PCB chapter 2 quiz

From the late Middle Ages up to the seventeenth century, the written records of the Bible provided a starting place for mathematically estimating the age of Earth. Scientists began to understand the age of Earth was far greater than calculations based on the Bible. Which of the following scientists had the most influence on Charles Darwin regarding the ancient age of Earth?

. Charles Lyell

Which of the following statements would best describe a variational process, proposed in Charles Darwin's innovative concept of evolution by natural selection?

. In this process, the group changes because some factor sorts among the variants in the original group of members.

In his famous book Principles of Geology, Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, Charles Lyell stated that Earth's geological features were formed by the same currently observable processes taking place. Charles Darwin was greatly influenced by Lyell's work and proposed that the current diversity of life can also be explained by mechanisms that are in operation today, acting over very long periods of time. Why was this a critical understanding for both scientists?

They both understood that if currently observable processes acted in the same manner in the distant past, those processes could then be scientifically tested.

What is methodological naturalism?

It is a strategy that provides a method or procedure for seeking scientific explanations of the world.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was likely the first to propose a process for evolutionary change, and connected that process to environmental fit. However, he is most famous for his process being wrong. What was this process he proposed?

Lamarck proposed that characteristics were acquired during the lifetime of an organism as a result of the organism's habits and these acquired traits were passed down to their offspring.

Aristotle proposed a taxonomy of nature—a classification system of life that later would be called "the great chain of being," or scala naturae. This long-accepted view of nature was missing a couple of concepts necessary for the development of evolutionary biology. Identify the missing concepts below.

Links in the chain could have shared degrees of complexity and the potential to change.

The modern, or evolutionary, synthesis of Charles Darwin's theory is a result of our modern understanding of genetics. During the 1930s and 1940s, which two groups of scientists resolved their differences, ultimately resulting in the modern evolutionary synthesis?

Mendelians and biometricians

The Scottish author __________ presented a well-developed and widely influential theory on how new species originate from existing species in his 1845 book, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. He also thought about populations evolving rather than individuals.

Robert Chambers

Charles Darwin recognized that Thomas Malthus' argument applies to animal and plant populations as well as to human populations. Look at the figure and choose which observation Darwin made from this.

The difference between the growth of a population and its size allowed by the food supply shows the possibility of selection through the struggle for existence.

The modern theory of evolution, with natural selection as the mechanism for biological change, came from which of the following thinkers?

b. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace

In his scientific writings, Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, came up with a theory of evolution and argued that all life developed from what he called a "single living filament," which was modified in endless ways, over millions of years (Darwin 1796). What was one of the missing concepts in his work that Charles Darwin later fully addressed?

d. E. Darwin failed to connect the struggle for existence to the evolutionary changes that such a struggle would produce.

As the early Greeks moved away from supernatural explanations to explanations based on natural phenomena, they would propose explanations of phenomena based solely on natural processes. As the basis of the modern scientific method, this is called a(n) _____.

d. hypothesis

The idea of spontaneous generation has existed in human thought ever since the earliest written history. Such thoughts prevailed until the seventeenth century, when an Italian physician, Francesco Redi, tested the question on whether flies spontaneously generate from spoiled meat. Which of the following statements is FALSE regarding this experiment?

After the jars were covered with a mesh net, eggs and maggots were found in the meat.

If the idea of natural selection was Charles Darwin's first insight on evolution, which of the following would best describe Darwin's second insight?

All species have descended from one or a few common ancestors; species that share a recent common ancestor tend to resemble one another in many respects.

Patrick Matthew published a theory very similar to Charles Darwin's theory in his obscure work On Naval Timber and Arboriculture, although he was not widely recognized for his ideas. What did the theories of Matthew and Darwin share and what was different?

Both theories recognized natural selection, but Matthew did not discuss common descent.

Although scientists widely accepted Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and common descent, one of the major problems proposed and discussed was how to account for complex structures and multiple, intricate parts. Why was this seen as a problem?

Critics argued that Darwin's view of natural selection acting in gradual increments could not be responsible for forming complex structures and multiple, intricate parts because they had no value until fully formed.

The voyage on HMS Beagle took place more than 20 years before Charles Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species. Darwin was greatly inspired by his travels and wrote about them in his book. Where did the Beagle sail on Darwin's voyage?

Directly to the Galápagos Islands and back to England ***

Charles Darwin's voyage across the Southern Hemisphere gave him an important insight to his theory that came from finding certain species and some fossils of their extinct predecessors in certain geographic regions. Which of the following was Darwin's conclusion that was essential in his theory and came from these biogeography evidences?

Each species arises only a single time in a single place, by descent with modification from a closely related species.

The Greek philosopher __________ was among the first to propose a theory that attempted to explain the diversity of living forms, as well as some aspects of adaptation.

Empedocles

Although Charles Darwin formulated most of his ideas on evolution and natural selection while on his voyage on the HMS Beagle, it was 23 years after his return until he published On the Origin of Species. Why did it take so long for Darwin to present his work?

He realized that his ideas were revolutionary and worked to build evidence to present the strongest case possible for his theory of evolution by natural selection.