Concept of Evolution

Concept of Evolution MDCAT MCQs with answers

28 past paper MCQs on Concept of Evolution, from the Evolution unit of MDCAT Biology. The year each question appeared is shown where known; tap “Show answer” for the correct option and a short solution.

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1.For an evolutionary process to occur, which of the following is NOT a geographical barrier? (MDCAT 2022)

  1. ocean
  2. river
  3. mountains
  4. atmosphere
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Correct answer: (d) atmosphere

The atmosphere is continuous over the whole earth, so it separates no two populations.

2.According to the biogenetic law of Ernst Haeckel: (MDCAT 2022)

  1. there is survival of the fittest
  2. there is use and disuse of organs
  3. phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny
  4. ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
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Correct answer: (d) ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

Haeckel held that an embryo passes through the stages of its ancestry as it develops.

3.According to evolutionary studies, prokaryotes may have arisen around: (MDCAT 2023)

  1. 2.5 billion years ago
  2. 3.5 billion years ago
  3. 4.5 billion years ago
  4. 5.5 billion years ago
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Correct answer: (b) 3.5 billion years ago

The oldest fossil bacteria are about 3.5 billion years old.

4.Which of the following types of organs are supposed to have been functional in ancestral species rather than in present day species? (MDCAT 2023)

  1. vestigial organs
  2. homologous organs
  3. analogous organs
  4. embryonic organs
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Correct answer: (a) vestigial organs

A vestigial organ is the reduced remnant of one that worked in an ancestor.

5.What distinguishes the concept of special creation from concept of evolution? (NUMS MDCAT 2025)

  1. Life is not the product of sudden creative act
  2. Unicellular prokaryotes might be the life ancestors
  3. Rely on inspiration and meditation for life origin
  4. Life results from innumerable changes
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Correct answer: (c) Rely on inspiration and meditation for life origin

Special creation appeals to revelation rather than to evidence.

6.The reduction of population carrying a specific allele and genotype due to natural disaster is called: (NUMS MDCAT 2025)

  1. Mutation
  2. Bottle neck effect
  3. Founder effect
  4. Speciation
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Correct answer: (b) Bottle neck effect

A disaster that cuts a population to a few survivors leaves their alleles over-represented, which is the bottleneck effect.

7.Which of the following increases variation within a gene pool? (NUMS MDCAT 2025)

  1. Adaptation
  2. Genetic drift
  3. Gene mutation
  4. Neutral selection
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Correct answer: (c) Gene mutation

Mutation is the only original source of new alleles in a gene pool.

8.The change in frequency of alleles at a locus that occurs by chance is known as: (UHS MDCAT 2024)

  1. Mutation
  2. Genetic Drift
  3. Non Random mating
  4. Speciation
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Correct answer: (b) Genetic Drift

Genetic drift is the chance change in allele frequency from one generation to the next.

9.The formula calculating the frequency of genotypes and alleles in a population gene pool is known as: (UHS MDCAT 2024)

  1. Hardy-Weinberg Equation
  2. Lamarck Equation
  3. Darwin Equation
  4. James Hutton Equation
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Correct answer: (a) Hardy-Weinberg Equation

The Hardy-Weinberg equation relates allele frequencies to genotype frequencies in a population.

10.According to endosymbiosis theory, flagella may have derived by the ingestion of prokaryotes similar to (UHS MDCAT 2024)

  1. Amoeboid prokaryote
  2. Aerobic bacterium
  3. Spirochete
  4. Spirillum
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Correct answer: (c) Spirochete

The theory traces flagella to spirochaetes taken up and kept by an early cell.

11.For evolutionary process to occur, which of the following is NOT a geographical barrier? (UHS MDCAT 2023)

  1. Ocean
  2. River
  3. Mountains
  4. Atmosphere
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Correct answer: (d) Atmosphere

The atmosphere is continuous, so it separates no population from another.

12.Among the oldest known fossils comes the: (SZABMU MDCAT 2023)

  1. Prokaryotes
  2. Amphibians
  3. Reptiles
  4. Fishes
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Correct answer: (a) Prokaryotes

The oldest fossils are of prokaryotes, some three and a half thousand million years old.

13.This theory says that 'mitochondria and chloroplasts are, in effect, ancient bacteria which now live inside the larger cells'? (NUMS MDCAT 2023)

  1. Darwin's theory of evolution
  2. Lamarckism
  3. Neo-darwinism
  4. Endosymbiotic theory
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Correct answer: (d) Endosymbiotic theory

The endosymbiotic theory traces mitochondria and chloroplasts to bacteria taken up by an early cell.

14.A group of individuals that have the potential to interbreed in nature is: (PMC MDCAT 2022)

  1. Genus
  2. Species
  3. Population
  4. Community
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Correct answer: (b) Species

A species is a group whose members can breed together and produce fertile offspring.

15.According to the Hardy-Weinberg theorem, frequencies of alleles and genotypes in a population’s gene pool remain: (PMC MDCAT 2022)

  1. unaffected by environmental factors
  2. Dynamic unless acted upon by agents other than recombination
  3. static unless acted upon by agents other than recombination
  4. Constant in the absence of other evolutionary influences
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Correct answer: (c) static unless acted upon by agents other than recombination

The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium holds only while no evolutionary force is acting.

16.Which of the following is the major souce of variation in the origin of new species? (PMC MDCAT 2022)

  1. Migration
  2. Mutation
  3. Selection
  4. Genetic drift
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Correct answer: (b) Mutation

Mutation is the only original source of new alleles.

17.The variations in indiviuals that lead to evolution are because of differences in: (PMC MDCAT 2022)

  1. genes
  2. anatomy
  3. physiology
  4. .Acquired characters
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Correct answer: (a) genes

Only variation that lies in the genes can be passed on and acted upon.

18.The origin of new species from already existing species over a period of time Is called: (PMC MDCAT 2022)

  1. adaptation
  2. Evolution
  3. Neo.Darwinsm
  4. Special creation
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Correct answer: (b) Evolution

Evolution is the origin of new species from those already living.

19.Evolution is the process that demostrates: (PMC MDCAT 2022)

  1. how characters are passed from one generation to the next
  2. How organisms perform their activities in different environment
  3. How new species originate from existing species
  4. How new species are formed specially and specifically by the nature
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Correct answer: (c) How new species originate from existing species

Evolution accounts for the origin of new species from existing ones.

20.Which of the following shows significant effect of Genetic drift ? (PMC MDCAT 2022)

  1. Animal population
  2. Plant population
  3. Large population .
  4. Small population
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Correct answer: (d) Small population

Chance has the largest effect where the numbers are small.

21.A group of organisms with similar morphology and physiology, which can breed together to produce fertile offspring is called: (NUMS MDCAT 2022)

  1. Species
  2. Domain
  3. Kingdom
  4. diversity
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Correct answer: (a) Species

That is the definition of a species.

22.Primordial soup is a set of hypothetical conditions on ancient earth first proposed by? (PMC Practice 2021)

  1. Dmitri Ivanovsky
  2. Dmitry Anuchin
  3. Nikolay Shatsky
  4. Alexander Oparin
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Correct answer: (d) Alexander Oparin

Oparin proposed that life arose in a warm sea of organic molecules, the primordial soup.

23.When two or more clearly different phenotypes exists in same population of species, the phenomenon is called? (PMC Practice 2021)

  1. Replication
  2. Polymorphism
  3. Gene linkage
  4. Gene expression
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Correct answer: (b) Polymorphism

Two or more distinct forms in one population is polymorphism.

24.The abiogenesis theory of origin supports: (PMC Practice 2021)

  1. Spontaneous generation
  2. Origin of life from blue-green algae
  3. Origin of life is due to pre-existing organisms
  4. Organic evolution is due to chemical reactions
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Correct answer: (a) Spontaneous generation

Abiogenesis is the old idea that living things arise of themselves from non-living matter.

25.Which statement best describes the Hardy-Weinberg principle? (PMC Practice 2021)

  1. Recessive alleles eventually disappear in large populations
  2. Expected frequencies of alleles are impossible to predict mathematically
  3. Dominant alleles become more prevalent in large populations
  4. When there is a large population, the mechanism of inheritance does not change allele frequencies
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Correct answer: (d) When there is a large population, the mechanism of inheritance does not change allele frequencies

In a large population with no selection, mutation or drift, the allele frequencies stay as they are.

26.Change in frequency of alleles that occurs by chance Is called as: (UHS MDCAT 2019)

  1. Genetic drift
  2. Mutation
  3. Migration
  4. Natural selection
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Correct answer: (a) Genetic drift

Chance changes in allele frequency are genetic drift.

27.The change in frequency of alleles at a locus that occurs by chance is termed as (UHS MDCAT 2017)

  1. Migration
  2. Genetic drift
  3. Mutation
  4. Non-random mating
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Correct answer: (b) Genetic drift

Chance changes in allele frequency are genetic drift.

28.The total number of genes in a population is called: (UHS MDCAT 2016)

  1. Gene pool
  2. Allele pool
  3. Genome
  4. Genomic library
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Correct answer: (a) Gene pool

All the alleles of all the genes in a population make its gene pool.

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