The shells of a certain species of marine snail are highly variable, with some snail shells being solid colors and others being striped. Which condition of natural selection is this most related to?
a) artificial variation
b) environmental variation
c) genetic variation
d) no variation
Answer:
c) genetic variation
Step-by-step explanation:
The process of natural selection can operate on a population only when the population has genetic variations. This means that different variants of a genetic trait must be present in the population. In the species of marine snails, some snails have solid colored shells while the others have striped shells. Here, the snail population has genetic variations with respect to their shells. The natural selection would favor the shells which impart survival fitness to snails under the prevailing conditions.