Question

The term evolution in biology means that
A. Fossils are old
B. Living things constantly change
C. Life began in the sea
D. Man descended from apes

Answer 1

Hint: Evolution occurs in a slow and gradual manner. It occurs over time- from decades to millions of years. The literal meaning of ‘evolution’ describes that it is a continuous process.

Complete answer:
Evolution is defined as the change in the traits, features, or characteristics of an organism or a species over many generations. It mostly depends on a process called ‘natural selection’.
1. ‘Evolution’ is a term that comes from the Latin language.
Literally it means ‘gradual change of something’. As per the modern concepts unit of evolution is the population of an organism.
The heritable characters or the gene pool of a particular population modifies upon which natural selection operates or the vice versa.
2. The changes become heritable over time and hence living beings ‘evolve’ gradually by the change of these heritable traits.
3. Groups of species undergo various types of natural selection and, over time, may involve in several patterns of evolution:
convergent evolution,
divergent evolution,
parallel evolution, and
coevolution.

So, the correct option is B. Living things constantly change.

Note: Evolution has now become a stream in the biological sciences. It deals with the study of gradual changes occurring in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over several successive generations. The scientific theory of evolution was given by Charles Darwin. The name of his book is ‘Origin of Species’.