how could one even begin to distinguish between an individual's observable traits and his basic inheritance?

  1. unblended

  2. mere

  3. cryptic

  4. complicated

  5. equivocal
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The latter part of the sentence “distinguish between an individual's observable traits and his basic inheritance” gives the clue for the blank. As we can see from our common sense that to distinguish between these two traits would be a complicated study, so (4) is the answer.

Multiple choice

Darwin believed that a giraffe has a long neck because

  1. a creator designed it that way

  2. catastrophes eliminated short necked forms

  3. its ancestors stretched their necks to get food

  4. ancestral giraffes with slightly longer necks than others got more food and left more surviving offspring
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

 Darwin believed that a giraffe has a long neck because ancestral giraffes with slightly longer necks than others got more food and left more surviving offspring.

Multiple choice

Which of these gives the correct order of divergence from the main line of descent leading to humans?

  1. Prosimians, monkeys, gibbons, orangutans, African apes, humans

  2. Gibbons, orangutans, prosimians, monkeys, African apes, humans.

  3. Monkeys, gibbons, prosimians, African apes, orangutans, humans

  4. African apes, gibbons, monkeys, orangutans, humans
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Gibbons, orangutans, prosimians, monkeys, African apes, humans is the the correct order of divergence from the main line of descent leading to humans.

Multiple choice

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the premise that viruses have evolved from bacteria?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

One of the theories that have been under the serious consideration of the scientists and immunologists is that viruses have evolved from bacteria. Although viruses do not exist in fossilized form, and all our knowledge about the life form comes only from what we have come to know of them in the twentieth century, the view is not without merit. The bacteria origin theory, which states that the viruses evolved from bacteria that did not need to survive outside the host cell, and hence lost much of the genetic material needed for the same,  fills in some of the unexplained blanks in human knowledge.  Another theory states that viruses may have evolved from the ‘escaped bits and pieces of’ the DNA and the RNA of larger organisms.
Once a virus attaches itself to a specific molecule on the surface of the host cell, it penetrates the host cell by fusing with it or by another technique called endocytosis. Since a virus needs specific molecules to attach itself to, it means that its host selection is very specific. Once inside the host cell, the virus loses its capsid, or the outer shell, either by self generated enzymes or by enzymes secreted by the host and exposes its core viral nucleic acid. Since living cells produce all the necessary proteins from the various amino acids that are a part of the food supply, viruses take the host cell hostage and force it to synthesize proteins that the host cell does not need. Once synthesized, these new proteins come together later to form new virus cells. Once an army of invasive viruses is ready, enzymes produced by them usually burst the cell wall of the host cell, and the viruses release themselves into the body of the organism. Usually, the host cell death in cases of infections takes place by a process called apoptosis or cell suicide in which the phagocytic bodies produced by the immune system of the host organism are able to engulf the fragments of the host cell before the damage spreads to surrounding cells. However, some cells seemingly remain healthy and carry latent viruses and show few or no signs of infection for months or even years.

  1. The genetic structure of both organisms shows a certain level of similarity.

  2. When viruses are genetically modified to have the same genetic structure as bacteria, their survival rate in external environment improves remarkably.

  3. When bacteria are deprived of the same genetic material that the viruses lack, the bacteria can no longer be treated with antibiotics.

  4. Some virus strains, when mutated with bacteria genes, start reproducing like bacteria.

  5. When cultured together in a Petri dish, viruses often attack bacteria cells and parasite upon them.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

(1) Incorrect; 'a certain degree of similarity' is ambiguous and can be used to both strengthen and weaken the premise. (2) Correct; because incorporating a bacteria like genetic make up in the viruses gives them the ability to survive outside the host cell (like bacteria can), it strengthens the belief that viruses, if given the missing genes, are similar to bacteria. (3) Incorrect; the passage does not mention whether or not viral infections can be treated with antibiotics. (4) Incorrect; only 'some' viruses reproduce like bacteria when mutated with bacteria. It is possible that viruses have taken bacteria like properties but it cannot be inferred that viruses are like bacteria. (5) Incorrect; does not prove whether bacteria and viruses are related.

Multiple choice

All of the following can be inferred about the reproduction of viruses from the passage, except:

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

One of the theories that have been under the serious consideration of the scientists and immunologists is that viruses have evolved from bacteria. Although viruses do not exist in fossilized form, and all our knowledge about the life form comes only from what we have come to know of them in the twentieth century, the view is not without merit. The bacteria origin theory, which states that the viruses evolved from bacteria that did not need to survive outside the host cell, and hence lost much of the genetic material needed for the same,  fills in some of the unexplained blanks in human knowledge.  Another theory states that viruses may have evolved from the ‘escaped bits and pieces of’ the DNA and the RNA of larger organisms.
Once a virus attaches itself to a specific molecule on the surface of the host cell, it penetrates the host cell by fusing with it or by another technique called endocytosis. Since a virus needs specific molecules to attach itself to, it means that its host selection is very specific. Once inside the host cell, the virus loses its capsid, or the outer shell, either by self generated enzymes or by enzymes secreted by the host and exposes its core viral nucleic acid. Since living cells produce all the necessary proteins from the various amino acids that are a part of the food supply, viruses take the host cell hostage and force it to synthesize proteins that the host cell does not need. Once synthesized, these new proteins come together later to form new virus cells. Once an army of invasive viruses is ready, enzymes produced by them usually burst the cell wall of the host cell, and the viruses release themselves into the body of the organism. Usually, the host cell death in cases of infections takes place by a process called apoptosis or cell suicide in which the phagocytic bodies produced by the immune system of the host organism are able to engulf the fragments of the host cell before the damage spreads to surrounding cells. However, some cells seemingly remain healthy and carry latent viruses and show few or no signs of infection for months or even years.

  1. Viruses mutate the metabolic process of the host cell.

  2. Getting infected by a virus does not always annihilate the host cell.

  3. The virus undergoes metamorphosis once inside the host cell.

  4. Viruses reproduce by dividing themselves over and over.

  5. Viruses cannot replicate themselves unless inside a host cell.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

(1) Incorrect; the passage states that viruses force the host cell into manufacturing proteins that it does not need to survive. It means that viruses alter the natural metabolic process of the host cells. (2) Incorrect; the passage mentions that sometimes, the host cell survives for years after being infected. (3) Incorrect; the passage mentions that the virus loses its outer cell wall once inside the host cell. (4)Correct; the passage mentions that viruses reproduce by getting the host cell to produce proteins that it does not need and that these proteins later coalesce to form new virus cells. This information rules out the possibility of viruses reproducing by dividing themselves. (5) Incorrect; the passage mentions that viruses reproduce by getting inside the host cell.  

Multiple choice

The term 'hot dilute soup' has been used while explaining the theory of

  1. special creation

  2. chemical evolution

  3. spontaneous generation

  4. panspermia
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The term 'hot dilute soup' was coined by J.B.S. Haldane to describe the primordial environment where organic molecules formed, which is a central concept in the theory of chemical evolution (Oparin-Haldane hypothesis).