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lesson pretestMultiple Choice

Pretest

Question 1 • CMS 2026-2027 Biology CREDIT RECOVERY

Which was Charles Darwin’s contribution to the study of biology?

Answer
A
He explained how traits are passed from parents to offspring.
B
He was the first person to recognize that organisms change over time.
C
He proposed that natural selection is the primary mechanism of evolution.
D
He believed that organisms adapted through the inheritance of acquired traits.

Explanation

Charles Darwin proposed that natural selection is a primary mechanism of evolution: individuals with traits that help them survive and reproduce tend to leave more offspring, so those traits become more common over generations. He did not explain the specific mechanism by which traits are inherited; that work came later. The idea that organisms change over time also existed before Darwin, and inheritance of acquired traits is associated with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

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