ELD Nat Sel Vocab Quiz #1

Match each term to the correct definition.

• A trait that helps an organism live and survive in its environment

• Variation

• When organisms with helpful traits are more likely to survive and reproduce

• Evolution

• Differences in traits between individuals of the same species

• Adaptation

• A characteristic of an organism, such as eye color or beak shape

• Trait

• Changes in a group of organisms over many generations

• Natural selection

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Match each term to its best description.

• When organisms vie for limited resources like food, space, or mates

• Selective pressure

• An environmental factor that affects an organism’s chances of surviving

• Biological fitness

• When more offspring are born than can survive

• Competition

• How well an organism can survive and reproduce in its environment

• Inherited trait

• A trait passed from parents to offspring

• Overproduction

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Match the scenario to the vocabulary term it best illustrates.

• Desert plants have thick, waxy leaves that reduce water loss

• Variation

• Beetles with harder shells survive bird pecks more often and leave more offspring

• Competition

• Some rabbits in a population have longer legs while others have shorter legs

• Natural selection

• A sudden cold snap kills lizards that cannot tolerate low temperatures

• Selective pressure

• Two lion prides battle over access to a watering hole during drought

• Adaptation

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Match the cause to the effect related to population change.

• Too many offspring for resources leads to struggle for survival

• Wide variation

• Gives natural selection material to act upon

• Strong selective pressure

• Individuals leave more viable offspring in the next generation

• Heritable traits

• Allows advantageous characteristics to be passed to the next generation

• High fitness

• Rapid environmental change increases mortality of poorly adapted individuals

• Overproduction

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Match each research question with the concept it would most directly test.

• Selective pressure

• Does fur thickness run in families?

• Overproduction

• Do birds eat more bright beetles than dull beetles?

• Variation

• Do lizards in one valley differ in toe length?

• Natural selection

• How many seeds does each plant produce?

• Inherited traits

• Do darker moths leave more offspring near factories?

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Match each term to the phrase that completes the statement.

• a heritable feature that improves survival or reproduction

• Evolution is

• the process that increases the frequency of helpful traits over time

• Natural selection is

• the ability to survive and reproduce in a given environment

• An adaptation is

• differences among individuals in a population

• Fitness is

• change in populations over generations

• Variation is

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Match each mistaken statement with the correction that fixes the misconception.

• Variation provides differences natural selection can favor

• All offspring survive if parents are adapted.

• Populations evolve; individuals do not

• Individuals evolve new traits when they need them.

• Fitness is about reproductive success in a specific environment

• Variation is not important for natural selection.

• Selective pressures favor some traits and disadvantage others

• Fitness means being the fastest or strongest only.

• Overproduction and limits mean many offspring do not survive

• Selective pressure helps all organisms equally.

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Match the example to the stage in the natural selection process it represents.

• Predators preferentially catch fish with smaller fins

• Heritable variation

• Some fish have slightly larger fins due to genetics

• Increase in advantageous traits

• Over generations, larger fins become common in the population

• Differential survival and reproduction

• A fish lays thousands of eggs

• Overproduction of offspring

• Fish with larger fins escape predators more often and breed

• Selective pressure

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Match each term to the question it helps answer in a study of a population.

• Which individuals leave more offspring?

• Fitness

• What environmental factor favors some traits?

• Selective pressure

• How do individuals differ within the population?

• Adaptation

• Is the difference passed from parents to offspring?

• Variation

• Which specific trait improves survival or reproduction here?

• Inherited trait

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Match each field example to the correct vocabulary term.

• Some bacteria are drug-resistant while others are not

• Variation

• A bacteria strain that reproduces twice as fast as others

• Natural selection

• Thorny plants in arid regions reduce herbivory

• Biological fitness

• Drug-resistant bacteria become more common over time

• Selective pressure

• Limited antibiotics in a hospital ward kill susceptible bacteria

• Adaptation

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