Natural Selection

Which of these best describes natural selection?

• Some individuals surviving better than others.

• Some individuals have different colours.

• Charles Darwin came up with the idea.

• We sort of look like a mixture of our parents.

In a lighter environment, such as lighter tree trunks, will darker or lighter moths have a better chance at survival?

• Lighter moths have a better chance at survival.

• Darker moths have a better chance at survival.

In a lighter environment, how will natural selection change the colour of the population over many generations of parents and children?

• They will become bigger.

• They will become stronger.

• They will become lighter.

• They will become darker.

If the environment became polluted and darker, predators that eat moths would be involved in natural selection. Which moths would they probably eat more of in the darker environment?

• The darker ones that stand out.

• The lighter ones that stand out.

• The middle colour ones.

The environment became darker with lava rocks. Natural selection changed the colour of the mice over many generations. How did their fur colour change over time?

• It became more red.

• It became more light to stand out.

• It matched the colour of the rocks.

Why did the lava-mice fur colour match the colour of the lava rocks after many generations?

• Because of selective breeding.

• Because the ones that were camouflaged survived and had babies.

• Because they can change their colour to match.

Sometimes a sandy coloured mouse is born onto the darker lava rocks. What will probably happen to it?

• It can camouflage and hide against the colour of the rocks.

• It will stand out and be eaten, so it can't pass on that colour to its offspring.

• It will have many babies and the sandy colour will spread through the next generation.

What could be another way to describe natural selection?

• Survival of the best-suited to the environment.

• Being able to change yourself to stay alive.

• Survival of the tallest and funniest.

Some rabbits are born that can run very fast. Some are quite slow. Rabbits are eaten by foxes. How will natural selection work?

• Rabbits will eat the best foxes.

• The foxes will eat the fastest rabbits.

• The foxes will eat the slowest rabbits.

• The foxes will eat the rabbits at random.

If foxes catch and eat the slower rabbits, what will the next generation of rabbits be like, compared to the one before?

• They will be fluffier than the generation before.

• They will be faster than the generation before.

• They will be bigger than the generation before.

• They will be darker than the generation before.