Adaptive Features Quiz

1. What is an adaptive feature?

• A. Any random feature of an organism
• B. An inherited feature that helps an organism survive and reproduce in its environment
• C. A feature acquired during an organism's lifetime through exercise
• D. A feature that only appears in domesticated animals

2. Which feature would you expect to find in a xerophyte (dry-environment plant)?

• A. Large air spaces for buoyancy
• B. Thin cuticle to allow water loss
• C. Sunken stomata to reduce water loss
• D. Very thin, broad leaves to maximise water loss

3. Why do many hydrophytes have large air spaces in their stems and leaves?

• A. To store extra water for drought conditions
• B. To provide buoyancy and assist gas exchange in a wet environment
• C. To reduce their overall surface area
• D. To increase the rate of water loss

4. A newly discovered desert plant has thick, fleshy leaves, a waxy surface, and very few, deeply sunken stomata. Explain how these features suit it to its environment.

• A. They increase transpiration to cool the plant in hot conditions
• B. They store and conserve water, reducing water loss in a dry, hot environment
• C. They allow the plant to photosynthesise underwater
• D. They have no adaptive value and are simply random variation

5. Over many generations, a population of insects in a polluted, darkened environment becomes predominantly dark-coloured, whereas it was previously predominantly pale-coloured. Which explanation best accounts for this using the concept of adaptation?

• A. Individual insects changed colour during their lifetime to match the environment
• B. Dark-coloured insects were better camouflaged, survived and reproduced more successfully, passing on the allele for dark colour, so the population became more suited to its environment over generations
• C. The insects deliberately chose to become darker
• D. Adaptation cannot occur within an insect population