Free Evolution MCQs with Answers

31. Lamarck published his theory of evolution in 1809 in the book

• A. The Origin of Species
• B. Principia Mathematica
• C. Philosophie Zoologique
• D. Zoonomia

Explanation: Philosophie Zoologique set out the first complete theory of evolution, fifty years before Darwin. The Origin of Species is Darwin's 1859 work, a confusion the options invite on purpose.

32. Lamarck explained the loss of functional eyes in cave dwelling animals as the result of

• A. sudden mutation
• B. natural selection
• C. hybridisation
• D. disuse over many generations

Explanation: By his law of use and disuse, an organ that stops being used wastes away and the loss is then inherited. Modern genetics rejects the inheritance, but disuse was Lamarck's consistent explanation for disappearing structures.

33. The scientist who cut off the tails of mice for twenty two generations to test Lamarck's idea was

• A. August Weismann
• B. Charles Darwin
• C. Gregor Mendel
• D. Louis Pasteur

Explanation: Every generation was still born with a tail, proving that injuries acquired during life are not transmitted. Weismann's experiment was a landmark in refuting the inheritance of acquired characters.

34. Acquired characteristics such as a blacksmith's strong arms are not passed to his children because they

• A. are always harmful
• B. do not alter the genes in the gametes
• C. are dominant traits
• D. affect only the nervous system

Explanation: Only changes in the DNA of eggs or sperm can be inherited, and exercise reshapes muscle without touching the germ line. This separation of soma from germ line is the fundamental objection to Lamarckism.

35. The first complete theory of evolution was proposed by

• A. Darwin
• B. Wallace
• C. Lamarck
• D. Aristotle

Explanation: Although wrong in mechanism, Lamarck was the first to offer a coherent, published explanation of how species change. Aristotle classified life but believed species were fixed, and Darwin came half a century later.

36. An acquired characteristic is

• A. a trait inherited from both parents
• B. a mutation in the germ cells
• C. a sex linked trait
• D. a change produced during an individual's lifetime by use, disuse or the environment

Explanation: Acquired traits develop within one lifetime, such as a tan or a learned skill, and vanish with the individual unless written into the gametes. Inherited traits, by contrast, arrive already coded in the DNA.

37. Lamarck proposed that new structures arise because of

• A. the inner needs and desires of the organism
• B. random mutation
• C. genetic drift
• D. hybrid sterility

Explanation: Lamarck imagined that a new need creates a new habit, the habit uses or abandons an organ, and the change is then inherited. Mutation and drift are modern concepts he could not have known.

38. Lamarck would explain the tiny useless wings of the kiwi bird as the product of

• A. natural selection
• B. disuse of wings over many generations
• C. genetic engineering
• D. mutation only

Explanation: In Lamarck's scheme, ground living birds stopped flying, their wings weakened from disuse and the reduction was passed on. Today we explain the kiwi's wings through selection, but the question tests the Lamarckian logic itself.

39. Lamarck's theory of evolution appeared

• A. after Darwin's Origin of Species
• B. at exactly the same time as Darwin's
• C. about half a century before Darwin's
• D. in the twentieth century

Explanation: Philosophie Zoologique appeared in 1809 and the Origin of Species in 1859, so Lamarck preceded Darwin by fifty years. Knowing the order stops the common slip of crediting Darwin with the first theory.

40. Darwin gathered much of the evidence for his theory during a five year voyage on the ship

• A. Endeavour
• B. Mayflower
• C. Santa Maria
• D. HMS Beagle

Explanation: The Beagle surveyed South American coasts from 1831 to 1836, giving Darwin fossils, finches and biogeography to think about for the next twenty years. Without the voyage, the evidence base of the Origin would not have existed.