VOCAB
This is the word for a random change to a gene that sometimes results in a new trait.
What is a mutation?
True or false: mutations are planned — organisms produce them when they need to survive.
What is false? Mutations are random.
Natural selection happens over this — not in a single organism's lifetime.
What are many generations?
At Generation 1, equal numbers of thick-feathered and thin-feathered ducks live in the same lake. Many generations later, almost all ducks have thin feathers. Which type of feathers helped ducks survive in this environment?
What is thin feathers?
A gene is an instruction for making one of these, which then does the actual work in your cells.
What is a protein molecule?
This is a characteristic that ALL members of a species share, like "fur" in dogs or "beak" in birds.
What is a feature?
This is the only type of cell whose mutations can be passed to offspring.
What is a reproductive cell (egg or sperm)?
There is NO human involvement in this process. Nature — not people — determines which traits survive and spread.
What is natural selection?
A crow gets a mutation in a lung cell. A rabbit gets a mutation in a sperm cell. Only one of these mutations can be inherited. Name it.
What is the rabbit's mutation?
This is the key difference between an adaptation and an adaptive trait. One is a process; one is a result. Identify which is which.
What is — an adaptation is the process (the mutation, survival, reproduction, and spread over generations); an adaptive trait is the result — the specific characteristic the organism has?
This is the specific version of a feature that one individual organism has, like "black fur" or "long beak."
What is a trait?
A newt gets a mutation in a muscle cell in its tail. This mutation will affect how many of its offspring.
What is zero (none)? Body cell mutations cannot be inherited.
The environment changed and all the rocks in a river got smaller. Guppies with small spots became most common. Name the correct order: mutation appeared → ___ → ___ → trait became common.
What is environment made small spots adaptive → small-spot guppies survived and reproduced more → trait spread over generations?
A population of snakes is mostly brown, living on brown dirt. The habitat changes to green grass. After many generations, green snakes dominate. What caused the green trait to appear in the first place?
What is a random mutation?
A mutation changes the "recipe" for making a protein. If the protein changes, this changes too — which is what we can actually see on an organism.
What is the trait?
This is a trait that makes an organism MORE likely to survive in its specific environment.
What is an adaptive trait?
A rabbit is born and, two years later, gets a mutation in a skin cell from sun exposure. Its offspring are born the following spring. Which statement is true about the offspring?
What is — the offspring will NOT have the mutation, because it happened in a body cell after birth, not in a reproductive cell?
A student says: "The cold weather told the fox genes to make white fur." Give the scientifically correct version of this statement.
hat is — a random mutation produced white fur; in a cold/snowy environment that trait was adaptive, so white-furred foxes survived and reproduced more, spreading the trait over generations?
A population of island lizards has been isolated for so long that every single lizard has exactly the same leg length (medium) — there is zero variation in the population. The island floods and only short-legged lizards can escape by climbing trees. What will most likely happen to this population, and why?
What is — the population will likely die out or be severely threatened, because there are no short-legged lizards to survive and pass on that trait — natural selection can only work if variation already exists in the population. Without variation, there is nothing for the environment to "select."?
A mutation happens in a gene. The protein it produces is slightly different. The organism is born with a slightly different version of a feature. Put this in the correct four-step chain.
What is — DNA (mutated gene) → RNA → different protein → different trait?
This is the process by which the distribution of traits in a population changes over many generations based on which traits help organisms survive and reproduce.
What is natural selection?
A mutation occurs in a guppy's sperm cell. Explain in a complete sentence why every cell in that guppy's offspring will carry the mutation.
What is — because the offspring develops from that one fertilized cell, and every cell in the body grows from it, so the mutation is copied into every cell?
A classmate says: "The squirrels grew black fur because the trees in their forest turned black and they needed to blend in." Name TWO things that are scientifically wrong with this statement.
What is — (1) mutations are random — the black trees did not cause or direct a black-fur mutation to appear; and (2) individual organisms do not grow or change their own traits in response to what they need — the trait spreads over many generations through reproduction, not within one animal's lifetime?
A lizard population lives on black volcanic rock. Most lizards have brown skin. No black-skinned lizards have ever been recorded. Explain whether a black-skinned lizard could ever be born into this population, and what would happen to it.
What is — yes, a random mutation could produce a black-skinned lizard; in that environment it would be an adaptive trait, so it would survive and reproduce more, and over many generations black skin could become common?
This is the complete journey from gene to trait. Name all four steps in order, and the cooking analogy that goes with it.
What is — DNA → RNA → Protein → Trait; Instructions → Ingredients → Mixing → Final Dish?