Which of the following best explains how desert cacti evolved spines instead of broad leaves over many generations?
- AIndividual cacti actively transformed their leaves into sharp needles during drought periods to prevent water loss.
- Ancestral plants with narrower, spine-like leaf variations conserved water better and reproduced more successfully in arid environments.Cevap
- CThe spine trait is genetically dominant, which automatically caused it to become the most common trait in the population regardless of environmental conditions.
- DIndividual plants hardened their leaves through frequent sun exposure during their lifetime and passed those hardened leaves to their offspring.
Cevap
Ancestral plants with narrower, spine-like leaf variations conserved water better and reproduced more successfully in arid environments.
Natural selection operates on preexisting genetic variations within a population. Ancestral desert plants that possessed smaller, spine-like leaves experienced less water loss through transpiration compared to broad-leafed plants. As a result, these individuals survived droughts more effectively and passed their heritable traits to subsequent generations, leading to the prevalence of spines.
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Anahtar Kavram
Natural Selection and Structural Adaptations
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