Senior High School

General Biology 2
Quarter 3-Module 4 (Week 4):
Descent with Modification &
Development of Evolutionary
Thought

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General Biology 2 – Grade 12
Quarter 3– Module 4 (Week 4): Descent with Modification & Development of
Evolutionary Thought
Second Edition, 2021

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 MODULE 4
Descent with Modification & Development of Evolutionary Thought

Quarter : Third Quarter

Content Standard : The learners demonstrate an understanding of
relevance, mechanisms, evidence/bases, and theories
of evolution.
Performance Standard : The learners should be able to make a diagram (e.g.,
pictogram, poster) showing the evolution of a
domesticated crop.
Learning Competency : Show pattens of descent with modification from
common ancestors to produce the organismal diversity
observed today (STEM_BIO11/12-IIIc-g-10) and trace
the development of evolutionary thought
(STEM_BIO11/12-IIIc-g-11).
Duration : 1 Week
Topic : Patterns of Descent with Modification & Development
of Evolutionary Thought

Hello STEM learners!

In this module, you will explore how Darwin’s idea on “descent with
modification” explains the gradual change from a common ancestor to the
present organismal diversity. You will also trace the development of evolutionary
thought proposed by people from before the time of Darwin to explain life’s
diversity.
The module is divided into two lessons, namely:
Lesson 1—Descent with Modification
Lesson 2—Development of Evolutionary Thought

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. Explain the concept of descent with modification;
2. Provide an example for descent with modification;
3. Illustrate evolution of the domesticated crop;
4. Create a concept map to illustrate the development of the evolutionary
thought;
5. Appreciate the importance of evolution as the core theme in
understanding the diversity of life.

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Directions: Write the letter of the correct answer on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Which of the following contributions did Darwin make on the knowledge of
evolution? Darwin discovered/proposed ___________________________.
A. the structure of DNA C. the laws of inheritance
B. the Galapagos Islands D. the idea of natural selection
2. What observations helped Darwin formulate his theory of evolution?
A. There is unity and diversity of life.
B. Organisms struggle due to limited resource.
C. Organisms tend to produce more offspring yet only few survive.
D. All of the above.
3. What does “descent with modification” mean?
A. Inherited traits change from generation to generation.
B. Populations that change quickly are likely to become extinct.
C. Tracing an evolutionary tree from top to bottom reveals changes in species
diversity.
D. Parents change their own features before passing them on to their
offspring.
4. What were the most common organisms that Darwin studied in his visit to
the Galapagos Islands?
A. finches B. giant tortoises C. marine iguanas D. all of the given
5. Which of these bests refer to natural selection?
A. Extinction of species.
B. Survival of the fittest.
C. Breeding and domestication of crops.
D. Only the biggest, fastest, and strongest survive.
6. How can islands like the Galapagos islands, promote adaptive radiation?
Islands like those in the Galapagos provide ______________.
A. varied resources to exploit
B. new environments where groups have better opportunities to breed
C. populations a chance to adapt due to absence of competitors and
predators
D. all of the above
7. What did Charles Darwin conclude on his observations of the finch
populations on the Galápagos Islands? They ______________________.
A. had all adapted to the same food sources
B. flew better than the species from South America
C. were identical to the finch species in South America
D. probably evolved from one ancestral South American species
8. Who independently developed the theory of natural selection?
A. Charles Lyell and James Hutton
B. Charles Darwin and Erasmus Darwin
C. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace
D. Gregor Mendel and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

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9. Which of the following statements does NOT support natural selection?
Natural selection _________________.
A. is not affected by selective pressures
B. leads to a change in allele frequencies
C. allows for the most “fit” to survive and reproduce
D. works when variation of traits is present in the population
10. Who was the first to introduce a testable idea on the origin of species?
A. Aristotle C. Carolus Linnaeus
B. Charles Lyell D. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
11. Which of the following statements is TRUE about Charles Darwin?
A. He supported Lamarck's explanation of how evolution occurred.
B. He believed that evolution was due to the inheritance of acquired
characteristics.
C. He understood that the variation that exists in natural populations of
plants or animals is the result of repeated mutations.
D. None of the above.
12. Who discovered the basic laws of inheritance which allowed scientists to
accept the theory of natural selection?
A. Gregor Mendel C. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
B. Alfred Russel Wallace D. James Watson and Francis Crick
13. What does it mean when we say, “species share a common ancestor”? It
means that species are ____________.
A. identical C. living with their ancestors
B. unchanging D. descendants of a common ancestor
14. What is Carolus Linnaeus’ contribution to the development of evolutionary
thought? He was responsible for __________________.
A. discovering the structure of DNA
B. proving that the Earth was more than 6,000 year old
C. proving that all lifeforms were created by a Divine Being
D. classifying and ranking organisms to show diversity of life
15. Which theory proposed that all organisms were created by a Divine Being
and that all species are alike?
A. Special Creation C. Uniformitarianism
B. Natural Selection D. Spontaneous Generation

Introduction Darwin’s Natural Selection

By now, you must have an idea of the mechanisms that produce changes
in populations from generation to generation. These include natural selection,
artificial selection, genetic drift, gene flow, non-random mating, mutation,
recombination, and sexual selection.

Let us see if you can still remember them.

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Directions: Match the items in column A with column B. Write the letter that
corresponds to your answer on a separate sheet of paper.
Column A Column B
___1. The environment eliminates poorly adapted A. Artificial selection
individuals, only those best adapted reproduce. B. Gene flow
___2. Humans choose which plant and animal C. Genetic drift
to breed. D. Mutation
___3. A change in DNA sequence introduces new alleles E. Natural selection
in the population. F. Non-random mating
___4. Founder effect and population bottlenecks are its G. Recombination
two forms. H. Sexual selection
___5. Meiosis involves a stage where homologous genes
can cross-over on homologous chromosomes.
___6. It Involves movement of alleles between populations.
___7. It occurs when organisms have preferences whom
to mate.

Darwin’s Natural Selection

Charles Darwin, an English

naturalist, made one of the most important
contributions to biology when he proposed
a theory to explain life’s diversity. His
voyage on the HMS Beagle helped him put
together his theory of evolution known
as “descent with modification”, which
was written in his book “On the Origin of
Species by Means of Natural Selection”.

Figure 4.1. Charles Darwin and his book

“On the Origin of Species”.

He based the natural selection on

observations that he documented during
his five-year voyage of the HMS Beagle.
First, variations of traits within
populations were common; second, many
offspring were born yet, only a few survive;
and third, living organisms struggle to
survive with limited resources. Darwin's
most well-known observations were on his
visit to the very young, volcanic Galapagos
Islands off the Pacific Coast of South
America (shown in figure 4.2). Most of the
plant and animal species that Darwin
documented were found only on these

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islands, yet he observed that these species shared characteristics with the plant
and animal species from the mainland.

Figure 4.3. Observation 1: Figure 4.4. Observation 2: Many Figure 4.5. Observation 3:
Variation in populations. are born, yet only few survive. Organisms struggle to survive
with a limited resource.

These three observations, along with Darwin’s knowledge of fossils and

the Principles of Geology, explained how species changed over time. And over
time, this led to the modifications of characters that allowed organisms to adapt
to their environment. This is what Darwin referred to as “descent with
modification” which produced the diversity of lifeforms that we observe in
nature.

Natural selection is the mechanism that explains descent with

modification (also known as evolution). In natural selection, species with
certain inherited traits will be more likely to survive and reproduce more than
others, these are the individuals with the best adaptations to the current
environment, which is the natural environment.

Remember…
Geology principles helped determine the age of the Earth, while paleontology helped
determine the succession of lifeforms, through the study of fossils, from ancient times to the
present. Both fields helped in providing evidence for the evolution of life.

Lesson 1: Descent with Modification

Charles Darwin observed many shared

characteristics among organisms which illustrate
unity in life. He believed that all organisms
descended from an ancestor that must have lived
in the distant past. He also thought that the
descendants started to move to inhabit other places
or habitats and gradually accumulated many
modifications for adapting to these new habitats.
Over a very long period, these adaptations gave rise
to the diversity of lifeforms we see today.

Figure 4.6. Darwin’s “Tree of Life”

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 Descent with modification is Darwin’s version of evolution. He
hypothesized, based on his observations, that species originate from a common
ancestor but because conditions in the natural environment changed, so too
must the populations, allowing traits that appear to produce an advantage to
thrive. Thus, changing the allele frequencies (occurrence of genes) in the
populations over time. Over time, the appearance of organisms become more
and more different or modified from their ancestral lineage resulting in formation
of new species. Darwin’s “Tree of Life” (shown in photo 4.6) illustrates this
hypothesis.
Let us look at the
example of the
Galapagos birds of the
islands. Although the
islands were close to
each other, these had
different conditions to
which the birds must
adapt by allowing traits
that give them the
advantage to thrive in
the population. The
differences in their
beak shapes created
opportunities to adapt
to different feeding
habits. These birds
share characteristics with those on the mainland which made Darwin realize
that the Galapagos birds must have descended from birds on the mainland.
Somehow, the ancestral birds migrated to the nearby, newly formed volcanic
islands and rapidly adapted to the new environments. This is an example of a
process called adaptive radiation (see figure 4.7) and can result in diversity as
new habitats open new opportunities for organisms to exploit.
Another Galapagos residents are the giant tortoises. Darwin thought that
they must have descended from tortoises (a very long time ago) on the mainland
and differentiated to adapt to the island environments. He observed variation in
shell size and shape, length of necks, length of legs, and body size and color
between populations (see figure 4.8). In Isabela Island, tortoises have dome-
shaped shells and short necks. They are adapted to ground vegetations and are
well-protected from predators by retracting their short necks and limbs inside
their shells. In Pinta Island, intermediate shell and neck varieties have
adaptations to intermediate climates (dry and wet). In Hood Island, the saddle-
backed shells and long necks have adaptations to drier climates with scattered-
high vegetations. Tortoises with long necks provide for an adaptation to reach
high vegetations.

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There are also the marine iguanas of the Galapagos islands which have
diversified into subspecies. These subspecies vary in color, size and behavior.
According to scientists who studied them, they have not evolved to combat new
predators which makes them vulnerable. They have diversified into subgroups
(subspecies) and are said to have descended from land iguanas from South
America or from sea swimming reptiles which became extinct as they occupied
some of the harshest parts of the islands.

There were many other species of plants and animals that Darwin had
studied on the Galapagos islands that illustrated unity of life as evidenced by
shared characteristics from a common ancestor. At the same time, lifeforms are
diverse (due to modifications of characters) as each species must adapt to
different environments.

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 Biologists today use the
ideas of Darwin together with
studies from comparative
anatomy, morphology, and
molecular analysis to
illustrate descent with
modification. The
phylogenetic tree (figure 4.10)
is a diagram that shows how
diverse lifeforms descended
from a common ancestor. This
illustration was introduced by
an American Microbiologist
Carl Woese to show the
evolutionary relationships among the three domains of life using genetic data.

Remember…
Allele frequency or gene frequency refers to the fraction of all chromosomes in a population that
carry a particular allele.
Genes are sections in a DNA that carry the information how to build the trait.
Alleles are versions of the same gene. Example: length of neck (gene) of tortoise can be short or
long (alleles).

Showing Patterns of Descent with Modification

(Adapted from The University of California Museum of Paleontology: Evolution 101, Descent with
modification, https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_15)

We have defined evolution as descent with modification from a common

ancestor, but exactly what has been modified? Evolution only occurs when there
is a change in gene frequency within a population over time. These genetic
differences are heritable and can be passed on to the next generation — which
is what really matters in evolution: long term change.
Directions: Compare these two examples of change in beetle populations.
Write yours answers on a separate sheet of paper.
Example 1 Example 2
1. Beetles on a diet 2. Beetles of a different color
1st Generation 1st Generation
Imagine a year or Most of the beetles in the
two of drought in population (say 90%) have
which there are few the genes for bright green
plants that these coloration and a few of them
beetles can eat. (10%) have a gene that makes
them brown.

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2nd Generation 2nd Generation
All the beetles have Some number of generations
the same chances later, things have changed:
of survival and brown beetles are more
reproduction, but common than they used to be
because of food and make up 70% of the
restrictions, the population.
beetles in the population are a little
smaller than the preceding generation of
beetles.
Questions:
1. Which is an example of evolution? ___________________________________.
2. Which example illustrates descent with modification — a change in gene
frequency over time? _____________________________________________________.
3. How did it happen? ______________________________________________________.

Lesson 2: Development of the Evolutionary

Thought

By now, you must have learned that Darwin:

• based his evolution ideas from observations he made during his five-
year voyage and his knowledge of geology.
• wrote a book entitled “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection”.
• observed and explained that the similarities and differences in
lifeforms are due to descent with modification by means of natural
selection.
• proposed that descent with modification can result from adaptive
radiation.
•
Directions: Answer the review question on a separate sheet of paper.
What did Darwin observe in his voyage to the Galapagos Islands that led
him to develop his ideas about the origin of
species?_____________________________________________________________________

You must understand that Darwin was not the first to have thought of and
observed the diversity of life on Earth and wondered how this came about. The
development of evolutionary thought began in ancient times as many people
tried to explain life’s diversity and even started classifying organisms into
hierarchical groupings.

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 In this lesson, you shall explore the development of the evolutionary
thought from before Darwin’s time and learn that these thoughts had profound
influence in Darwin’s evolutionary theory.

The presentation here is a chronological order of events which

include the list of scientists who contributed to the development of the
evolutionary thought.

Early Ideas

Ancient Greeks (350 BCE)

• Anaximander—proposed that animals can be transformed from one
form to another.
• Empedocles—thought that animals were made up various
combinations of previously existing parts.
• Aristotle—recognized that all organisms are related and developed a
system of classifying them; he proposed that all species are identical.
His ideas were the most influential for 2000 years.

Special Creation Theory

• A theological doctrine that originated from the Book of Genesis of the
Bible; it states that the universe and all life in it originated in its
present form by unconditional divine decree; this thought lasted for 15
centuries because the Church had so much influence and it was
forbidden to challenge it.

Enlightenment in the 18th Century

• Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon—proposed that organisms
arise from organic molecules by spontaneous generation; the diversity
of organisms arise from the combinations of the vast organic molecules.
He became one of the first scientists to propose that closely related
species arose from a common ancestor and were changing.
• Carolus Linnaeus—Father of Taxonomy; he was able to introduce a
system of naming, ranking, and classifying organisms which is still
very influential today. He also believed that God created all organisms,
and it was his task to classify them into the Divine Order of God’s
creation.

Ideas from Geology (18th-19th Century)

• James Hutton—proposed the theory of uniformitarianism, he
proposed that the Earth’s processes that is seen in modern times have
also occurred in the past and produced gradual changes on Earth over
time.
• Georges Cuvier—proposed the theory of catastrophism where many
violent Earth events like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods

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 caused the geological formations. His fossil discoveries show the
similarities among organisms and observed that layers of rocks and the
fossils they hold can tell which ones are older. He found that some
fossils were remains of extinct organisms and said that they were not
formed through creation and that catastrophes destroyed them, and
new life would arrive in nearby surroundings.
• Charles Lyell—(Geologist) revived uniformitarianism and suggested
that natural processes are slow and steady, and that the Earth is much
older than previously thought, about several millions of years. He
proved this by the fossil succession in the layers of rocks.

Early Ideas on the Origin of Species

• Erasmus Darwin—Charles Darwin’s grandfather had early ideas that
all animals arose from a single “living filament”.
• Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck—proposed the first scientifically testable
evolutionary theory known as “inheritance of acquired characteristics”.
He proposed that when organisms use a portion of their body
repeatedly, it would increase their ability and that these changes can
be passed on to future generations (shown in figure 4.12). He also
proposed the law of use and disuse on body parts, he said that some
parts of the body may be lost if you do not use it.

• Thomas Malthus (Economist) had a profound influence on Darwin’s

idea on the role of limited resource in his Theory of Natural Selection.
He wrote an “Essay on the Principle of Population” which talked about
how organisms tend to produce far more offspring than can survive and
that famine can occur if population is left unchecked.
• Alfred Russel Wallace—He independently proposed that natural
selection was the driving force of evolution. He was one of the reasons
Darwin hurriedly published his theory on Natural Selection. In the end,
both jointly published their findings and presented it at the Linnaean
Society in 1859.
• Charles Darwin in his natural selection proposed as explanation for
how the giraffe got its long neck (shown in figure 4.13).

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Expansion of the Evolutionary Theory after Darwin
• Gregor Mendel (1865) proposed the basic laws of inheritance. He was
solving the mystery behind inheritance while Darwin was thinking
about natural selection. Mendel’s work was not known until after
Darwin’s death.
• It was in the 1930s that scientist began to accept the connection
between natural selection and genetics. The modern evolutionary
synthesis unified these ideas which proposes that genetic mutations
create the heritable variation which natural selection acts on.
• James Watson and Francis Crick (1953) discovered the structure of
DNA which led to greater understanding of genes and how they work.
• Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of plate tectonics to explain
continental drift which helped understand how similar fossils or
organisms can be found in different continents.
• Carl Woese (1977) reclassified life into three domains as shown in the
Phylogenetic Tree of Life using new genetic techniques. He was able to
discover a new group of prokaryotes called archaea.
• Human Genome Project (1995) began the large-scale sequencing of
genes from representative organisms which showed genetic similarities
between species.
• Present—wide-scale research on what controls or regulates gene
functions.

Our current understanding of genes and what regulates their functions

have been very crucial in helping scientists find the vaccine to combat COVID-
19 since its discovery in 2019. The knowledge that scientists have accumulated
over many centuries will continue to help us understand life and its future.

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Directions: Match the evolutionary thought in column A with its proponent
in column B. Write the letter that corresponds to your answer on a separate
sheet of paper.
Column A Column B
___1. Theory of Inheritance of Acquired A. Aristotle
Characteristics B. Carl Woese
___2. Theory of Plate Tectonics C. Charles Lyell
___3. Theory of Natural Selection D. James Hutton
___4. Theory of Uniformitarianism E. Gregor Mendel
___5. Theory of Catastrophism F. Charles Darwin
___6. Proposed that the Earth is very old much older G. Georges Cuvier
than previously thought H. Alfred Wegener
___7. Proposed similar theory with Darwin on I. Watson and Crick
Natural selection J. Alfred Russel Wallace
___8. Discovered the basic laws of inheritance K. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
___9. Discovered the structure of DNA
___10. Reclassified life into three domains

Directions: Fill in the appropriate term/s to complete the statements below.

Write your answers immediately on a separate paper.
1. Darwin’s ideas of evolution were based on three observations. First, there
is _________ of lifeforms; second, more __________ are born yet only few
________; and third, there is __________ resource.
2. Observed shared characteristics in different species shows descent from a
_____________ (two words).
3. Darwin’s mechanism that explains the origin of species is ____________
(two words).
4. For Darwin’s mechanism to work, populations must exhibit ____________
in traits.
5. Heritable traits can be passed on from several generations and are carried
by ______.
6. Evolution can occur if there is a change in _____________ (two words) within
a population over time.
7. Over time, ____________________ (three words) can result in the formation
of new species from their ancestral populations.
8. Diversity is a result of adaptive __________.
9. The development of evolutionary thought began in the ___________ times.
10.Much of the evolutionary thought during middles ages revolved around
the strong influence of the church. Thus, for 15 centuries no one dared
question the theory of _______________ (two words).

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11. One of the most influential geologists of his time, ______________, revealed
fossil evidence to prove that the Earth was about several millions old.
12.Lamarck proposed the first testable theory of evolution which proposes that
organisms ___________ characteristics from the environment which can be
passed on for generations.
13. Both __________ and ____________ independently proposed the theory of
natural selection.
14.The discovery of the basic laws of ___________ could have helped prove the
theory of natural selection.
15. The discovery of the structure of _______ opened new areas for research on
genes.

Illustrating Evolution of the Domesticated Crop (Cereals or grains)-

Performance Assessment
The domestication of plants and animals from their wild ancestors have
been one of the most important part in human civilization. Wild grains were
collected and eaten as great sources of nutrients. Cereals or grains are grasses
of the monocotyledon group, one of the major groups of flower-bearing plants.
The wild grasses were the ancestors of the now domesticated cereals that we
have today. There are several known species of cereals all over the world. In the
Philippines, rice, corn, and sugarcane are the top three crops grown in many
parts of the country. Grasses belong to a family called Poaceae which branches
into two diverging lineages:
A. Bambusoideae (C3 Plants—also known as “cool-season grasses”)
a. Oryzoideae—rice (Oryza sativa)—grow in tropical climates.
b. Pooideae—grow in temperate climates.
i. Oat (Avena sativa)
ii. Wheat (Triticum spp.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) have a
more recent common ancestor.
B. C4 Plants—also known as “warm-season grasses”.
a. Panicoideae
i. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum)
ii. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and maize or corn (Zea mays) have
a more recent common ancestor.
Instructions
1. On a separate bond paper draw a phylogenetic tree to illustrate the
evolutionary history of the six common cereals or grains. Use the
information that you have just read. Refer to figure 4.11 to know how to
read trees.

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2. Copy and complete the tree below on a separate sheet of paper. Then,
answer the questions that follow.

a. Which of the crops share a more recent common ancestor with rice?
_________________________________________________________________
b. Which of the crops share a more recent common ancestor with corn?
_________________________________________________________________
c. What do you think are the reasons for the diversification of the wild
grasses into the domesticated species of crops?
_________________________________________________________________

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Directions: Write the letter of the correct answer on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Which of the following statements about Darwin is TRUE?
A. He failed to convince most biologists and other educated people in the late
19th century that life evolves.
B. He thought that the biggest and strongest animals are always at an
advantage in natural selection.
C. His book On the Origin of Species did not sell well and the biologists in his
time did not take much notice of it.
D. None of the above.
2. What observations was Darwin able to formulate during his voyage?
A. Plant and animal populations in nature most often consist of individuals
that are identical of each other.
B. Species that become isolated may not be able to adapt to different
environments can become extinct.
C. Populations with genetic variation give them survival advantage and can
reproduce more to pass their traits on to the next generation.
D. All of the above.
3. When does descent with modification occur? It occurs when there is/are
_____________________.
A. an increase in population
B. change in gene frequency
C. newly acquired characteristics
D. a reappearance of an ancestor in the population

4. What was Carl Woese’s most important contribution to evolution? He was

able to _______________.
A. revise the tree of life and introduced the three domains of life
B. discover the second group of prokaryotes that was different from bacteria
C. introduce a new genetic technique to study history of single-celled
organisms
D. all of the given
5. Which of these demonstrates descent with modification by means of natural
selection?
A. Plants absorbing toxins from the ground can use it to form compounds
that poison herbivores.
B. Humans improve intelligence by going to school and this can be inherited
by their future children.
C. Stretching of short necks in giraffes will eventually elongate the necks and
this can be passed on to the next generation.
D. Green colored individuals in a beetle population are eaten by birds while
brown ones that blend with the environment escaped predation,
eventually, brown beetles are left to survive and reproduce.

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6. What were the most important contribution of Charles Lyell? He proposed
______________.
A. the idea of natural selection
B. the theory of uniformitarianism
C. a system for classifying, naming, and ranking organisms
D. that the Earth is more than 6,000 years old and may even be million years
older
7. Which of these bests describes “descent with modification”?
A. Descent with modification results from adaptive radiation.
B. Descent with modification can be illustrated by diversity of lifeforms.
C. Descent with modification illustrates that organisms share a common
ancestor.
D. All of the above.
8. Which ideas helped Darwin to formulate the theory of natural selection?
A. Lamarck’s idea that species change.
B. Thomas Malthus’ idea that organisms tend to produce more offspring than
can survive.
C. Charles Lyell’s idea that the Earth is more than 6,000 years old, probably
several millions of years old.
D. All of the above.
9. What is the importance of phylogenetic trees? They can illustrate
_____________.
A. patterns of descent with modification
B. the evolutionary relationship among species
C. classification of organisms based on morphology and molecular data
D. all of the above
10. What was the name of the economist whose book “Essay on the Principle
of Populations” influenced Darwin?
A. Charles Lyell C. Carolus Linnaeus
B. Thomas Malthus D. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
11. The finches on the Galapagos island were similar in form except for
variations of their beaks. How is this observed variation useful for the
finches? They are useful for ______________.
A. building nests C. attracting a mate
B. gathering food D. defending territory
12. Which of the following is the best example of natural selection?
A. A population of arctic foxes undergoes a seasonal coat color change from
brown to white as soon as snow covers their habitat.
B. Field mice born during a year with excess wheat will gain muscle mass
and thus have offspring that have an increased muscle mass.
C. Tilapia that are born with darker scales are better able to survive in the
shadows among the river rocks.
D. None of the above.
13. What is the difference between Lamarck’s theory from Darwin’s theory?
A. Darwin and Lamarck independently proposed the same theory.
B. Darwin proposed that new species evolved over time through natural
selection while Lamarck theorized that organisms could adapt by
acquiring characteristics and passing that to their offspring.

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 C. Lamarck proposed that new species evolved over time through natural
selection while Darwin theorized that organisms could adapt by acquiring
characteristics and passing that to their offspring.
D. All of the above.
In the next succeeding numbers (14-15), refer to the diagram below.

14. Which of these cereals share a more recent common ancestor with maize
or corn?
A. barley C. sorghum
B. rice D. wheat
15. Which of these cereals share a more recent common ancestor with rice?
A. barley C. sorghum
B. maize D. none of the given

REFERENCES
Offline sources
Hoefnagels, Marielle. Biology: Concepts and Investigations. New York: McGraw-Hill
Education, 2018.
Lutgens, Frederick K., Edward J. Tarbuck, and Dennis Tasa. Foundations of Earth
Science. Boston: Pearson, 2017.
Urry, Lisa A., Michael L. Cain, Steven Alexander Wasserman, Peter V. Minorsky,
Rebecca B. Orr, and Neil A. Campbell. Campbell Biology. New York, NY:
Pearson, 2020.
Online sources
“Adaptive Radiation.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.
Accessed March 25, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/science/adaptive-
radiation#/media/1/5310/74641.
“Galapagos Species Checklist.” Charles Darwin Foundation. Accessed March 25,
2021.https://www.darwinfoundation.org/en/datazone/checklist?species=5273
#references.
Piqsels. Accessed March 25, 2021. https://www.piqsels.com/en/public-domain-
photo-ziwpu.
“Tortoise Maps: Giant Tortoises of the Galápagos Islands: Giant Tortoise, Tortoises,
Homeschool Geography.” Pinterest. Accessed March 25,
2021.https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/382313455838451173/.
Landry, Heather et al. “Challenging Evolution: How GMOs Can Influence Genetic
Diversity.” Science in the News, August
12,2015.https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/challenging-evolution-how-
gmos-can-influence-genetic-diversity.
Ji, Qing, Xing Xu, and Kan Wang. “Genetic Transformation of Major Cereal Crops.”.
The International journal of developmental biology 57: 495–508. Accessed March
28, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.130244kw.
Kellogg, Elizabeth A. “Evolutionary History of the Grasses.” Plant Physiology 125, no. 3
(2001): 1198–1205. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.125.3.1198.
Campbell, Christopher S.. "Poaceae". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Oct. 2016,
https://www.britannica.com/plant/Poaceae. Accessed 28 March 2021.

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“History of Evolutionary Theory.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica,
inc. Accessed March 28, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/science/evolution-
scientific-theory/History-of-evolutionary-theory.
“A History of Evolutionary Thought.” UCMP. Accessed March 28, 2021.
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/evothought.html.

Lesson 1

F 7.
B 6.
G 5.
C 4.
D 3. 3.
A 2. 2. Example 2
E 1. 1. Example 2
In What’s What’s More

Lesson 2

10. H B 5.
c. There is limited resource available for organisms. 9. J D 4.
b. Organisms tend to produce more offspring yet only few survive. 8. G C 3.
a. There are variations within populations. 7. I K 2.
1. Darwin observed: 6. F E 1.
What’s In More What’s

What I Have Learned

1. variation; offspring; survive; limited 2.common ancestor
3.natural selection 4.variation 5.genes
6.gene/allele frequency 7.descent with modification 8.radiation
9.ancient 10.special creation 11.Charles Lyell
12.acquire 13.Charles Darwin; Alfred Russel Wallace 14. Inheritance/gebetics 15.DNA

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