MCQ Bank
Which concept did Darwin describe as “descent with modification”?
- A) Branching inheritance
- B) Evolutionary changes over generations
- C) Sudden creation
- D) Natural selection
What type of evidence is provided by molecular homologies?
- A) Molecular and biochemical
- B) Environmental
- C) Anatomical
- D) Geological
What happens during gene duplication that can lead to new gene functions?
- A) Genes are lost
- B) Genes are copied and may take on new roles
- C) Genes stop working
- D) Genes mutate immediately
How old is the Earth estimated to be?
- A) 6 billion years
- B) 2.5 billion years
- C) 4.5 billion years
- D) 12 billion years
Why was there little or no oxygen in the early Earth's atmosphere?
- A) Oxygen was locked in rocks
- B) Because volcanoes consumed oxygen
- C) Because of strong magnetic fields
- D) There were no oxygen-producing organisms
What do analogous structures have in common?
- A) Similar function, different evolutionary origin
- B) Identical DNA sequences
- C) Similar origin and structure
- D) Different function and origin
What is microevolution primarily caused by?
- A) Artificial selection
- B) Natural disasters
- C) Mutation in unrelated species
- D) Changes in allele frequencies due to natural selection
What is the role of the Hardy-Weinberg principle in genetics?
- A) Counts total alleles
- B) Acts as a baseline to compare evolving populations
- C) Identifies dominant genes
- D) Measures mutation rates
What does the fossil record help scientists determine?
- A) Formation of crystals
- B) Future evolution of humans
- C) History of life and extinct organisms
- D) How fossils look under a microscope
What is the primary habitat of the spiny anteater?
- A) Asia
- B) Australia
- C) South America
- D) North America
What is the significance of billions of years of activity by living organisms on Earth?
- A) Shaped the current environment
- B) Caused volcanic eruptions
- C) Stopped evolution
- D) Made Earth colder
What type of change is common after species invasion?
- A) Geological
- B) No change at all
- C) Rapid evolutionary change
- D) Climatic only
Which of the following organisms are prokaryotes?
- A) Plants and algae
- B) Animals and fungi
- C) Protists and viruses
- D) Bacteria and archaea
What type of evidence supports the theory of evolution based on internal organ structure?
- A) Geological evidence
- B) Environmental evidence
- C) Anatomical evidence
- D) Behavioral evidence
Which scenario is most likely to lead to speciation over time?
- A) Introduction of dominant alleles to a large population
- B) Migration of a few individuals followed by inbreeding
- C) Mutation of recessive alleles
- D) A stable population with high diversity
Fixation in terms of genetic drift means:
- A) Mutation of all alleles
- B) Inheritance of two alleles
- C) An allele becomes the only one present at a locus
- D) Dominance of all genotypes
What are the two main effects associated with genetic drift?
- A) Mutation and Selection
- B) Founder effect and bottleneck effect
- C) Natural selection and adaptation
- D) Speciation and mutation
What is the main element used in radiometric dating besides carbon?
- A) Nitrogen
- B) Potassium
- C) Oxygen
- D) Sulphur
What does the Hardy-Weinberg theorem primarily state?
- A) Dominant alleles increase over time
- B) Mutations are random events
- C) Genotype changes occur in every generation
- D) Allele frequencies remain constant across generations in the absence of evolutionary forces
Natural selection is limited because it acts on:
- A) Phenotypes of individuals
- B) Codominant alleles
- C) DNA sequences directly
- D) Environment only