Survey - Evolution?

Question

For an assignment, I haven't gotten around to asking people.

Which of the following statements do you think is most correct, regarding evolution?
• Evolution is the greatest myth of the 20th century. It has no really hard evidence to support it
• Evolution is a fact. Everyone knows that humans evolved from apes.
• Evolution is all about adapting. When the environment changes a species will adapt and evolve to cope with their changed surroundings.
• Evolution is descent with modification via the process of natural selection.
• Evolution is organisms changing themselves to perfection

Thanks all

Oh, a little clarification - this is a survey, I've already deconstructed the answers, this is just an assignment to see how well informed people are about evolution theory. Thanks for the answers though.
And there's only one correct answer really, the other ones each have something wrong with them.

Answer 1

OK - one at a time:

• Evolution is the greatest myth of the 20th century. It has no really hard evidence to support it.
Nope - don't believe this one.

• Evolution is a fact. Everyone knows that humans evolved from apes.
Evolution *is* a fact and a theory at the same time. Populations of organisms change over time - that is evolution and a fact. That this has allowed the diversification of all organisms from different forebears, and that humans and apes evolved from "ape like ancestors" (humans did *not* evolve from apes, BTW) is a theory.
So I'm not going with this one either.

• Evolution is all about adapting. When the environment changes a species will adapt and evolve to cope with their changed surroundings.
This is true. However, it does not mention anything about a species going extinct without the opportunity to evolve, due to drastic change in the environment.

• Evolution is descent with modification via the process of natural selection.
This is also true. In fact, it is the textbook definition of "Evolution". So I'm going with this one!

• Evolution is organisms changing themselves to perfection.
There is no such thing as "perfection", evolutionarily speaking. Today's amazing adaptation may well be tomorrow's extremely disadvantageous trait.

Answer 2

Most True = "Evolution is descent with modification via the process of natural selection."

In addition to the other faults mentioned about number 3, mutations are random, not necessarily brought about by environment. It could be possible for an organism to have a spontaneous mutation which has never before happened in the history of its species, but is still so advantageous to make it into the general gene pool.

Answer 3

The Most accurate statement would be:
"Evolution is descent with Modification via the process of natural selection."
-mainly, this is the description charles darwin gave evolution.

Evolution is not a myth, it has a multitude of evidence to support it like fossils, DNA analysis data, etc.

Evolution is a fact, but it definitely is a misconception that humans came from apes! what evolution is trying to say is that Humans and Apes have a "common ancestor".

Evolution is all about adapting, but it does not happen overnight! if the environment changes, species do not adapt and evolve directly. it is stressed here that evolution is a process that takes hundreds or even millions of years to finish! It is undergone by organisms not to cope directly to the environment! it is actually long-term oriented! and besides, organisms do not adapt directly once their environment changes, it can take them considerable time to adapt.

Evolution is not about organisms changing themselves to perfection. For one, what keeps evolution running, is the multitude of errors called mutations that occur in all organisms. Most of the time, evolution produces mutations that are detrimental. so it does not necessarily lead to perfection.

Answer 4

My answer: Evolution is descent with modification via the process of natural selection.

If this is a survey for an assignment, be careful of selection bias since you probably won't get to meet frothing christians on these biology forums...

Answer 5

As has been pointed out before, the fourth option is the most correct. The third option is somewhat incomplete, but correct as far as it goes - evolution is driven by adaptation to deal with selective pressures. Since you specify species rather than individuals, you've avoided one trap, and since you didn't specify any time limit, you're OK there too. You don't need to specify anything about extinction; neither do you need to specify anything about the species not adapting but still doing fine. You're just concerned with evolution. You've left out pressures such as mate choice that may drive evolution, but I suppose you could include those factors under "environment changes" if you stretch your definitions a tad.

Answer 6

More than one are true (to a certain extent ... you are correct that they the others have something subtle that is incorrect) ... but this statement is the most accurate:

"Evolution is descent with modification via the process of natural selection."

Answer 7

> Evolution is descent with modification via the process of natural selection.

This is the closest. The modification actually comes from mutation, viral lysogeny, chromosomal events. Natural selection and genetic drift determine which changes "stick" -- increase in frequency in subsequent generations.

Answer 8

I believe evolution is the process of adapting to our environment and natural selection so basically both options 3 and 4.

Answer 9

Cool. Please show the results of your survey when your done. I assume you will be dissapointed.

If I had to choose, I would say number 4, that evolution is descent with modification through natural selection.

However, Darwin and I would argue that there are other methods such as sexual selection, genetic drift, gene flow (Darwin bulldogging only the first).

Answer 10

• Evolution is descent with modification via the process of natural selection

Though this is the definition, I do not believe in evolution myself