Evolution | Practice Questions

Here are practice questions for Chapter-7 of Class XII Biology:- Evolution. This practice set comprises question from previous year board question papers, CBSE Sample paper, and NCERT Exemplar, and some other sources.

1 Mark

1. Write the hypothetical proposal put forward by Oparin and Haldane.
2. Select the homologous structures from the combinations given below:
   1. Forelimbs of whale and bats
   2. Tubers of potato and sweet potato
   3. Eyes of octopus and mammals
   4. Throns of bougainvillea and tendrils of Cucurbita.
3. Why are analogous structures a result of convergent evolution?
4. What is saltation according to de Vries?
5. Rearrange the following in order of evolution: Gnetales, Ferns, Zosterophyllum, Ginko
6. Name the common ancestors of the great ape and man.
7. Name the earliest fossils of pre-historic man.
8. What is genetic drift?
9. List the two characteristics of mutations that help in explaining evolution.
10. What do you understand be genetic equilibrium?

2/3 Marks

1. What did Louis Pasteur’s experiment on ‘killed yeast’ demonstrate? Name the theory that got disproved on the basis of this experiment.
2. Write the technical term that describes each one of the following statements with reference to their evolution:
   1. Microbes developing resistance to antibiotics in much lesser time scale.
   2. Resemblance of varieties of placental mammals to corresponding marsupials in Australia.
3. What is adaptive radiation? Explain it with reference to the Australian marsupials.
4. What do you understand by molecular evidences in evolution? Explain with the help of an example.
5. In a population the frequency of genotype BB, Bb, and bb is 22%, 62% and 16% respectively. What could be the likely frequency of allele B and b?
6. Name the ancestors of man based on the features given below:
   1. Humans-like meat eater with 900 cc brain lived in Java
   2. More human with brain size 1400 cc, lived in Central Asia, used hides and buried their dead.
   3. Human-like, vegetarian, with brain capacity between 650 cc and 800 cc.
   4. Man-like primate that existed about 15 mya. Fossils found in Tanzania.
7. Select two pairs from the following which exhibit convergent evolution. Give reasons for your answers.
   1. Forelimbs of whales and bat
   2. Eyes of Octopus and mammals
   3. Tubers of sweat potato and potato
   4. Forelimbs of Cheetah and mammals
8. Explain the interpretation of Charles Darwin, when he observed a variety of small birds on Galapogos Islands.
9. Describe founder effect.
10. What is the significance of Archaeopteryx in the study of organic evolution
11. Describe the three ways by which Natural Selection can affect the frequency of a heritable trait in a population.
12. How do Darwin finches illustrate adaptive radiation?
13. Explain the increase in the number of dark winged moths in the urban area of post industrialization period in England.
14. Differentiate between the explanations given by Darwin and de Vries, respectively on the mechanism of evolution.
15. Refer to the figure given below and answer the questions that follows:
16. Describe Stanley Millers’s experiment and mention its significance.
17. What is speciation? Name any two events leading to speciation.
18. Branching descent and natural selection are the two key concepts of Darwinism theory of evolution. Explain each concept with the help of a suitable example.
19. Explain Lamark’s theory of evolution with the help of an example.
20. Discovery of lobefins is considered very significant by evolutionary biologists. Explain.

5 Marks

1. 1. What is Hardy-Weinberg Law? How can it be expressed using algebraic equations? Under what conditions the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium does remains undisturbed?
   2. What are fossils? How can be the age of fossils can be estimated? How do the fossils help in the fact that organism have come into existence through evolution?
   3. How can you show that adaptation has a genetic basis?
   4. (i) Name the primates that lived about 15 mya. List their characteristics features.

(ii) Answer the following:

1. 1. 1. Where was the man like animal found?
      2. write the order in which Nenderthals, Homo hablis and Homo erectus appeared on the earth. State the brain capacity of each one of them.
      3. When did modern Homo sapiens appear on this planet?

Important diagram:

1. 1. 1. 1. Diagrammatic representation of Miller’s experiment
         2. Adaptive radiation of marsupials of Australia
         3. Convergent evolution of Australian Marsupials and placental mammals
         4. Operation of natural selection on different traits : (a) Stabilising (b) Directional and (c) Disruptive