Download Name: Date: Period: ______ 94: A Meeting of Minds Read pages F

Name: __________________________
Date: _______________________
Period: ______
94: A Meeting of Minds
Read pages F-30 through F-35 and answer the following questions.
1. Define evolution:
Changes through time
2. Which two scientists had theories about evolution?
Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
3. A. Compare and contrast Darwin and Lamark’s theories of evolution:
Darwin
Lamark
Noticed variations
among species
Species with traits
that help them
survive live long
enough to reproduce
Offspring have
similar traits to their
parents
Know species evolve
Know that parents
pass traits to
offspring
Know that evolution
happens slowly over
a long period of time
Thought that giraffes
stretched their necks
to reach leaves
Thought that parents
pass on acquired
traits to offspring
Eventually the
helpful trait may
become an
adaptation
3. B. Why do scientists favor Darwin’s theory?
There is ample evidence for Darwin’s theory. Variation can be observed. We know that genes
are passed down to offspring (not acquired traits).
4. What is natural selection?
Natural selection is when an organism has traits that allow it to live long enough to reproduce
and then they pass on those traits.
5. Ancestors of modern elephants had much shorter trunks than elephants do today. Use Lamark’s
theory of evolution to explain how the trunks of elephants might get longer over many
generations.
The elephant would stretch its trunk to reach leaves higher on the trees. The trunk would
become longer from all of the stretching. The elephant would then have babies that have longer
trunks.
6. Use the Darwin/Wallace theory of natural selection to explain how the trunks of elephants
might get longer over many generations.
Some elephants had longer trunks than others. The elephants with the longer trunks could find
food more easily so they live long enough to reproduce. Since their long trunk was genetic, they
pass the long trunk gene to their offspring.