Chapter 20

The "father" of taxonomy is: a. Charles Darwin. b. Charles Lyell. c. Alfred Wallace. d. Carolus Linnaeus. e. Jean Baptiste de Lamarck.

The wings of birds, the legs of pigs, and the flippers of dolphins provide examples of: a. vestigial structures. b. homologous structures. c. acquired characteristics. d. artificial selection. e. uniformitarianism.

The belief that evolution is progressive or goal-oriented is called: a. gradualism. b. uniformitarianism. c. taxonomy. d. orthogenesis. e. the modern synthesis.

Which of the following statements about evolutionary studies is not true? a. Biologists study the products of evolution to understand the processes causing it. b. Biologists design molecular experiments to examine evolutionary processes operating over short time periods. c. Biologists study the inheritance of characteristics that a parent acquired during its lifetime. d. Biologists study variation in homologous structures among related organisms. e. Biologists examine why a huge variety of species may inhabit a small island cluster.

Which of the following could be an example of microevolution? a. a slight change in a bird population's color due to a small genetic change in the population b. large differences between fossils found near the ground surface and those found in deep rock layers c. the sudden disappearance of an entire genus d. the direct evolutionary link between living primates and humans e. a flood that drowns all members of a population

Which of the following does not contribute to the study of evolution? a. population genetics b. inheritance of acquired characteristics c. the fossil record d. DNA sequencing e. comparative morphology

Design an experiment to test Lamarck's hypothesis that characteristics acquired during an organism's lifetime are inherited by their offspring. (You may wish to review the components of a well-designed experiment in Chapter 1 before formulating your answer.) Can you think of examples of acquired characteristics that are not inherited by offspring?

Identify three discoveries or inventions that have changed how humans are affected by natural selection. Describe in detail how each discovery influences survival or reproduction in our species.