TOPIC 15 DAY 1 ADAPTATION AND FITNESS

The ears of foxes help to regulate body heat. The fennec fox lives in the North African desert and has large ears that release body heat. The Arctic fox lives in cold climates and has small ears that conserve body heat.

Which term describes this characteristic?

• alteration

• mutation

• adaptation

• fitness

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Zebra’s stripes are thought to be an adaptation that has been passed down to prevent zebras from being seen by the tsetse fly. The tsetse fly is part of the zebra’s natural habitat and transmit deadly diseases to zebras.

What would most likely happen to a zebra born in the wild without stripes?

• The zebra would adapt to a different habitat.

• The zebra would become part of a new species of zebra.

• The zebra would not live long enough to pass the trait on.

• The zebra would pass the color trait on to the next generation.

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Which of the following best illustrates natural selection?

• An organism with favorable genetic variations will tend to survive and breed successfully.

• A population monopolizes all of the resources in its habitat, forcing other species to migrate.

• A community whose members work together utilizing all existing resources and migratory routes.

• The largest organisms in a species receive the only breeding opportunities.

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Scientists compared fossil remains of a species that lived 5,000 years ago with members of the same species living today. Scientists concluded that this species had changed very little over the entire time period.

Which statement best accounts for this lack of change?

• The environment did not change significantly and those offspring expressing new characteristics did not survive.

• The environment did not change significantly and those offspring expressing new characteristics survived their natural enemies.

• The environment changed significantly but the species had no natural enemies for a long period of time.

• The environment changed significantly and those offspring without favorable characteristics died.

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After the Industrial Revolution, dark-colored moths outnumbered light-colored moths in certain regions of England. Within the past 40 years, factories in these regions have added scrubbers and air purifiers to their smokestacks, and the relative number of light-colored moths has increased.

What is the MOST likely reason for the increase of light-colored moth?

• overpopulation occurred and most of the light-colored moths died, leaving only the dark colored moths to reproduce.

• the environment favored the survival of light-colored moths over dark-colored moths.

• the allele for light color became dominant over the allele for dark color.

• dark-colored moths turned light because they needed to survive.

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