Natural Selection and Genetic Drift

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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Which of the following statements best describes what will most likely occur to the moth populations in the image above?

• The light moths will be captured by predators more easily than the dark moths, and the population of dark moths will rise.

• The light moths will be captured by predators more easily than the dark moths, and the population of light moths will rise.

• The dark moths will be captured by predators more easily than the light moths, and the dark moths will probably go extinct.

• The light moths will change their wing color to match that of the dark moths.

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What word describes a trait that helps an organism survive in its environment?

• natural selection

• mutation

• camouflage

• adaptation

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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 organism knew it needed that trait, survives, and passes it on.

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Which term refers to the process by which individuals that are better suited to the environment survive and reproduce therefore passing down their genes to their offspring? 

• Evolution 
• Variation 
• Adaptation
• Natural Selection 

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

• Natural Selection

• Genetic Variation

• Homeostasis

• Extinction

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Which best describes the role of mutations in natural selection?

• Mutations help an organism to better survive in their environment
• An organism may acquire a helpful mutation by interacting with the environment
• A mutation may result in an adaptive trait that makes an organism more likely to survive and reproduce
• Organisms with certain traits are more likely to win competitions for mutations

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Charles Darwin studied the finches of the Galapagos Islands and found that their beaks vary in shape. Darwin found that the finches that ate mostly insects had long, narrow beaks. Finches that ate mostly seeds had shorter, broad beaks that they used to crush seeds. Which statement below best describes how natural selection resulted in the four types of finches shown above?

• The narrow-beaked finches came first, and evolved into the broad-beaked finches through a series of natural mutations.

• The residents of the Galapagos Islands selectively bred finches that had the traits that the residents wanted them to have.

• The broad-beaked finches wore down their beaks digging for insects and passed these narrower beaks on to their offspring.

• Over time, the finches that were born with beaks better suited to the available food supply in their habitats survived and reproduced.

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When a small group leaves their mainland to found a new colony, this is considered as

• Bottleneck effect

• Adaptation

• Founder effect

• Cause and effect

When the population significantly decreases due to a natural disaster (meteor, hurricane, etc), this type of Genetic Drift is considered the

• Bottleneck effect

• Gene Flow

• Founder effect

• Allele frequency

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