80 Evolution And Natural Selection Trivia Questions with Answers
80 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?
Which type of speciation occurs when a physical barrier splits one population into separate evolutionary groups?
Answer
Allopatric speciation
What is the name of the evolutionary change in which unrelated species independently develop similar features?
Answer
Convergent evolution
Which fossil hominin, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, is famously known as Lucy?
Answer
Australopithecus afarensis
In evolutionary biology, what type of natural selection favors individuals with intermediate traits?
Answer
Stabilizing selection
Which scientist independently developed the theory of natural selection alongside Charles Darwin?
Answer
Alfred Russel Wallace
What equation describes genotype frequencies in an ideal non-evolving population?
Answer
Hardy–Weinberg equation
Which British moth became a classic example of industrial melanism?
Answer
Peppered moth
Which fossil bird is widely regarded as evidence linking dinosaurs and modern birds?
Answer
Archaeopteryx
Who coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” in evolutionary biology?
Answer
Herbert Spencer
Which scientist proposed inheritance of acquired characteristics before Darwin’s theory became influential?
Answer
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
What is the name of evolution in which unrelated organisms independently develop similar traits?
Answer
Convergent evolution
What name is given to the rapid diversification of one ancestral species into many ecological forms?
Answer
Adaptive radiation
What term describes a trait inherited from an ancestor but reduced or unused in a modern species?
Answer
Vestigial structure
What process causes heritable traits that improve survival to become more common in populations?
Answer
Natural selection