Biology 2003 JAMB Past Questions - Question 49: Which of the following requires the use of carbon dating to prove that evolution has occurred?

Correct Answer

D

Explanation

DCarbondating is a scientific technique used todetermine air precisely the age of fossil that is a part or an impression of a plant or succulent stems consisting oflarge an animal that lived a very long time ago preserved either in snows or stems for storing water and reducedsedimentary rocks.Comparative anatomy is thecomparative study of the structures of different organisms. The arm of a man,the flipper of a whale, the leg of a cat, the wing of a bird and the leg of afrog are clearly used fordifferent purposes. Yet the skeletal structures of these forelimbs reveal asimilar bone arrangement with the same names being applied to their parts.These similar structures which are not necessarily alike in function are calledhomologous structures.Molecular biology or recordsindicate that cells of all living things are basically similar. They all possesDNA which store hereditary information for life activities of the organism.Through the processes of mitosis and meiosis, plants and animals pass DNA on toall the-cells of the organism and to the next generation. In all the organisms,the nucleotides contain Adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.Biochemical similaritiesindicate that the chemical make up and biochemical processes of all organismsare very similar and this points to. close relationships among organisms. Forinstance, all organisms are build up of the s a m e type of complex moleculeslike carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.They all use ATP as theimmediate source of energy for metabolic activities etc.