NOVA: What Darwin Never Knew

Video Questions

Name: _________________________

Date: __________ Class: __________

In the years since the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, evidence for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution continues to accumulate. Today, scientists are able to read the DNA sequences of animals to determine the amount of similarities and differences between different species, including the relationship between humans and our closest natural relatives, the chimpanzees and apes. New discoveries indicate that the activation and timing of genes with ancient pedigrees is the most important feature in determining what makes us human. Answer the following questions while watching NOVA: What Darwin Never Knew. Select the correct multiple-choice, completion, matching, or True & False response for each question. After the video, write the letter of each answer in the blank at the beginning of each question. The questions follow the same order as the information shown in the video.

1. ____. How many living species, and counting, are known? A) 2 million B) 28,000 C) 350,000

2. ____. Who ultimately explained the amazing diversity of life on earth? A) Cuvier B) Hubble C) Darwin

3. ____. Which work has become the bedrock of our understanding of life on earth? A) De Revolutionibus B) On the Origin of Species C) The Principia

4. ____. What has been called the “best idea anyone ever had”? A) Evolution B) Gravity C) Atoms

5. ____. Even Darwin admitted that his work was incomplete, and that vast questions were still unanswered. A) True B) False

6. ____. What was Darwin’s biggest question? A) How many species were there? B) How did life begin? C) How did evolution take place?

7. ____. Darwin began his love affair with nature… A) when he was a child B) when he attended medical school C) later in life

8. ____. How did Darwin react when watching an operation on a child (in the era before anesthetics)? A) He was fascinated B) He decided to become a physician C) He was horrified & fled the operating theater

9. ____. What course did Darwin pursue in divinity school? A) He became a solid “field scientist” B) He studied biblical chronology C) He became a clergyman

10. ____. What was the mission of the HMS Beagle? A) To establish an observatory on Tahiti B) To survey the waters around South America C) To test a sea clock prototype for the calculation of longitude

11. ____. What did the captain want? A) A well-educated scientific person & dinner companion B) A cheap laborer C) A person to sort through a vast number of specimens

12. ____. What was Darwin’s first important discovery (in Argentina)? A) Dinosaur footprints B) A large meteorite C) Fossils of giant, extinct mammals

13. ____. Which islands, lying 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, are home to unusual animals found nowhere else on earth? A) The Hawaiian Archipelago B) The Galapagos C) Cape Verde

14. ____. According to Darwin, what was “a hideous looking creature, of a dirty black color, stupid and sluggish in its movements”? A) The giant tortoise B) The marine iguana C) The penguin

15. ____. The giant tortoise shells… A) could be used as basins B) differed, depending upon which island they lived on C) were harvested by the local people

16. ____. Instead of tortoises, Darwin turned his attention to… A) birds B) iguanas C) the indigenous population

17. ____. After returning to Britain, Darwin realized that all of the birds he had collected were 13 different species of… A) finch B) wren C) grosbeak

18. ____. What had misled Darwin about the birds he had collected? A) He disliked birds, but felt compelled to collect specimens B) He compared the birds to types of domesticated pigeons C) They had differently shaped beaks

19. ____. How did the birds and Galapagos tortoises compare? A) They both filled similar environmental niches B) They were both warm-blooded C) They both differed, depending upon which island they lived on

20. ____. What did Darwin realize? A) The Galapagos Islands were volcanic B) Earthquakes kill indiscriminately C) Somehow, for some reason, species change

21. ____. What happened to the original type of finch and tortoise of the Galapagos? A) They had diversified into many kinds B) They developed a symbiotic relationship C) They became extinct due to human activity

22. ____. What was “dangerous” about Darwin’s “great insight”? A) Wallace proposed a similar idea B) It led to arguments between Darwin & the captain of the Beagle C) The standard view of the time was that God had created every species, & that they were perfect & could not change

23. ____. What did the fossils of giant, extinct sloths and armadillos indicate? A) More evidence that species changed B) Smaller versions existed in the past C) A “great dying” had occurred

24. ____. According to Michael Levine, watching a developing embryo is… A) a glorious “miracle” of nature B) unsettling C) routine

25. Match each embryonic feature with its species:

____. Tiny bumps, the bony rudiments of legs, that never develop in the adult

____. Tiny neck slits resembling gills in fish embryos, later becoming bones of the inner ear

____. Teeth, which disappear before birth

A) Humans

B) Snakes

C) Whales

26. ____. Darwin’s bold idea of the Tree of Life indicated that… A) animals were dependent upon oxygen from plants B) everything started as a tree C) all species were deeply connected

27. ____. According to the narrator, beginning with a common ancestor, over time, across generations, species could… A) come to resemble their ancestral forms B) change dramatically C) have arisen spontaneously

28. ____. Darwin named this process… A) artificial selection B) intelligent design C) descent with modification

29. ____. According to the narrator, which domesticated animals provided clues for Darwin? A) Pigeons B) Sheep C) Dogs

30. ____. According to Heidi Parker, dogs range in size from “groundhogs” to “mule deer”. A) True B) False

31. ____. The whippet had been developed… A) to pull carts B) to chase rabbits C) as pets

32. ____. Instead of the sentimental Victorian view, nature for Darwin was… A) savage B) unimportant C) inexplicable

33. ____. What pattern did Darwin see in nature? A) Creatures died pointless deaths B) Creatures that survived were those best adapted to their environments C) An invisible hand guided nature towards a predetermined destiny

34. ____. According to Darwin, the beak shapes of the finches were altered to fit their particular... A) self-defense needs B) lifestyle C) diet (seed or flowers)

35. ____. What clue could Darwin see in his own family, which he realized must be the starting point for change in nature? A) Variation B) Intransigence C) Nurture

36. ____. In a harsh climate, the environment will select who will live, and who will die. A) True B) False

37. ____. According to the narrator, as variations accumulate, … A) extinctions will occur B) new species will branch off (evolution by natural selection) C) the population will become homogenous

38. ____. When was Darwin’s On the Origin of Species published? A) 1543 B) 1687 C) 1859

39. ____. Which of the following statements is correct? A) Darwin claimed that all species were created perfect & immutable, & that their creation should be taken as an article of faith B) Darwin provided a proper scientific theory based upon facts & observation C) Darwin claimed that the positions of the planets & stars at birth influenced a person’s destiny

40. ____. What was “amazing” according to Sean Carroll? A) That Darwin got so much right B) That Darwin was English & not American C) That natural selection was just a theory

41. ____. What was a “hole” in Darwin’s theory? A) The earth appeared to be too young for natural selection B) Earth’s continents appeared to have been in different places in the past C) He didn’t actually know how natural selection worked

42. ____. How did the rock pocket mice adapt to the dark, volcanic desert rocks of Arizona? A) They evolved lighter-colored fur B) They evolved darker-colored fur C) They adopted a diet of Snickers Bars

43. ____. What was Michael Nachman able to do that Darwin couldn’t? A) Travel to the American Southwest B) Look inside an animal’s DNA C) Trap mice without killing them

44. ____. According to Carroll, what is “the perfect system for storing the vast amounts of information necessary for building all kinds of creatures”? A) The silicon chip B) Linnaean taxonomy C) DNA

45. ____. DNA consists of one long molecule, spiraling around in a… A) double helix B) silicon-oxygen tetrahedron C) shining trapezohedron

46. ____. Which “letters” form the DNA alphabet? A) WHYY B) AGCT C) YHWH

47. ____. DNA can be found in the cells of every living thing on earth. A) True B) False

48. ____. According to the narrator, arranged on DNA are special sequences that form our… A) nuclei B) cells C) genes

49. ____. A vital quality of DNA is that it… A) doesn’t stay the same B) stays the same C) is made of atoms

50. ____. When a baby is conceived, the fertilized egg receives half of its DNA from its mother, and half from the father, creating wholly new combinations. A) True B) False

51. ____. Another way that DNA can change (and what generates variation) is… A) deformation B) predestination C) mutation

52. ____. According to Carroll, mutations are always bad. A) True B) False

53. ____. What was Nachman able to identify in the lab? A) The gene that caused the pocket mouse fur to grow dark B) The dependence of pocket mouse fur color on temperature C) Favored nesting sites of the dark-furred pocket mice

54. ____. According to a new idea, to understand how evolution works, all you need to do is… A) study a creature’s environment B) compare creature’s genes C) establish branches on the tree of life

55. ____. When did the Human Genome Project (HGP) begin? A) 1859 B) 1990 C) 2003

56. ____. How many human genes were revealed by the HGP? A) 23,000 B) 80,000 C) 120,000

57. ____. Humans have more genes than an ear of corn. A) True B) False

58. ____. Complete: Embryos of diverse animals don’t just look the same, but they also use the same set of key ____ to build their bodies. A) proteins B) genes C) molecules

59. ____. The same set of genes determines the body patterning (blotches, stripes, spots) in animals such as the leopard, peacock, and the fruit fly. A) True B) False

60. ____. According to Carroll, what is the crucial insight concerning how animal bodies have evolved? A) “…things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl” B) “It’s not the genes you have, but how you use them” C) “…man…still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin”

61. ____. What is an unlikely hero of modern science? A) The fruit fly B) African savannah mammals C) Sean Carroll

62. ____. What is the name of the gene that determines wing spots? A) Sonic Hedgehog B) Paintbrush C) Hox

63. ____. How much of the double helix doesn’t code for proteins (“junk”)? A) 2% B) 98% C) 100%

64. ____. What was the result of injecting a section of mysterious noncoding DNA from a spotted fly—along with a glowing jellyfish gene—into an unspotted fly? A) The unspotted fly developed glowing spots B) The spotted fly lost its spots C) Nothing changed

65. ____. Instead of making stuff like hair, cartilage, or muscle, which feature of DNA appears to choreograph the implementation of genes in a developing animal? A) Sonic Hedgehog B) Paintbrush C) Gene switches

66. ____. The rudiments of leg bumps in a snake embryo convinced Darwin that… A) snakes will eventually develop legs B) the snake must have evolved from a four-legged animal C) he had examined the wrong embryo

67. ____. Whales and manatees appear to have lost their hind legs. A) True B) False

68. ____. What do the spikes on a marine stickleback do? A) They help to support a large dorsal fin B) They are useful in courtship displays C) They make the fish hard to eat

69. ____. What caused the gene switch in the lake stickleback to turn off and not form spikes? A) A mutation B) Temperature differences between ocean & fresh water environments C) The fish appears to have consciously turned it off

70. ____. The manatee skeletons DID NOT show the “lopsided pattern” of bones as seen in the fresh water stickleback. A) True B) False

71. ____. The same gene forms the different shaped beaks of the Galapagos finches. According to Cliff Tabin, what makes a difference is… A) how much the gene is turned on, when it is turned on, and when it is turned off B) which island the finches come from C) the diet & ancestry of the finches

72. ____. Body plan genes are different in that they don’t make stuff, they… A) switch other genes on or off B) resemble a small version of the fully-developed body C) tend to become non-functional over time

73. ____. The choreography between body plan and other genes is helping to solve the greatest Darwinian puzzle of all, the mystery of the… A) role of nature versus nurture in development B) origin of life C) great transformations & the tree of life

74. ____. Dinosaurs appear to share a common ancestor with birds, and a fish must have been the ancestor of all four-limbed creatures, even humans. A) True B) False

75. ____. Which fossil had features of both birds and dinosaurs? A) Tiktaalik B) Archaeopteryx C) Hadrocodium

76. ____. The slits in the ear of all embryos of land creatures become tiny bones in the inner ear of humans. In fish, they become… A) gills B) jawbones C) an organ for sensing electric fields

77. ____. Land animals appear to have descended from fish. The stumbling block has always been how could a fish develop legs and… A) eventually lose them B) return to the ocean C) walk on land

78. ____. What was the first stage in Neil Shubin’s quest? A) Secure research funding B) Find a fossil C) Determine what to look for

79. ____. Darwin predicted that a transitional form between fish and creatures with the beginnings of legs should have once existed. A) True B) False

80. ____. The fossil record shows that creatures with legs appeared some… A) 540 million years ago B) 365 million years ago C) 65 million years ago

81. ____. Shubin set up camp during summers at… A) the Falkland Islands B) Iceland C) Ellesmere Island

82. ____. Sticking out of the cliff was the snout of… A) a flat-headed fish B) an ancient crocodile C) a polar bear

83. ____. What was the new transitional fossil named? A) Tiktaalik B) Archaeopteryx C) Hadrocodium

84. ____. According to the narrator, what was “unfishlike” about the fossil? A) It had smooth skin B) It had lungs C) It had an “arm-like fin”

85. ____. According to the narrator, the fossil had the same arm bone structure as… A) earlier fish B) all four-limbed animals now living C) early amphibians

86. ____. According to Shubin, Tiktaalik might have been a large predator. A) True B) False

87. ____. The Mississippi paddlefish is described as… A) a living fossil B) a tasty game fish C) a relative of the coelacanth

88. ____. What was the name of the body plan gene that determines the paddlefish fin? A) Sonic Hedgehog B) Paintbrush C) Hox gene

89. ____. Velvet worms (dating back to 600 million years) and modern humans share virtually the same body plan gene. A) True B) False

90. ____. The body plan gene was described as… A) minimal B) a primitive vestige C) an aristocrat of the gene community

91. ____. The paddlefish fin is made using the same genes that form the bone structure in all four-limbed animals (including humans). A) True B) False

92. ____. According to Shubin, … A) the leap from fins to limbs is problematic and difficult to explain B) entirely new genes & genetic recipes are always needed to create marvelous new structures C) old genes can be reconfigured to create marvelous new structures

93. ____. After a creature like tiktaalik first walked onto land, … A) it encountered a barren, volcanic wasteland B) four-limbed creatures eventually took over the world C) it decided to go back to the water

94. ____. According to the narrator, what is perhaps the most fundamental question of all? A) What makes us human? B) How did life begin? C) Is evolution just a theory?

95. ____. According to the narrator, it’s hardly surprising that… A) humans were thought to be different from all other species B) humans are capable of self destruction C) intelligent extraterrestrials would likely avoid earth

96. ____. How did Darwin become “savaged”? A) Huxley, his bulldog, became mad & attacked B) He suggested that humans had descended from fish C) He suggested that humans must actually be descended from apes

97. ____. According to Katy Pollard, … A) human & chimp DNA is “really different” B) Darwin was wrong about human origins C) human & chimp DNA is 99% identical

98. ____. According to the narrator, what is “a marvel”? A) The human hand B) The embryo C) Darwin’s acceptance today

99. ____. 1% DNA represents… A) an unexplained deviation from other species B) an anomaly C) 30 million chemical letters (A,C,G,T)

100. ____. Jim Noonan saw that the human DNA had become active in the mouse embryo’s… A) gill arches B) thumb & big toe C) developing brain

101. ____. The human brain is… A) 3X larger than a chimps B) similar to that of whales C) radically different between men & women

102. ____. Muscular dystrophy is a genetic disease that robs muscles the ability to… A) develop properly B) spring back in motion C) repair themselves

103. ____. What was strange about Hansell Stedman’s new muscle making gene, which appeared to be damaged? A) It resembled that of an antediluvian ancestor B) An entire sequence was repeated C) Two DNA letters were missing

104. ____. Researchers often perform experiments on themselves largely out of… A) convenience B) boredom C) masochism

105. ____. Stedman found that the damaged gene made which particular kind of muscle? A) A muscle in the inner ear B) A muscle for grasping C) A muscle for chewing

106. ____. Stedman’s mutation appears to… A) allow the human skull to keep expanding into adulthood B) force humans to eat soft food C) allow apes to be strong chewers

107. ____. Which disorder results in children being born with brains that can be one-half the normal size? A) Muscular dystrophy B) Microcephaly C) Elephantiasis

108. ____. Why was Chris Walsh searching for the gene responsible for the disorder just mentioned? A) He was interested in human evolution B) Walsh had created a new “start up” C) He wanted to develop “predictive testing” for the disorder

109. ____. In total, how many mutations did Walsh discover in the brain growth-directing gene that afflicted families with microcephaly? A) “only one” B) “a few” C) “some 21”

110. ____. When Walsh compared normal versions of the gene in healthy humans with the same gene in chimpanzees, our closest relatives, he discovered that… A) the human genes were radically different B) they were essentially the same C) the chimp genes resembled that found in fruit flies

111. ____. Katie Pollard is… A) an embryologist B) an evolutionary biologist C) a biostatistician

112. ____. Pollard uses a computer program to… A) highlight human DNA that is very different from chimps & other animals B) highlight human DNA that is the same as that found in chimps and other animals C) search for cures for genetic diseases

113. ____. Complete: The ____ is one of the things that has changed the most during human evolution, both in terms of its complexity and size. A) nervous system B) hand C) brain

114. ____. The differences between human and chimp DNA consisted of switches, which were often found near genes that regulate brain growth. A) True B) False

115. ____. According to the narrator, in the human brain, the cortex is vital for which functions? A) Hunger, thirst, sexual desire B) Breathing, digestion, blood flow C) Language, music, mathematics

116. ____. What was the difference found between chimps and humans in the part of DNA that regulates the growth of the cerebral cortex? A) Just two letters B) 18 letters (a massive mutation) C) Zero