Question

Evolutionary trends _____.

A. can occur if the environment changes to promote the success of organisms with a similar set of traits; such trends may reverse themselves if environmental conditions change course
B. always promote increased complexity and intelligence; these trends reached their goal with the evolution of humans
C. tend to lead to increasing disorder, as required by the physical law of increasing entropy
D. cannot occur because evolution is a chance, or random, process

Answer 1

Evolutionary trends can arise when environmental changes favor organisms with certain traits, leading to adaptations over time. However, evolution is not goal-directed; it is an ongoing process influenced by natural selection and random mutations that affect a population's genetic makeup.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question relates to evolutionary trends and how they can occur. Option A best describes evolutionary trends, which can occur if the environment changes to promote the success of organisms with a similar set of traits; these trends may reverse if environmental conditions change. Evolution is not directed towards increasing complexity or intelligence, nor is it acting towards disorder due to entropy.

Natural selection is a critical aspect of evolution, acting on the phenotype of an organism and resulting from inheritable variations that confer advantages for survival and reproduction. Indeed, evolution is not goal-directed; it is an incremental process based on random genetic mutations that result in certain traits becoming more prevalent within a population over time if they provide a reproductive advantage in changing environmental conditions.