Natural selection acted on the medium ground finch on Daphne Major because
A) birds with medium beak sizes experienced higher mortality.
B) a drought changed the environment where the finches lived.
C) offspring of finches with small beaks did not survive the juvenile period.
D) the population reached equilibrium.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A drought changed the environment where the finches lived, causing a scarcity of small seeds and an abundance of large, tough seeds. This led to natural selection favoring birds with larger beaks that could better crack open the larger seeds for food. birds with medium beak sizes experienced higher mortality. Therefore, option (A) is also partially correct, but not as precise as option (B). Option (C) doesn't make sense because small-beaked finches are not necessarily more or less fit to survive only based on their parents' beak size. Option (D) is not correct because reaching equilibrium would not involve natural selection acting on a population - it would instead suggest that the population is no longer evolving.

Natural Selection Acted on the Medium Ground Finch on Daphne