Adaptation and Natural Selection Terminology

Which organism is best adapted to hot and dry environments?

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What is the best definition for adaptation in the context of evolution?

• The process of becoming better suited to the environment through the development of anatomical, physiological, or behavioral traits the improve an organism's ability to survive and reproduce.

• The same as natural selection.

• An organism's decision to develop anatomical, physiological, or behavioral traits the improve an organism's ability to survive and reproduce.

• The process of getting used to a situation.

What adaptations does this organism possess for surviving in an aquatic environment?

• Eyes for seeing things

• Gills for acquiring oxygen underwater

• Fins for swimming

• A brain for thinking

What is the best definition for natural selection?

• The natural phenomenon that organisms are always trying to be better suited to their environment.

• Survival of the fittest

• The natural phenomenon by which organisms that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce more successfully than organisms less suited to their environment.

• The acquisition of existing or new mutant genetic variations that produce phenotypes that give an organism an advantage in its current environment.

What has the greatest influence on natural selection?

• the decisions of an organism

• population size

• environmental pressures

• food

• predators

What is overproduction in the context of evolution?

• More individuals of a species are produced each generation than can survive the current availability of resources or environmental pressures.

• The increase of a population size.

• The increase of a species birth rate.

• When there are too many different species competing for the same resource.

What is phenotypic variation?

• The different adaptations an organism possess.

• The different heritable phenotypes, produced through genetic mutations, present within a species' population.

• A heterozygous genotype.

• Mutations in DNA.

What is reproductive isolation?

• When an individual organism can not successfully breed.

• The inability of a species to breed successfully with related species due to geographical, behavioral, physiological, or genetic barriers or differences.

• When a species chooses to no longer breed with related species due to geographical, behavioral, physiological, or genetic barriers or differences.

• Species in captivity that are prohibited from breeding.