BIO 370 exam 1 actual Question and
answers already passed 2025/2026
irreducible complexity - correct answer ✔complex biological structures evolve from individual
components
biological evolution - correct answer ✔an inherited change in a group of organisms through time
Aristotle - correct answer ✔scala naturae "great chain of being"
Carl Linnaeus - correct answer ✔founder of modern taxonomy; systema naturae; kingdom, phylum,
class, order, family, genus, species; "genus species" naming
Charles Darwin - correct answer ✔"origin of species", one long argument for evolution
Jean Baptise Lamarck - correct answer ✔inheritance of acquired characteristics; thought acquired
characteristics could be passed on
Alfred Russel Wallace - correct answer ✔independently developed notion of natural selection and
species change
phylogeny - correct answer ✔evolutionary history of a group (a.k.a genealogy)
natural selection - correct answer ✔nonrandom survival and reproduction of phenotypes/genotypes;
nonrandom correlation b/w phenotype/genotype and fitness; backward not forward looking- often
decreases variation
microevolution - correct answer ✔change over time in species within populations
, macroevolution - correct answer ✔descent w/ modification; novel forms of life come from earlier
forms of life over long periods of time
speciation - correct answer ✔ancestral species give rise to to distinct descendant species
artificial selection - correct answer ✔selection by humans of a chosen trait in "captive" populations
homology - correct answer ✔shared feature inherited from common ancestor that look the same but
function differently; proves common ancestry
vestigal organ - correct answer ✔occurring in a rudimentary state, as a result of an evolutionary
reduction from a more elaborated, function character in an ancestor; supports notion that species have
changed through time
adaptation - correct answer ✔traits that optimize survivorship and reproduction; "perfected" through
natural selection
convergence - correct answer ✔independently evolved solution to a similar problem (ex: peacocks and
peacock spiders)
homoplasy - correct answer ✔similarity in characters found in different species due to convergent
evolution, parallelism, or reversal- not common descent ; "analogous characters"
suboptimal design - correct answer ✔organisms can't evolve new traits from scratch, new traits must
be modifications of old ones
pseudogene - correct answer ✔nonfunctional member of a gene family - shows natural selection is not
perfect
answers already passed 2025/2026
irreducible complexity - correct answer ✔complex biological structures evolve from individual
components
biological evolution - correct answer ✔an inherited change in a group of organisms through time
Aristotle - correct answer ✔scala naturae "great chain of being"
Carl Linnaeus - correct answer ✔founder of modern taxonomy; systema naturae; kingdom, phylum,
class, order, family, genus, species; "genus species" naming
Charles Darwin - correct answer ✔"origin of species", one long argument for evolution
Jean Baptise Lamarck - correct answer ✔inheritance of acquired characteristics; thought acquired
characteristics could be passed on
Alfred Russel Wallace - correct answer ✔independently developed notion of natural selection and
species change
phylogeny - correct answer ✔evolutionary history of a group (a.k.a genealogy)
natural selection - correct answer ✔nonrandom survival and reproduction of phenotypes/genotypes;
nonrandom correlation b/w phenotype/genotype and fitness; backward not forward looking- often
decreases variation
microevolution - correct answer ✔change over time in species within populations
, macroevolution - correct answer ✔descent w/ modification; novel forms of life come from earlier
forms of life over long periods of time
speciation - correct answer ✔ancestral species give rise to to distinct descendant species
artificial selection - correct answer ✔selection by humans of a chosen trait in "captive" populations
homology - correct answer ✔shared feature inherited from common ancestor that look the same but
function differently; proves common ancestry
vestigal organ - correct answer ✔occurring in a rudimentary state, as a result of an evolutionary
reduction from a more elaborated, function character in an ancestor; supports notion that species have
changed through time
adaptation - correct answer ✔traits that optimize survivorship and reproduction; "perfected" through
natural selection
convergence - correct answer ✔independently evolved solution to a similar problem (ex: peacocks and
peacock spiders)
homoplasy - correct answer ✔similarity in characters found in different species due to convergent
evolution, parallelism, or reversal- not common descent ; "analogous characters"
suboptimal design - correct answer ✔organisms can't evolve new traits from scratch, new traits must
be modifications of old ones
pseudogene - correct answer ✔nonfunctional member of a gene family - shows natural selection is not
perfect
