Free Evolution MCQs with Answers

814 Evolution MCQs from Biology, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

Evolution describes heritable change in populations over generations through variation, natural selection and adaptation. Lamarckism explains inheritance of acquired characteristics, while Darwinism explains selection of favourable inherited variations; these historical explanations must not be confused with the modern genetic account of evolutionary change.

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814 questions · page 7 of 41

  • A. Heterospory
  • B. Homospory
  • C. Heterogamy
  • D. Gamospory

Explanation: Heterospory is the production of two different kinds of spores, usually microspores and megaspores, which form male and female…

Correct answer: Heterospory
  • A. It involves alternation of morphologically different generations
  • B. Their gametophyte is independent while sporophyte depends upon gametophyte for nutrition.
  • C. Both the gametophyte and sporophytes are haploid generations thus can produce haploids gametes to continue the diploid number on fertilization
  • D. Spore formation occurs through meiosis

Explanation: In bryophytes, the gametophyte is haploid and the sporophyte is diploid, so they are not both haploid generations.

Correct answer: Both the gametophyte and sporophytes are haploid generations thus can produce haploids gametes to continue the diploid number on fertilization
  • A. Antheridia
  • B. Archegonia
  • C. water
  • D. Ovule

Explanation: Bryophyte sperm swim through a film of water to reach the archegonium, where fertilization occurs in the venter containing the egg.

Correct answer: Archegonia
  • A. Sphenopeida
  • B. Lycopsida
  • C. Psilopsida
  • D. Pteropsida

Explanation: Horsetails such as Equisetum are placed in Sphenopsida, also spelled Sphenopsida in many older classifications.

Correct answer: Sphenopeida
  • A. Gametophyte is colourless
  • B. They have mycorrhizal association
  • C. Rhizoids bear Rhizome
  • D. Aerial branches have veinless outgrowths

Explanation: Psilopsida have a colourless, often mycorrhizal gametophyte, and their aerial branches carry small veinless outgrowths.

Correct answer: Rhizoids bear Rhizome
  • A. Proterozoic era
  • B. Mesozoic era
  • C. Paleozoic era
  • D. Cenozoic era

Explanation: Mammals became dominant during the Cenozoic Era after the mass extinction at the end of the Mesozoic removed the dominant non-avian…

Correct answer: Cenozoic era
  • A. Spiral and determinate
  • B. Radial and indeterminate
  • C. Spiral and indeterminate
  • D. Radial and determinate

Explanation: When a blastomere can develop into a complete embryo, the cleavage is indeterminate because early cells retain the ability to form the…

Correct answer: Radial and indeterminate
  • A. Ecosystem
  • B. Community
  • C. Habitat
  • D. Niche

Explanation: Competition is greatest when species occupy the same ecological niche because they require the same resources and perform similar roles in…

Correct answer: Niche
  • A. Rhizobium and leguminous plants
  • B. Marchantia sporophyte and gametophyte
  • C. Algae and fungi in a lichen
  • D. Mycorrhizal fungi and tree roots

Explanation: The relationship between a Marchantia sporophyte and gametophyte is an alternation-of-generations relationship within one plant life…

Correct answer: Marchantia sporophyte and gametophyte
  • A. 1.5 billion
  • B. 2.5 billion
  • C. 3.5 billion
  • D. 4.5 billion

Explanation: The earliest widely accepted eukaryotic fossils are approximately 1.5 billion years old, although estimates vary with the fossil evidence…

Correct answer: 1.5 billion
  • A. Chordata
  • B. Hydra
  • C. Echinodermata
  • D. Hemichordata

Explanation: Echinoderms have bilaterally symmetrical larvae but develop radial, usually pentaradial, symmetry as adults.

Correct answer: Echinodermata
  • A. Psilophyton
  • B. Rhynia
  • C. Cooksonia
  • D. Psilotum

Explanation: Psilophyton, Rhynia and Cooksonia are extinct early vascular plants known mainly from fossils, whereas Psilotum is a living whisk-fern…

Correct answer: Psilotum
  • A. Monera
  • B. Algae
  • C. Slime molds
  • D. Plants

Explanation: Unicellular green organisms traditionally grouped as green algae are placed in the algae category in this older classification scheme.

Correct answer: Algae
  • A. Linnaeus
  • B. Aristotle
  • C. Mendel
  • D. Lamarck

Explanation: Linnaeus supported the idea of special creation and believed species were fixed, although his classification system later became useful to…

Correct answer: Linnaeus
  • A. Recessive allele
  • B. Dominant allele
  • C. Homozygous dominant individual
  • D. Homozygous recessive individual

Explanation: In the Hardy-Weinberg expression p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1, p is the frequency of the dominant allele, so p2 represents individuals carrying two…

Correct answer: Homozygous dominant individual
  • A. Newts
  • B. Varanope
  • C. Dipnoi
  • D. Hagfishes

Explanation: Traditional textbook accounts identify Dipnoi, or lungfishes, as close relatives of the lobe-finned vertebrates from which amphibians…

Correct answer: Dipnoi
  • A. Observation?hypothesis?law?theory
  • B. Observation?hypothesis?deduction?testing of deduction
  • C. Hypothesis?observation?deduction?testing of deduction
  • D. law?theory?deduction?observation

Explanation: The biological method normally proceeds from observation to a tentative hypothesis, then to deductions or predictions that are tested…

Correct answer: Observation?hypothesis?deduction?testing of deduction
  • A. Biodiversity
  • B. Phyletic lineage
  • C. Connecting link
  • D. Evolutionary line

Explanation: A phyletic lineage is an uninterrupted sequence of organisms showing descent from an ancestor through successive descendants.

Correct answer: Phyletic lineage
  • A. Living things originated from bacteria
  • B. Mycobionts
  • C. Non-living things
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Abiogenesis is the proposed origin of living organisms from non-living chemical matter, particularly in the early history of Earth.

Correct answer: Non-living things
  • A. Animals
  • B. Homo sepions
  • C. Omnivore
  • D. Consumer

Explanation: The scientific name of humans is Homo sapiens, with Homo as the genus and sapiens as the species name.

Correct answer: Homo sepions