Question

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

artificial selection
artificial selection

genetic drift
genetic drift

natural selection
natural selection

genetic modification

Answer 1

The scenario you described is best explained by **genetic drift**.

In this situation, the animal's shorter tail does not impact its survival or reproductive success, which means that the variation is not influenced by natural selection. Instead, the fact that the animal survives and reproduces purely by chance (or luck) leads to the propagation of the shorter tail trait within the population. This random change in allele frequencies due to chance events is characteristic of genetic drift.

So the correct answer is **genetic drift**.