What the agents of microevolution all have in common is that each of them can alter _______ in a population.

Genetic drift is a _______ alteration of _________ in a population that has its greatest effect on _______ populations.

In sexual selection, differential reproductive success comes about because of differential success in obtaining _______.

Genes come in variant forms called __________. A gene pool is defined as all the _______ that exist in a ________.

Microevolution is defined as a change in _______in a population over a relatively short period of time.

What common misconceptions about nature result from the phrase “survival of the fittest,” as opposed to the phrase that accurately describes what happens in nature, “survival of those who fit __ for now ?

In most populations of living things, each individual has ___ copies of each gene, which may be the same or different allelic variants. A population may have ________ allelic variants for a given gene.

a. 1, 2

b. 2, 4

c. 2, many

d. 1, many

e. 2, 2

Explain why genetic drift may be important when captive populations of animals or plants are started with just a few individuals.

Which of the following statements is true of microevolution? (Select all that apply.)

a. It is a change in allele frequency within populations.

b. It is caused by inheritance of characters acquired during the life of an organism.

c. It is only seen when some allelic variants cause individuals to have increased reproductive success.

d. It always leads to adaptation.

e. It is caused only by natural selection.