What Darwin Never Knew
Integrated Science 2 Name: Date: Pd:
As you watch the video “What Darwin Never Knew” from NOVA, answer the following questions.
1. Charles Darwin was born ____________ years ago and it is _____________ years since he published
the work that has become the bedrock of our understanding of life on Earth.
2. Darwin felt his work was incomplete. What was the biggest question that was still unanswered?
3. Charles was offered a place on the British Navy ship, the HMS _______________, whose mission
was to survey the waters around ________________________.
4. Darwin was a 26 year-old collector, collecting any kind of _______________, any kind of
__________________, any kinds of ________________. He didn’t even know the meaning of what
he was collecting until much later.
5. The turtles that Darwin encountered while visiting the Galapagos Islands differed in which feature?
6. Darwin also encountered 13 different species of finch. Finches on each island had different what?
7. Which feature in the following creatures suggested they descended from different organisms:
a. Snake embryos
b. Whale embryos
c. Human embryos
8. There seemed to be an explanation for the vast diversity of animals. Beginning with a common
ancestor, over time, across generations, species could change dramatically. Some might add new
body features, others might drop them. This is a process Darwin called _______________________
______________________________
9. Darwin showed that nature was a battlefield, and that everything was in _____________________.
The pattern that Darwin saw was that the creatures that survived were those best ______________ to
the specific environments they lived in.
10. Darwin realized that ___________________ must be the starting point for change in nature. Such a
tiny variation might make the difference between ______________________________.
11. How did the mice in the Arizona desert show adapted evolution?
12. The DNA molecule is one of the real secrets of _____________. It’s a perfect system for storing the
vast amounts of information that’s necessary for building all kinds of _____________________.
