Question

Darwin proposed that natural selection occurs in an environment by?

1) favoring those individuals with the most favorable acquired characteristics.
2) favoring heritable features that make the organism better suited to survive and reproduce.
3) producing a constant number of offspring while in that environment.
4) resisting the environment and keeping the environment from changing.
5) surviving for a fixed amount of time.

Answer 1

Darwin proposed that natural selection occurs in an environment by favoring heritable features that make the organism better suited to survive and reproduce. This process, known as descent with modification, leads to the greater adaptation of the population to its local environment. The correct option is 2) favoring heritable features that make the organism better suited to survive and reproduce.

Step-by-step explanation:

Natural selection, Darwin argued, was an inevitable outcome of three principles that operated in nature. First, most characteristics of organisms are inherited or passed from parent to offspring. Second, more offspring are produced than are able to survive, so resources for survival and reproduction are limited.

And lastly, offspring vary among each other in regard to their characteristics, and those variations are inherited. Darwin and Wallace reasoned that offspring with inherited characteristics that allow them to best compete for limited resources will survive and have more offspring than those individuals with variations that are less able to compete.

Because characteristics are inherited, these traits will be better represented in the next generation. This will lead to a change in populations over generations in a process that Darwin called descent with modification.

Ultimately, natural selection leads to greater adaptation of the population to its local environment; it is the only mechanism known for adaptive evolution. The correct option is 2) favoring heritable features that make the organism better suited to survive and reproduce.