Natural Selection Vocab and Examples

What term means "how well an organism survives and reproduces in its environment?"

• mutation

• variation

• fitness

• adaptation

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NGSS.MS-LS1-4

NGSS.MS-LS4-4

What term means, "any changes in an organism's DNA?"

• mutation

• variation

• fitness

• adaptation

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NGSS.MS-LS3-1

What is the term for, "slight differences in a population?"

• mutation

• variation

• fitness

• adaptation

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NGSS.MS-LS4-4

What word means, "a special trait that helps an organism survive in its environment?"

• mutation

• variation

• fitness

• adaptation

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-4

Natural selection is when the organisms with the best traits do what?

• starve and die

• survive and reproduce

• survive and fly away

• stay the same and reproduce

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NGSS.MS-LS4-2

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Think about the rock pocket mice. How did some of the mice first have dark fur?

• mutation

• fitness

• adaptation

• survival

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NGSS.MS-LS3-1

NGSS.MS-LS4-4

What happened in the pocket mouse environment to cause the dark surface?

• a river washed away the light dirt

• farmers plowed the ground

• a volcano erupted, leaving black lava rock

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NGSS.MS-ESS2-2

Predators of the pocket mouse use what sense to find the mice?

• smell

• sight

• hearing

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NGSS.MS-LS1-8

How did the population of mice change on the dark lava rocks?

• predators only ate the light ones they could see; the dark ones survived and reproduced

• predators only ate the dark ones they could see; the light ones survived and reproduced

• the light mice could not find food and died

• the dark mice could not find food and died

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NGSS.MS-LS2-4

NGSS.MS-LS4-4

Dark fur started as a mutation. Once the environment changed, that mutation was helpful to the mice. Now the dark fur is a special trait that helps it survive. What word?

• adaptation

• variation

• natural selection

• fitness

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-5

NGSS.MS-LS4-4