A well-known example of natural selection in action is the change in the peppered moth population in England in the nineteenth century. The moths blended in with their light-colored natural surroundings, but with increasing industrialization in England,
smoke began to pollute the foliage and darken the trees and rocks. Eventually, populations that were once mostly light colored became mostly dark colored. Using natural selection, propose a hypothesis that would explain why the moth population changed over time from mostly light colored to mostly dark colored.
What will be an ideal response?
Because of natural genetic variation, some peppered moths were dark in color, and others were light in color. Birds that ate the moths would pick off the ones they could see most easily. Once the environment changed, natural selection started to favor the dark-colored moths because they blended in better with their surroundings. The birds would pick off more light-colored moths, leaving the dark-colored ones to pass their characteristics to the next generation, eventually changing the population so that it consisted of more dark-colored individuals.
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