MCQ Bank
What is adaptive evolution?
- A) Selection of beneficial alleles for survival
- B) Increase of deleterious alleles
- C) Elimination of all alleles
- D) Mutation of gametes only
What is the primary source of genetic variation?
- A) Environmental factors
- B) Mutations
- C) Breeding techniques
- D) Nutrition
If blue eye color becomes a desirable trait in a population, what is likely to happen?
- A) Blue eye allele frequency will increase
- B) Blue eye alleles will disappear
- C) Eye color becomes neutral
- D) Brown eye alleles will dominate
What is the earliest evidence of life on Earth found in geological records?
- A) Coral reefs
- B) Trilobite fossils
- C) Dinosaur bones
- D) Microbes in rocks
Which populations are most affected by genetic drift?
- A) Genetically engineered populations
- B) Small populations
- C) Isolated populations
- D) Large populations
What is the primary cause behind the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria?
- A) Misuse of antibiotics
- B) Increased humidity in the environment
- C) Use of vaccines
- D) Genetic engineering
Which of the following best defines an index fossil?
- A) A fossil that shows evidence of soft tissues
- B) A fossil found in igneous rocks
- C) A fossil found only in mountain regions
- D) A fossil that is typical of a specific geological period and found widely
Which of the following describes macroevolution?
- A) Genetic changes in a single generation
- B) Evolution of dog breeds
- C) Evolution of humans from unicellular organisms
- D) Color changes in moths during industrialization
What is the term used when heterozygotes have higher fitness due to a single locus?
- A) Overdominance
- B) Incomplete dominance
- C) Codominance
- D) Polymorphism
Which of the following is not a main source of genetic variation?
- A) Sexual reproduction
- B) Mutation
- C) Rapid reproduction
- D) Photosynthesis
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