Final answer:
The organism with the highest fitness is the one that lives 2 years and produces 10 offspring per year because it reproduces quickly, minimizing the risk of dying before passing on its genes and maximizing the number of surviving descendants it can potentially have.
Step-by-step explanation:
The organism with the highest fitness is an animal that lives 2 years and produces 10 offspring per year. In the context of biology, fitness refers to an organism's ability to survive and leave descendants. The more offspring an organism can produce that survive to reproductive age, the higher its fitness.
Option 1 and option 4 are similar in that the animals produce the same number of offspring each year. However, the animal that lives longer (option 1) doesn't necessarily have a higher fitness than the one that lives a shorter time (option 4) because fitness also depends on how long an organism is able to reproduce and the death rate of offspring. The shorter lifespan in option 4 means the animal reproduces quickly, which is an evolutionary advantage as it lessens the risk that the animal will die before it can pass on its genes. Options 2, 3, and 5 have lower fitness due to producing fewer offspring in total over their lifetimes, which decreases their chances of leaving surviving descendants.