In three to five sentences, construct an argument for the claim that natural selection leads to evolution. Provide evidence for this claim, and be sure to explain how an organism shows the four parts of the process of natural selection. You may use any organism with the exception of bacteria and antibiotic resistance.(4 points)

Answer 1

Natural selection leads to evolution as it is the process by which organisms with favorable traits for their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on those traits to their offspring. This leads to a change in the genetic makeup of a population over time, resulting in evolution. For example, in the case of finches on the Galapagos Islands, those with beaks better suited for the available food sources were more likely to survive and reproduce, leading to the evolution of different beak shapes within the population. This process of natural selection involves variation among individuals in a population, heritability of traits that affect survival and reproduction, differential reproductive success based on those traits, and the accumulation of beneficial traits in a population over generations.