Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection

Under what conditions does natural selection occur?

• Any situation in which more individuals are born than can survive (the struggle for existence)

• In any situation in which less individuals are born than can survive (the struggle for existence)

• When there is not genetic variation in a population

• Natural selection occurs when all members of a population who are born will survive

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Darwin realized that if more individuals are produced than can survive, members of a population must:

• reproduce sexually

• compete for resources

• reproduce asexually

• hibernate

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Darwin knew that within a population, there are a variety of traits, and some traits are better than others for a certain environment.

• true

• false

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Any heritable characteristic that increases an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce in its environment is called a(an):

• gene

• mutation

• allele

• adaptation

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Select all that can be adaptations of living things:

• useless eye-like structures in blind cave fish

• feathers helping the flight of birds

• a lizard's colors making it camouflage

• the way a plant carries out photosynthesis

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______ is how well an organism can survive and reproduce in its environment.

Individuals with adaptations that are well-suited to their environment can survive and reproduce and are said to have high _______. 

• Fitness, fitness

• Adaptation, selection potential

• Evolution, fitness

• Genetics, evolution

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The process by which organisms with variations most suited to their local environment survive and leave more offspring.

• Evolution

• Natural selection

• Adaptation

• Fitness

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Natural selection acts only on __________traits because those are the only characteristics that parents can pass on to their offspring.

• dominant

• desirable

• inherited

• mutated

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Natural selection does not make organisms “better.” Adaptations don’t have to be perfect—just good enough to enable an organism to pass its genes to the next generation. 

• True

• False

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Natural selection moves in a fixed direction. There is one, perfect way of doing something. Natural selection is simply a process that enables organisms to survive and reproduce in a local environment.

• True

• False

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