Read Evolution from Ideas to Populations
Evolutionary explanations developed from observations of variation and population change. Match each thinker to the idea actually proposed.
Evolutionary Theory is the central idea in this question pattern. Identify the condition in the stem before applying the method below.
Match contributors and ideas
Darwin developed natural selection, drawing on Malthus’s observations about population growth and limited resources. Wallace independently reached similar conclusions in the Malay Archipelago. Hugo de Vries proposed mutation theory; Herbert Spencer popularised “survival of the fittest”; Alfred Wegener proposed continental drift, including Pangaea.
Connect modern evolution to populations
Lamarck proposed inheritance of acquired characteristics. Modern evolutionary biology focuses on heritable variation and changes in a population’s gene pool across generations. Selective mating violates a Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium assumption.
OlympIQ exam lens
- ✓Malthus influenced Darwin; he did not formulate natural selection.
- ✓Wallace worked in the Malay Archipelago.
- ✓De Vries: mutation theory; Spencer: survival of the fittest.
- ✓Modern evolution is tracked as population gene-pool change.
A thinker can influence a theory without being its author.
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