Evolution – Biological Evolution and Mechanism of Evolution: NEET MCQs with Answers

15 free questions on Evolution – Biological Evolution and Mechanism of Evolution for NEET (UG), starting with previous-year NEET and AIPMT questions. Try each one, then tap Show answer for the answer and a short explanation.

Syllabus covered: Biological Evolution and Mechanism of Evolution: Darwin’s contribution, Modern Synthetic theory of Evolution; Mechanism of evolution- Variation (Mutation and Recombination) and Natural Selection with examples, types of natural selection;

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Question 1

Previous-year question
The theory of inheritance of acquired characters was proposed by [AIPMT 1989]
  1. Wallace
  2. Lamarck
  3. Darwin
  4. de Vries
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Answer: (B) Lamarck
Explanation: Jean Baptiste de Lamarck (1744–1829), the greatest of the French naturalists, was the first to suggest a complete theory of evolution. It is known as the theory of inheritance of acquired characters or the theory of use and disuse of organs.

Question 2

Previous-year question
The theory of ‘continuity of germplasm’ was given by [AIPMT 1989]
  1. de Vries
  2. Weismann
  3. Darwin
  4. Lamarck
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Answer: (B) Weismann
Explanation: August Weismann, a German scientist, formulated the theory of continuity of germplasm in 1886 on the basis of his experiments with mice. It states that inheritance in multicellular organisms takes place only through the germ cells, i.e. egg and sperm.

Question 3

Previous-year question
The basic principles of embryonic development were pronounced by [AIPMT 1990]
  1. Von Baer
  2. Weismann
  3. Haeckel
  4. Morgan
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Answer: (A) Von Baer
Explanation: Karl Ernst von Baer laid down the basic laws of embryonic development, showing that generalised features such as brain and spinal cord appear earlier in development than specialised features such as hair. Haeckel (1866) later propounded the theory of recapitulation.

Question 4

Previous-year question
Weismann cut off the tails of mice generation after generation, but the tails neither disappeared nor became shorter. This showed that [AIPMT 1993]
  1. Darwin was correct
  2. the tail is an essential organ
  3. the mutation theory is wrong
  4. Lamarckism was wrong regarding inheritance of acquired characters
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Answer: (D) Lamarckism was wrong regarding inheritance of acquired characters
Explanation: Weismann cut off the tails of mice for about twenty-two successive generations, yet every new generation was born with normal tails. This showed that body changes are not inherited and disproved Lamarck's idea of inheritance of acquired characters.

Question 5

Previous-year question
The theory of natural selection dwells upon [AIPMT 1993]
  1. the role of environment in evolution
  2. natural selection acting on favourable variations
  3. changes in gene complexes resulting in heritable variations
  4. none of the above
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Answer: (B) natural selection acting on favourable variations
Explanation: According to Darwin, in the struggle for existence only those individuals survive which possess the most useful favourable variations. These variations are passed on to the next generation, where the process is repeated.

Question 6

Previous-year question
The frequency of a character increases when it is [AIPMT 1994]
  1. recessive
  2. dominant
  3. inheritable
  4. adaptable
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Answer: (D) adaptable
Explanation: Adaptable characters allow individuals to survive under unfavourable and changing environmental conditions and to reproduce successfully. Such individuals leave more offspring, so the frequency of the character rises in the population.

Question 7

Previous-year question
Which one of the following does NOT favour the Lamarckian concept of inheritance of acquired characters? [AIPMT 1994]
  1. Lack of pigment in cave dwellers
  2. Absence of limbs in snakes
  3. Presence of webbed toes in aquatic birds
  4. Melanisation of the peppered moth in industrial areas
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Answer: (D) Melanisation of the peppered moth in industrial areas
Explanation: Lamarck explained loss of pigment, loss of limbs and webbing as effects of use and disuse. Industrial melanism in Biston betularia, however, is a case of natural selection acting on a pre-existing mutation and therefore does not support Lamarckism.
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Question 8

Previous-year question
The presence of gill slits in the embryos of all vertebrates supports the theory of [AIPMT 1995]
  1. biogenesis
  2. recapitulation
  3. metamorphosis
  4. organic evolution
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Answer: (B) recapitulation
Explanation: The theory of recapitulation (biogenetic law) of Haeckel states that an organism during its development tends to repeat the stages passed through by its ancestors. Gill clefts in vertebrate embryos are strong embryological evidence for this and thus for common ancestry.

Question 9

Previous-year question
During the developmental history of a mammalian heart it is generally seen to pass through a two-chambered fish-like heart, then a three-chambered frog-like heart and finally the four-chambered stage. To which hypothesis can this observation be approximated? [AIPMT 1998]
  1. Hardy-Weinberg law
  2. Lamarck’s principle
  3. Biogenetic law
  4. Mendelian law
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Answer: (C) Biogenetic law
Explanation: The biogenetic law of Ernst Haeckel (1866) states that during development an animal passes through stages resembling its ancestral adult forms — “ontogeny repeats phylogeny”. The mammalian heart passing through fish-like and frog-like stages illustrates this.

Question 10

Previous-year question
Darwin’s theory of pangenesis resembles the theory of inheritance of acquired characters. What then follows from it? [AIPMT 2001]
  1. Useful organs become strong and developed while useless organs become extinct; these organs help in the struggle for survival
  2. The size of organs increases with ageing
  3. Development of organs is due to will power
  4. There must be some physical basis of inheritance
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Answer: (D) There must be some physical basis of inheritance
Explanation: Both views assume that something acquired by the body during the lifetime of an organism is transmitted to the offspring and produces the corresponding character. Darwin called these hereditary particles pangenes or gemmules, implying a physical basis of inheritance.

Question 11

Previous-year question
The reason for the diversity seen in living beings is [AIPMT 2001]
  1. mutation
  2. gradual change
  3. long-term evolutionary change
  4. short-term evolutionary change
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Answer: (C) long-term evolutionary change
Explanation: Mutation provides the raw source of variation, but the diversity of living organisms is the outcome of natural selection acting on these variations and producing consequent evolutionary change over long periods of time.

Question 12

Previous-year question
In his theory of natural selection, Darwin did NOT accept any role for which one of the following in organic evolution? [AIPMT 2003]
  1. Discontinuous variations
  2. Parasites and predators as natural enemies
  3. Survival of the fittest
  4. Struggle for existence
Show answer
Answer: (A) Discontinuous variations
Explanation: Darwin believed evolution proceeded through the gradual accumulation of small, continuous variations, and assigned no role to discontinuous variations. Sudden heritable changes of that kind were later termed mutations by Hugo de Vries.

Question 13

Previous-year question
Which one of the following phenomena supports Darwin’s concept of natural selection in organic evolution? [AIPMT 2005]
  1. Development of transgenic animals
  2. Production of ‘Dolly’, the sheep, by cloning
  3. Prevalence of pesticide-resistant insects
  4. Development of organs from stem cells for organ transplantation
Show answer
Answer: (C) Prevalence of pesticide-resistant insects
Explanation: When a pesticide is applied, only those insects that already possess the resistant variation survive and reproduce, so resistant forms come to dominate the population. This is nature (here the pesticide) selecting favourable variations — exactly Darwin’s natural selection.

Question 14

Previous-year question
De Vries formulated his mutation theory of organic evolution while working on [AIPMT 2005]
  1. Pisum sativum
  2. Drosophila melanogaster
  3. Oenothera lamarckiana
  4. Althea rosea
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Answer: (C) Oenothera lamarckiana
Explanation: Hugo de Vries (1848–1935) worked on the evening primrose, Oenothera lamarckiana, and concluded that new species arise not by continuous variation but by the sudden appearance of heritable changes which he called mutations.

Question 15

Previous-year question
Select the correct statement from those given below. [AIPMT 2007]
  1. Darwinian variations are small and directionless
  2. Fitness is the end result of the ability to adapt and get selected by nature
  3. All mammals except whales and camels have seven cervical vertebrae
  4. Mutations are random and directional
Show answer
Answer: (B) Fitness is the end result of the ability to adapt and get selected by nature
Explanation: Fitness, or survival of the fittest, is the outcome of selection and multiplication of only those organisms that are best adapted to the environment. Darwinian variations are small but directional, mutations are random and directionless, and all mammals (except manatees and two-toed sloth) have seven cervical vertebrae.

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