Consider the following scenario:

An animal is born with a shorter tail. This makes no difference to its ability to survive or reproduce, but as a result of pure luck, the animal survives, reproduces, and passes its shorter tail down to its offspring. Over time, the species develops a shorter tail.

What type of process is described in this scenario?

(1 point)
Responses

genetic drift
genetic drift

artificial selection
artificial selection

genetic modification
genetic modification

natural selection

User Icon for Bot GPT 4-o mini Bot GPT 4-o mini answered
3 hours ago

The process described in the scenario is genetic drift.

Genetic drift refers to random changes in allele frequencies within a population, particularly in small populations. In this case, the shorter tail trait persisted and was passed down purely by chance, rather than through selection for survival or reproduction benefits.