Evidence for Evolution- Transitional Fossils

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. What is a transitional fossil? A fossil that contains material not usually fossilized (such as muscular structure or hair) A fossil showing an immediate change from one kind of animal to another A fossil intermediate between two other fossils A fossil of a type of living thing that no longer exists

2. How do transitional fossils best serve as evidence for evolution? They show animals that once existed but now do not They show the intermediate steps in the evolution of a species They show that every species of animal developed separately They show that most species have remained the same for very long periods of time

3. Creationists often criticize transitional fossils by stating that there is no proof that a given fossil is the ancestor of a given species. What is one thing that is wrong with such criticisms? Scientists have absolute proof that some species evolved from other species There is also no proof that the fossils *aren't* ancestors of the given species. Nothing; the criticism is correct Evolution is rarely a straight-line process; it's a bush rather than an arrow

4. Evolutionists have used transitional fossil series to document that men evolved from modern-day monkeys. True False

5. One of the most exciting developments in evolutionary biology was the discoveries of Pakicetus and Ambulocetus. These fossils were clearly transitional forms in the evolution of what group of mammals? Bats Apes Whales Horses

6. Creationists try to dispute the very clearly documented evolution of horses, which includes a superb series of transitional fossils, by using several arguments. Which is NOT an argument that they use? The "dawn horse," Hyracotherium (Eohippus) was really a hyrax, not a horse at all The shape of the eye orbit in modern horses is unique and not found in any of the animals said to be ancestral to the horse Fossils of Hyracotherium and later horses are found in the same strata Different fossil horses have differing numbers of pairs of ribs

7. Creationists often criticize the fossil record because it has large gaps in it. Which is NOT a scientific reason that such gaps occur? Some types of animals do not fossilize well Fossil-bearing strata were often destroyed in volcanic eruptions Rock often cannot form quickly enough to fossilize many animals Most fossils have not been found yet

8. One of the most interesting transitional series is that between fish and amphibians. What surprising discovery does this series reveal? That tadpoles evolved before amphibians That amphibians evolved from sharks That legs evolved in fish long before amphibians emerged on land All of these

9. The transition from reptiles to mammals is another sequence with many well-documented examples. Which is NOT a pattern documented in this fossil sequence? Transition from the many-boned reptilian jaw to the differently-hinged, one-bone mammalian jaw Transition from the three-chambered reptilian heart to the four-chambered mammalian heart Transition from reptilian teeth, which were all identical, to the several types of teeth found in mammals Transition from reptilian limbs sticking out from the body to mammalian limbs under the body

10. Documentation of many stages of evolution of most of the families of modern mammals exists in transitional fossil series. True False