4.3.11 Adaptation

Question 1

What are selection pressures

Answer 1

Environmental factors which affect the chance of survival of an organism

Question 2

What are adaptations?

Answer 2

• Mutated alleles produce features which make an organism better suited to its environment
• These allele frequencies can be affected by selection pressures and alter the population through natural selection

Question 3

How does natural selection work in lions

Answer 3

1. Lions with Lions with advantageous alleles are more likely to catch more prey
2. These lions produce more offspring
3. These allele frequencies increase in population
4. Because alleles are passed down generations
5. Resulting adaptation becomes more common in the population
6. Species is better suited to their environment

Question 4

What are the types of adaptations?

Answer 4

• Anatomical adaptations (structural, physical features)
• Physiological adaptations (Biological processes within organism, eg. Chemicals inside)
• Behavioral adaptations (Way organism behaves, like basking in sun)

Question 5

What is convergent evolution?

Answer 5

• Where 2 different species (eg, on different sides of the world)
• Both have the same adaptations because the environment they are in had the same selection pressures
• Eg. 2 marsupial moles both burrow and don’t see sunlight often
• But in Australia and Europe they will look the same because they do the same thing
• Adaptations have converged
• Despite not sharing a common ancestor