Quiz: The Descent of Man

All 50 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Why are reindeer Darwin’s crucial case for his rule linking the age at which a character develops with its inheritance by one or both sexes?

   Castrated males grow larger horns than entire males Both sexes bear horns, which appear within weeks of birth, far sooner than in deer with horned males only Their horns are shed and regrown each year in both sexes at the same season, unlike other deer Only the females bear horns, and these appear only in old age, after breeding has ceased
2. 2. What did the keeper of the Stormontfield ponds find on the northern Tyne in June 1868?

   Salmon whose lower jaws had permanently hooked About 300 dead salmon, all but one males, apparently killed in fighting A shoal of salmon in which the males were much larger than the females About 300 salmon nests guarded by females
3. 3. What essay did Darwin intend to add to the Descent but reserved for separate publication?

   An essay on the fossil remains of early man An essay on the geographical distribution and origin of the human races An essay on the moral sense among savages An essay on the expression of emotions by man and the lower animals
4. 4. In Lord Tankerville’s account of the wild Chillingham cattle, what happened after two young bulls overthrew the old leader?

   The old bull later came out of the wood and killed one of them The two young bulls shared the leadership after that The keepers removed the old bull to prevent further fighting The herd drove all three bulls away
5. 5. What is Darwin’s “most curious instance” of one instinct overpowering another?

   Bulls abandoning the herd to fight Dogs leaving their master’s side to chase hares Salmon refusing to return to the sea after spawning Swallows deserting their young in order to migrate
6. 6. What does Darwin say unmarried females would think a sacred duty if men were reared like hive-bees?

   To feed the queen and her brood To defend the hive against wasps To build the comb for the colony To kill their brothers
7. 7. Which animal does Darwin, following Pallas, call “the most inordinate polygamist in the world”?

   The African lion The Asiatic saiga antelope The sea-elephant The wild boar of India
8. 8. Why, according to the Makalolo chief Chinsurdi, did women wear the pelele, a large ring in the upper lip?

   To show the wealth and rank of their husbands To mark that they were married To protect them from evil spirits entering by the mouth For beauty, since men have beards and women none
9. 9. What did Gould find in one bower of the Satin bower-bird?

   The feathers of a lyre-bird Painted pebbles and shells arranged in a careful circle A silver spoon and a thimble from a settler’s house A stone tomahawk and a slip of blue cotton from a native camp
10. 10. What did Mr. Lonsdale’s healthy land-snail do after crossing the wall into a well-stocked garden?

    It stayed in the new garden and never went back to its mate It carried food back over the wall to its weak mate It returned after about a day, and both then left by the same track It fought another snail for possession of the garden
11. 11. How did Colonel Marshall explain the excess of male births among the Todas?

    Polyandry, by which several brothers share a single wife, caused the women to bear sons much more often than daughters Male infants were registered more carefully than female ones, so the counts overstated the excess of boys Infanticide kept daughters mainly from daughter-prone families and sons from son-prone ones, so the bias was inherited The cool climate of the Nilgiri hills, together with a diet rich in buffalo milk, favoured male births
12. 12. What does Darwin conclude about the great horns of male Lamellicorn beetles?

    They serve as a defence against birds They are used by the males to hold the females They are used mainly to dig burrows They were most probably acquired as ornaments
13. 13. What did John Hunter report about a female zebra and a male ass?

    She attacked him whenever he approached She accepted him only after he was painted like a zebra She preferred him to a male zebra She accepted him only in the breeding season
14. 14. Where did Darwin think it “somewhat more probable” that man’s early progenitors lived?

    South America Europe Africa South-East Asia
15. 15. What makes the pipe-fish genus Solenostoma an exception?

    The female is the brighter sex and alone hatches the eggs The male hatches the eggs in his mouth, as some catfish do The male has a brush of spines on the tail used to clasp the female Both sexes build nests of sea-weed together and take turns guarding them
16. 16. What does the butterfly Kallima, recorded by Wallace, resemble when it settles?

    The flower-head of the wild parsley The lichen-covered bark of an old tree A withered leaf with its footstalk A stinging wasp resting on a green twig
17. 17. What does Darwin report about the male emu (Dromœus irroratus)?

    He is larger and more brightly coloured than the female, with a top-knot He leaves the female to incubate the eggs and rear the chicks alone He incubates the eggs and defends the young from their mother He kills rival males at the breeding grounds
18. 18. Where does Huxley place the one great structural break in the series of primate brains?

    Between the marmosets and the lemurs Between the Old World and the New World monkeys Between man and the manlike apes Between the gibbons and the great apes
19. 19. What thought did Darwin say rushed into his mind on first seeing a party of Fuegians?

    That they must be a separate species “Such were our ancestors” That they were closer to apes than to Europeans That they had degenerated from a civilized state
20. 20. How is the female hornbill protected during incubation, according to Darwin?

    She moults into a dull plumage before laying, which conceals her She builds a domed nest of thorns, which hides her from hawks and snakes alike She is guarded by the whole flock, which mobs any predator approaching the nest She is sealed into her nest hole, and the male feeds her through a small opening
21. 21. Which of these is not one of the four causes that Darwin says check sexual selection among savages?

    The polygamy of chiefs Female infanticide Early betrothals Communal marriage or promiscuous intercourse
22. 22. In the preface to the second edition, what does Darwin say his critics wrongly assume about his views?

    That he rejects the inheritance of characters from parents to their offspring That he believes species were created separately in each of the great zoological regions That he denies any role to natural selection in the descent of man and his races That he credits all change to natural selection of spontaneous variations
23. 23. In the ten Sahara species where males and females differ, where is the difference mainly found?

    In the colour of the eyes and the bill In the length and shape of the tail feathers On the head and back, which are exposed when the bird crouches On the under surface, hidden when the bird crouches
24. 24. Which explanation of human nakedness does Darwin find most probable?

    Hair was lost from long exposure to the sun in a hot tropical climate Hair was lost for ornament through sexual selection, primarily by women Hair was lost to free the body from ticks and other parasites, as Belt held Hair was lost when clothing made it useless
25. 25. How does Darwin account for the disappearance of the external tail in man and the anthropoid apes?

    It was absorbed into the pelvis through correlation with the growth of the brain Long friction injured its tip, and the base was modified for erect posture It was lost through sexual selection, the females preferring tailless males It shrank because apes stopped using it for climbing
26. 26. Observing the Fuegians, what did Darwin conclude were the indispensable requisites for civilisation?

    Writing, a currency of coins, and an organised priesthood serving the chief Some property, a fixed abode, and the union of many families under a chief A warm climate, abundant fruit, and the freedom to wander in search of game Contact with missionaries and traders, and instruction in European manners
27. 27. According to Darwin’s “fundamental proposition”, what would any animal with well-marked social instincts acquire once its intellect approached man’s?

    A moral sense or conscience The use of fire and of tools Articulate language A belief in an all-seeing God
28. 28. Whose book, Darwin says, would probably have stopped him completing his own essay had it appeared earlier?

    Ernst Haeckel’s Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte Carl Vogt’s Vorlesungen über den Menschen Charles Lyell’s Antiquity of Man Thomas Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature
29. 29. What, according to Huxley, does the brain of a human fetus at the fifth month resemble?

    The brain of a marmoset-like ape The brain of a lemur of Madagascar The adult brain of a chimpanzee or gorilla The brain of a fish or an amphibian
30. 30. What does Darwin call “one of the greatest oversights” in his earlier work?

    Not allowing enough for structures neither beneficial nor injurious Overlooking the evidence of human antiquity Underrating the inherited effects of use and disuse on bodily structure Failing to discuss man in the Origin of Species
31. 31. Having rejected climate, use and natural selection as explanations of racial differences, what agency does Darwin turn to?

    Sexual selection Inter-breeding on islands Divine design The direct action of food
32. 32. What is the only rudiment of the alimentary canal that Darwin has found described?

    The gall-bladder lying beneath the liver The semilunar fold The supra-condyloid foramen of the humerus The vermiform appendage of the cæcum
33. 33. Why does Darwin consider the Argus pheasant such strong evidence for sexual selection?

    Both sexes have the ball-and-socket ocelli equally well developed on the wings Its colours protect it on the forest floor It is the most pugnacious of all gallinaceous birds Its finest feathers are fully displayed only in courtship, before the female
34. 34. What did Darwin infer from Galton’s “law of the deviation from averages” and from lists of eminent men and women?

    That women’s mental powers vary more widely than men’s That the two sexes are equal on average but differ at the extremes That eminence depends mainly on education That the average mental power of men must be above that of women
35. 35. How did Wallace explain the conspicuous colours of some caterpillars?

    They are simply inherited from the brightly coloured adult butterfly or moth They are a direct effect of the coloured plants the caterpillars eat They attract the opposite sex well before the adult stage is reached They warn birds that it is unpalatable, since a single peck would kill it
36. 36. How does Darwin define the advantage on which sexual selection depends?

    The advantage of the strongest and best-fed individuals in surviving a hard winter The advantage a species gains over other species in the general struggle for existence The advantage of females over males in rearing the young The advantage some individuals have over others of their sex and species solely in reproduction
37. 37. What happened when Darwin placed a live snake in a paper bag in the monkey-house?

    Only the old Anubis baboon dared to approach and open it The monkeys tore the bag open at once and attacked the snake The monkeys ignored it entirely, as they had the dead fish Monkey after monkey came to peep in, then dashed away
38. 38. In Darwin’s imagined experiment, what would most likely happen to a pigeon fancier who tried to breed pale-blue males while keeping slaty females?

    The pale-blue colour would pass to the females alone, leaving the males slaty The males would turn white after a few generations, overshooting the intended tint The slaty females would soon become sterile from being crossed with pale-blue males The pale-blue tint would soon be lost through repeated crosses with slaty females
39. 39. To what does Darwin compare the apparent effect of mere novelty on female birds?

    The drift of languages over time Changes of fashion in human dress The shifting prices of goods in a market The breeding of new varieties of roses
40. 40. Why, according to Darwin, should civilised people not check their sympathy for the weak and helpless?

    Medicine has no real effect on who survives to adulthood The weak do not in fact have children who survive to marry It would deteriorate the noblest part of our nature The poor-laws already prevent the weak from marrying
41. 41. According to Wallace, why do harmless South American snakes share the coral snakes’ red, black and yellow bands?

    They imitate the venomous Elaps and so are avoided by enemies The colours attract the females in all four genera alike The bands conceal them among fallen leaves All four genera inherited the bands from one recent common ancestor
42. 42. How does Darwin explain the indentation at the base of the peacock’s eyespot?

    As a remnant of the dark stripes found on young peafowl chicks As a mark that helps the peahen judge the male’s age and vigour As two Polyplectron-like eyespots fused into one As wear caused by rubbing against the ground in the male’s display
43. 43. What observation by Joh. von Fischer of Gotha prompted Darwin’s Supplemental Note of 1876?

    Monkeys with uncoloured hinder parts turned them to others most often A young male mandrill turned his red hinder end to a looking-glass A female rhesus monkey’s face turned bright red during courtship Male baboons fought by seizing each other’s manes
44. 44. Who first drew Darwin’s attention to the small point on the folded rim of the human ear?

    The sculptor Thomas Woolner, while modelling a figure of Puck Professor Huxley, while dissecting the ear of an orang A keeper at the Zoological Gardens Sir James Paget, while studying inherited peculiarities
45. 45. Following Tylor, what does Darwin suggest may first have given rise to the notion of spirits?

    The teaching of priests The worship of dead chiefs Dreams Fear of thunder and storms
46. 46. What does Darwin propose as the standard of morality instead of the general happiness?

    The enlightened self-interest of each individual Obedience to the customs and leader of the tribe The general good or welfare of the community The will of God
47. 47. What view of bird song did Daines Barrington and Gilbert White hold?

    Song is almost wholly the effect of rivalry and emulation among males Song is a learned imitation of human music Females choose the best singer out of a hundred rival males in the spring Song is a call used chiefly to keep the flocks together during migration
48. 48. What change did an American hunter report among the deer of the Adirondacks?

    The does were beginning to grow small antlers of their own The deer were shedding their antlers a little earlier each year Spike-horned bucks were increasing and gaining on the antlered bucks The bucks’ antlers were growing more branches with each generation
49. 49. What did Jenner Weir report about a pair of starlings, one of which was shot in the morning?

    The survivor abandoned the nest for the season The survivor joined another pair at their nest The survivor pined and called for several days The survivor had found a new mate three times by nightfall
50. 50. Why does Darwin think the colour difference between the sexes of Epicalia cannot be caused by external conditions?

    The males and females live on different continents yet look exactly alike Both sexes haunt the same stations, so they cannot have been differently affected Bates bred them in captivity at Pará under identical temperatures and food The caterpillars of the two sexes feed on quite different plants in the forest