Natural Selection

Natural Selection

By Coach Thomas

Multiple Choice

Which of the following statements best describes what will most likely occur to the moth populations in the image below?

•  The light moths will be captured by predators more easily than the dark moths, and the population of dark moths will rise.

• The light moths will be captured by predators more easily than the dark moths, and the population of light moths will rise.

• The dark moths will be captured by predators more easily than the light moths, and the dark moths will probably go extinct.

• The light moths will change their wing color to match that of the dark moths.

What is the first thing you think of when you think of a giraffe?

Giraffes are unique animals because they have such long necks. Fossil evidence indicates that the neck of a modern-day giraffe is much longer than the neck of an ancient giraffe or its ancestors.

• How and why did the giraffe change in such a manner? ​

• What are the advantages of having a long neck? ​

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Adaptations, Species S​urvival, and Natural Selection

A giraffe’s long neck is an adaptation because it allows the giraffe to reach leaves located on high tree branches. Adaptations are structures or behaviors in organisms that help them survive in their environment.​

Since a longer neck provides an advantage, giraffes with this trait are more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass the trait on to their offspring than are giraffes with shorter necks.

This is called natural selection, which is the process that occurs over generations by which favorable traits become more common in a species or population and unfavorable traits become less common.​

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Open Ended

Why did the brown beetles survive longer than the green? LIST all possible reasons.

Charles Darwin believed that natural selection was the process for evolution​

Charles Darwin

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Multiple Choice

If an organism can't adapt fast enough, this might happen.

• hibernate
• stay the same
• live longer
• become extinct

Multiple Choice

What is the advantage of having different shaped beaks?

• To look different from other species.
• To be able to eat the food readily available in the environment.
• To protect itself against predators.
• To protect itself against prey.

Multiple Choice

What is it called when better adapted organisms survive to pass traits along to their offspring.

• Evolution
• Natural Selection
• Extinction
• Artifical Selection

Multiple Choice

Why is the mouse population changing over time?

• The light mice can reproduce more successfully than the dark mice
• The hawks eat more dark mice than light mice because the dark mice taste better
• The hawks eat more light mice than dark mice because they can see the light mice more easily
• The hawks eat more dark mice than light mice because they can see the dark mice more easily

Multiple Choice

Adaptation is

• the process that makes an organism look better

• the process in which weak organisms are killed off

• the process in which an organism becomes better adapted to its environment

• the process in which oxygen is transformed into glucose