EOC QUESTIONS 1. Which of the following best illustrates natural selection?
a. An organism with favorable genetic variations will tend to survive and breed successfully.
b. A population monopolizes all of the resources in its habitat, forcing other species to migrate.
c. A community whose members work together utilizing all existing resources and migratory routes.
d. The largest organisms in a species receive the only breeding opportunities.

2. In his book On the Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin described how species change over time. Which of the following is NOT part of his observations that describes the mechanisms of natural selection?
a. Organisms produce more offspring than can survive.
b. Disease and natural disaster will limit population growth.
c. Species today descended with modifications from ancestral species.
d. Organisms with advantages will survive and reproduce.

3. Over time, the climate of an island became drier, which resulted in changes to the populations of various island finch species. Finch populations with a certain beak shape thrived, while those not having that beak shape decreased. Which of the following describes a necessary condition for these changes in the finch populations to occur?
a. fewer mutations
b. limited food resources
c. limited beak variations
d. overproduction of offspring

4. Which of these would have the least effect on natural selection in a subspecies of giraffes that is geographically isolated from other subspecies of giraffes?
a. available niches
b. existing predators
c. chromosome number
d. available food resources