Evolution Quiz

The graphs below illustrate change in a lizard population over time. Which process most likely led to the change in the lizard population?

Natural selection acting on a harmful trait
Natural selection acting on a beneficial trait
Natural selection acting on a dominant trait
Natural selection acting on a recessive trait

In North America, the eastern spotted skunk mates in late winter, and the western spotted skunk mates in late summer. Even though their geographic ranges overlap, the species do not mate with each other. What most liikely prevents these two species from interbreeding?

Habitat isolation
Gametic isolation
Geographic isolation
Reproductive isolation

A mutation occurs in genes that code for coat color in deer. Which change will most likely result from this mutation?

A change in the selection pressures acting on coat color
A change in the coat-color genes of deer predator species
An increase in coat-color diversity in the population
An increase in the number of genes for coat color in the population

The skeletons of mammalian forelimbs represent variations of a structure that was present in their common ancestor. What has most likely caused the variation in forelimbs?

Changes in muscle structure
Changes in the genetic codes
Trait formation due to behaviors
Development of vestigial structures

A group of students measured a ten-square-meter section of a pond ecosystem and their observations are recorded in the table below. Which statement is a testable hypothesis?

The frogs living in the pond represent a population.
Water is an abiotic component in the pond ecosystem.
If the fish are given more food, then they will be happier.
If the frogs are startled, then they will jump into the water.

Intermediate fossil forms are important evidence of evolution because they show...

How organisms changed over time
How animals behaved in their environments
How the embryos of organisms develop
Molecular homologies

If coat color in a rabbit population is a polygenic trait, which process might have produced the graph below?

Disruptive selection
Stabilizing selection
Directional selection
Genetic equilibrium

A random change in a small population's allele frequency is known as...

A gene pool
Genetic drift
Variation
Fitness

Temporal isolation occurs when two different populations...

Develop different mating behaviors
Become geographically separated
Reproduce at different times
Interbreed

If species A and B have very similar genes and proteins, what is probably true?

Species A and B share a relatively recent common ancestor
Species A evolved independently of species B for a long period
Species A is younger than species B
Species A is older than species B