Evidence for evolution

Plesiosaurs are extinct reptiles that lived in the ocean.

Figure 5 shows a fossil of a plesiosaur.

Plesiosaurs may have moved rapidly upwards to hold their heads above the water surface to search for prey.

What type of adaptation was the rapid upwards movement?

Give two biotic factors that may have caused the extinction of plesiosaurs.

Describe how the plesiosaur fossil in Figure 5 could have been formed.

Scientists use fossils to study evolution.

Suggest two reasons why scientists cannot study the mutations involved in the evolution of plesiosaurs.

Do not refer to extinction in your answer.

Table 1 shows part of the classification of a plesiosaur.

Complete Table 1.

Give the binomial name of the plesiosaur in Table 1.

Rat populations can increase rapidly.

When rat populations are large there is competition between rats.

When rats compete, the basal metabolic rate of the rats increases.

Basal metabolic rate is controlled in the same way in humans and in rats.

Describe how basal metabolic rate is increased.

The size of a rat population can increase quickly.

One female rat and one male rat can produce 20 offspring every 2 months.

Warfarin is a poison that has been used to control rat populations.

Rat populations can become resistant to warfarin by the process of evolution.

A population of rats was given warfarin for 4 months.

Table 1 shows information about resistance to warfarin in the rat population for a year after warfarin was first given.

Rats with resistance to warfarin have a smaller mean mass than rats that

are not resistant to warfarin.

Smaller rats are often at a disadvantage when competing against larger rats.

Explain the trends in the data when warfarin was being given and when warfarin was no longer given.

Use Table 1.

The theory of evolution by natural selection was suggested by Charles Darwin in 1859. Evidence from fossils supports Darwin’s theory.

What evidence supports the theory of evolution by natural selection? Tick (✓) one box.

Figure 3 shows a fossil fly preserved in amber. The fossil formed when the amber solidified with the fly trapped inside.

Why has the fly been preserved? Tick (✓) one box.

Figure 4 shows a simplified evolutionary tree for the insect group of animals.

Figure 4

Which present day insect evolved first?

Animals A, B, C and D were ancestors of present day insects. Which animal is the most recent ancestor of both grasshoppers and beetles? Tick (✓) one box.

Name the group of present day insects which have wings which do not fold.

The house fly has the binomial name Musca domestica. Table 2 shows part of the classification for the house fly.

Complete Table 2. Choose answers from the box.

Carl Woese proposed the ‘three-domain system’ of classification. Which domain are insects in? Tick (✓) one box.

Figure 2 shows one species of bird on a bird feeder.

The birds use their beaks to reach nuts inside the bird feeder.

Cats sometimes eat the birds.

Give the food chain for the birds, cats and nuts.

Which organism in the food chain you gave in Question 03.1 is the primary consumer?

Cats are one biotic factor that affects the size of the bird population.

Which two of the following are biotic factors?

Tick (✓) two boxes.

Figure 3 shows the mean beak length of this species of bird from 1982 to 2007.

What was the mean beak length in 2000?

What type of adaptation is beak length?

Tick (✓) one box.

Figure 3 shows evidence of evolution in this species of bird.

Scientists have concluded that beak length in this species of bird is increasing.

Complete the sentences about the evolution of this species of bird.

Choose answers from the box.

The difference in beak length in the bird population

is called.

A change in a gene affects the beak length.

Change in a gene is called.

The birds with the longest beaks get more food.

Getting more food improves a bird’s chances of

survival and.

This process of evolution takes place over more

than one.

Birds of this species:

• live for about 3 years

• produce up to 24 eggs every year.

Why is evolution easier to study in birds than in humans?

Tick (✓) one box.

Bacteria also provide evidence for evolution.

Which statement describes evidence for evolution?

Tick (✓) one box.

Ammonites became extinct millions of years ago. Figure 2 is a photograph of a fossil ammonite. Figure 3 is a drawing of what scientists think a living ammonite looked like.

How was the fossil in Figure 2 formed? Tick (✓) one box.

Suggest why scientists are not certain what living ammonites looked like.

Figure 4 shows when two different types of organism were alive on Earth.

How many millions of years ago did ammonites become extinct? Use Figure 4.

Trilobites lived on Earth for 270 million years. Calculate how much longer ammonites lived on Earth than trilobites. Use Figure 4.

Suggest two factors which may have caused ammonites to become extinct.

The fossil record provides evidence for the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Which scientist proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection? Tick (✓) one box.

Figure 5 shows ammonite fossils from three different time periods.

How do the fossils in Figure 5 give evidence for the theory of evolution by natural selection? Tick (✓) one box.