Natural Selection

These moths are all the same species. The differences between their wings is an example of ________________

• Natural Selection
• Variation
• Homeostasis
• Extinction

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a bird that can easily outcompete other birds for food and that can produce many eggs has a high

• life expectancy
• mutation rate
• fitness
• adaptability

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The more genetic variation a population has,

the more likely it is for some individuals to

• evolve

• migrate

• survive

• mutate

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Mutations are important because they bring about

• death of the organism in which they develop
• genetic variation needed for a population to evolve
• benefits for the individual, not for the population
• Hardey-Weinberg equilibrium within a population

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An organism's appearance or other observable characteristics:

• phenotype
• recessive
• genotype
• dominant

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An organism's genetic make-up:

• phenotype
• recessive
• genotype
• dominant

Cactus plants, which grow in deserts, have a thick waxy coating that helps prevent water loss. The plants’ sharp spines provide protection from predators.

Which of the following statements best explains why cactus plants evolved to have these traits?

• The genes of individual cactus plants mutated to develop these traits.

• Individual cactus plants developed these traits to fill an environmental niche.

• Cactus plants with these traits were better able than other cactus plants to interbreed with invasive species.

• Cactus plants with these traits were better able than other cactus plants to survive and pass these traits on to their offspring.

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NGSS.MS-LS4-4

Biologists studied a population of lizards. They found that small lizards had trouble defending their territories and that large lizards were more likely than small or medium lizards to be preyed upon by owls. Which of the following graphs represents the most likely distribution for body size in this lizard population?

• 
• 
• 
• 

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The shape and height of a tortoise’s shell influence how high the tortoise can raise its head. A tortoise with a high shell that leaves a large gap can raise its head higher than a tortoise with a lower shell and a smaller gap. In a population of herbivorous tortoises, a shift in the frequency of different shell heights is observed over time. A set of graphs representing the change in frequency of the different shell heights is shown.

Which of the following selection pressures most likely produced the shift in frequency?

• lack of vegetation at ground level

• dry, hot weather conditions for several years

• habitat changes that forced nesting sites farther inland

• intense competition with other species of tortoises with high shells

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NGSS.MS-LS4-4

Why are advantageous traits more likely to be passed onto offspring?

• Because they are more likely to survive and reproduce.
• Because they come from dominant alleles.
• Because they come from recessive alleles.
• Because the trait is an acquired phenotype.

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