In a mountain meadow, a population of plants has inherited variation in the time taken to produce seeds. Suitable growing conditions last only briefly each year. Across generations, the proportion of plants producing seeds early increases.
Which statement explains this change?
The need to reproduce quickly causes new alleles for early seed production to appear.
The short growing season makes each plant produce seeds earlier, and its offspring inherit this change.
The allele for early seed production is dominant, so more offspring show this characteristic.
Early-seeding plants are more likely to reproduce before conditions end, so more offspring inherit their alleles.
122 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Biology 5.2 Natural selection and evolution, covering 5.2.1 Genetic variation within a population, 5.2.2 Developments in classification systems, 5.2.3 How evolution occurs through natural selection, 5.2.4 Evolution as change over time, 5.2.5 Evidence for evolution, and 5.2.6 Darwin and Wallace. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.