Darwin's Origin of Species Challenge

Without the right answers, so they're still a surprise when you play.

1. Question 1

   Which bird did Darwin conclude was the ancestor of all domestic pigeon breeds?

   • The rock-pigeon (Columba livia)
   • The wood pigeon
   • The turtle dove
   • The passenger pigeon

2. Question 2

   Darwin crossed white fantails with black barbs. What did one grandchild look like?

   • Pure white like its fantail grandparent
   • Blue with a white rump and two black wing-bars
   • Pure black like its barb grandparent
   • Bright red with a crest

3. Question 3

   Whose doctrine did Darwin apply to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms in his chapter on the Struggle for Existence?

   • Lamarck
   • Lyell
   • Malthus
   • Linnaeus

4. Question 4

   According to Darwin, why do species with few eggs, like the Fulmar petrel, sometimes outnumber species laying many?

   • Small clutches are always hatched faster
   • Egg number only indirectly affects average numbers; protection and survival matter more
   • Birds with one egg never face predators
   • Large clutches cause starvation in all cases

5. Question 5

   What did Darwin say natural selection will tend to cause among the less improved forms of life?

   • Rapid spread to new continents
   • Extinction
   • Immediate hybridisation
   • Identical appearance

6. Question 6

   Darwin described a woodpecker on the plains of La Plata that showed what unusual habit?

   • It never climbs a tree
   • It only eats fruit
   • It builds nests underground
   • It hunts at night

7. Question 7

   Why did Darwin find the neuter (sterile worker) insects such a serious difficulty for his theory?

   • They are too small to study
   • They live only in Africa
   • They never eat
   • Sterile workers differ from their parents and cannot pass on acquired habits

8. Question 8

   Darwin argued that the fossil record shows so few transitional forms mainly because:

   • The geological record is very imperfect
   • Transitional forms never existed
   • Fossils dissolve in sea water
   • Scientists destroyed them

9. Question 9

   What surprised Darwin about pigeon seeds fed to him by experiments, when a pigeon's crop had floated in salt water for 30 days?

   • The seeds had turned to salt
   • The seeds had rotted
   • Nearly all the seeds still germinated
   • The seeds sprouted inside the bird

10. Question 10

    How did Darwin explain the resemblance between whales and fishes in body shape?

    • They share a recent ancestor
    • It is an analogical, adaptive resemblance for swimming
    • Whales are a type of fish
    • It is pure coincidence with no cause