Four rounds on the science and its history: how evolution works, who thought about it before and after Darwin, the voyage of the Beagle, and the book published on November 24, 1859.
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Darwin trivia questions
Charles Darwin follows his life: Shrewsbury, Edinburgh and Cambridge, almost five years at sea, barnacles, orchids and worms. Before Darwin and after has Linnaeus, Lamarck, Malthus, Wallace and the modern synthesis.
Human evolution trivia questions
Some questions of The Origin of Species and human origins ask what the book of 1859 said about people, which book of 1871 took the subject up, and when modern humans appeared. The rest of the round is the book itself: its date, its full title and its editions.
How evolution works is the terms round; a class that has just met alleles and gene flow will do best.
Questions and answers
What are some easy evolution trivia questions?
On which ship did Charles Darwin make his long voyage? What did he suffer from badly on board? Which British naturalist conceived natural selection independently of him? The answers are HMS Beagle, seasickness and Alfred Russel Wallace.
Who came up with the theory of evolution by natural selection?
Two British naturalists, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, conceived it independently in the mid-19th century. Their papers were read together at the Linnean Society of London on July 1, 1858, and Darwin set the theory out in detail in 1859.
How long was Darwin's voyage on the Beagle?
Almost five years. The voyage began on December 27, 1831, on an expedition to chart the coastline of South America, and Darwin spent most of the time on land, studying geology and collecting.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Evolution, Charles Darwin or On the Origin of Species, linked under the question. The set is the science and its history only.
About how long ago did organisms made of many cells begin to appear?Answer: Around 1.7 billion years ago. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
About what share of all the species that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct?Answer: More than 99 percent. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
Amphibians enter the record of life roughly when?Answer: Around 364 million years ago. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of what, over successive generations?Answer: Biological populations. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
Natural selection, genetic drift and mutation are three of the four processes that change DNA in a population. What is the fourth?Answer: Gene flow. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
One of the observable facts behind natural selection is that more offspring are often produced than what?Answer: Than can possibly survive. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
What are evolutionary throwbacks, such as a lost trait that reappears, known as?Answer: Atavisms. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
What do the letters LUCA stand for?Answer: Last universal common ancestor. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
What is change within a species called?Answer: Anagenesis. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
What is evolutionary developmental biology informally called?Answer: Evo-devo. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
When selection for one helpful allele makes its neighbors on the chromosome more common too, what is the effect called?Answer: Genetic hitchhiking. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
Which process introduces new genetic variation into a population?Answer: Mutation. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
Before Darwin and after 15
An essay of 1798 on population helped Darwin see a struggle for existence. Who wrote it?Answer: Thomas Robert Malthus. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
In 1837 the ornithologist John Gould reported on the mockingbirds Darwin had collected on the Galápagos Islands. How many separate species did he find?Answer: Three. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
In 1861 Henry Walter Bates used natural selection to explain what in insects?Answer: Mimicry. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
In 1880 Othniel Marsh caught the attention of the scientific world with a monograph on extinct birds of North America. What did those birds have?Answer: Teeth. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
In which decades did the modern evolutionary synthesis develop?Answer: The 1930s and 1940s. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
In which field were Ronald Fisher and Sewall Wright pioneers in the 1930s?Answer: Population genetics. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
In which year did Carl Linnaeus introduce his biological classification?Answer: 1735. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
In which year did Ibn Khaldun write the Muqaddimah, a book that touched on the development of species?Answer: 1377. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
T. H. Huxley and his friends campaigned for science under which club name?Answer: The X Club. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
What name is given to the years from the 1880s to the 1930s, when other mechanisms of evolution were given more credit than natural selection?Answer: The eclipse of Darwinism. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
Which book of 1844 on the history of life drew strong responses years before Darwin published?Answer: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
Which British naturalist conceived the theory of evolution by natural selection independently of Darwin?Answer: Alfred Russel Wallace. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
Which relative of Charles Darwin outlined a hypothesis of the transmutation of species in the 1790s?Answer: His grandfather Erasmus Darwin. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
Whose theory of 1809 was the first full-fledged evolutionary scheme?Answer: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, disputed the time Darwin allowed for evolution. About how old did he calculate the Sun to be?Answer: About 100 million years. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin 20
After years of studying them, which animals did Darwin say he hated "as no man ever did before"?Answer: Barnacles. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
At which Cambridge college did Darwin study from 1828 to 1831?Answer: Christ's College. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
At which university did the young Darwin neglect his medical education?Answer: The University of Edinburgh. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
Darwin predicted a moth with a tongue long enough to pollinate a certain orchid. In which year did explorers in Madagascar discover it?Answer: 1903. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
The expedition Darwin joined was sent to chart the coastline of which continent?Answer: South America. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
From whom did Darwin learn taxidermy in about 40 daily lessons?Answer: John Edmonstone. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
In which English town was Charles Darwin born on February 12, 1809?Answer: Shrewsbury. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
In which year did Darwin devise his theory of natural selection?Answer: 1838. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
On the survey voyage, the captain of the ship gave Darwin the first volume of Principles of Geology. Who wrote it?Answer: Charles Lyell. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
On which date did Darwin set out on his survey voyage?Answer: December 27, 1831. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
On which ship did Darwin make his long survey voyage?Answer: HMS Beagle. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
To which society were the theories of Darwin and Wallace jointly submitted in 1858?Answer: The Linnean Society of London. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
What did Darwin suffer from badly on board the ship during his long survey voyage?Answer: Seasickness. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
What was the subject of the first scientific work Darwin published, in 1842?Answer: Coral reefs. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
Where was Charles Darwin buried?Answer: Westminster Abbey. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
Where was the first stop ashore of the survey voyage Darwin joined, at which he found seashells high in a cliff?Answer: St Jago in Cape Verde. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
Which animals are the subject of the last book Darwin wrote, published in 1881?Answer: Worms. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
Which medal did the Linnean Society of London begin to award in 1908?Answer: The Darwin-Wallace Medal. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
Who persuaded the father of Charles Darwin to let him go on the voyage, and to pay for it?Answer: Josiah Wedgwood II. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
Who was the captain of the ship on which Darwin sailed?Answer: Robert FitzRoy. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
The Origin of Species and human origins 15
About how long passed between Darwin clearly conceiving his theory and publishing it?Answer: About twenty years. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
By 1864 translations of On the Origin of Species had appeared in Italian and which other language?Answer: Russian. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
For which readers was On the Origin of Species written?Answer: Non-specialist readers. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
From 1858, which scientist stressed the anatomical similarities between apes and humans?Answer: T. H. Huxley. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
The full title of On the Origin of Species ends with the words "in the Struggle for" what?Answer: Life. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
The great book Darwin brought out in 1859 reached the public on which day?Answer: November 24, 1859. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
How many copies made up the first stock of On the Origin of Species, which booksellers took in full?Answer: 1,250. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
In On the Origin of Species, Darwin names the principle by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved. What does he call it?Answer: Natural selection. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
In which book of 1871 did Darwin set out evidence that humans are animals?Answer: The Descent of Man. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
Modern humans are placed roughly how far back in time?Answer: Around 250,000 years ago. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
On the Origin of Species says almost nothing about people. Finish its one sentence on the subject: "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his" what?Answer: History. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
What did Darwin call the book of 1859, which was shorter than the big book he had planned?Answer: An abstract. Source: Wikipedia: Evolution
Which change was made to the title of On the Origin of Species in the sixth edition, published on February 19, 1872?Answer: The word On was dropped. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
Which older idea of evolution did On the Origin of Species include as a mechanism of lesser importance?Answer: Lamarckism. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species
Who made the French translation of On the Origin of Species that came out in 1862?Answer: Clémence Royer. Source: Wikipedia: On the Origin of Species