Natural Selection - Survival of a Species

Charles Darwin noticed that finches on different islands of the Galápagos Islands were similar but that their beaks differed. What explanation for these differences did he propose?

• The beaks of the finches are adapted to the way the bird usually gets food.
• Specific genetic mutations occur that make beak size change in response to random selection factors.
• Beak size is related to the size of the finch.
• The different beaks of the finches would one day evolve into identical beaks

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An adaptation is a trait that helps an organism…

• fight better
• overproduce variations
• survive and reproduce
• larger and stronger

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Who is regarded as the “father” of evolution by natural selection?

• Lamarck
• Einstein
• Wegener
• Darwin

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The process of organisms fighting for mates, food and living space is called:

• Adaptation
• Evolution
• Competition
• All of the above

A forest of trees with white bark is home to a species of gray moths and to birds that prey on them. Pollution made the bark of the trees turn black. After many generations, what likely happened to the wings of the moths?

• They became longer
• They became lighter
• They became darker
• They became shorter

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Why did the population of peppered moths in England change from light to dark after the Industrial Revolution?

• Light moths were easy to see against polluted trees and were eaten
• The birds that ate the dark moths were killed by soot
• Light moths were killed by soot
• Dark moths were produced by industrial processes

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Which is NOT a factor of Natural Selection?

• variation among species
• mutations
• competition
• acquired characteristics

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According to the theory of natural selection, why are some individuals more likely than others to survive and reproduce?

• Some individuals pass on to their offspring new characteristics they have acquired during their lifetimes.
• Some individuals are better adapted to exist in their environment than others are.
• Some individuals do not pass on to their offspring new characteristics they have acquired during their lifetimes.
• Some individuals tend to produce fewer offspring than others in the same environment.

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The diagram shows the heads of four different species of Galapagos Islands finches. The four different types of beaks shown are most likely the result of

• Gene manipulation
• Unchanging environmental conditions
• Natural Selection
• Patterns of behavior learned from parents

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____ is when members of a species that are best suited for their environment survive and reproduce at a higher rate than other members of the species

• Natural Selection
• Artificial Selection
• Speciation
• Adaptation

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