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Natural Selection and Adaptation Practice Tests

These Grade 8 Science practice tests cover inherited variation, mutations, natural selection, fitness, environmental pressures, adaptations, artificial selection, common ancestry, population change, and evidence from DNA, fossils, anatomy, and geography.

Skills covered

  • Connecting inherited variation to survival and reproductive success
  • Explaining how environmental pressures change trait frequencies in populations
  • Distinguishing individual responses from population-level evolution
  • Using fossils, DNA, anatomy, and biogeography as evolutionary evidence
  • Interpreting graphs, models, investigations, and adaptation examples

How to use these practice tests

Identify the population, inherited trait, environmental condition, and reproductive outcome in each question. Then decide whether the evidence supports natural selection, adaptation, common ancestry, or another population process.

For more Grade 8 Science practice, return to the Grade 8 Science category.

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Grade 8 Natural Selection and Adaptation Practice Tests

Practice Grade 8 Science questions about inherited variation, natural selection, adaptations, common ancestry, population change, and evolutionary evidence.

Choose the best answer. Identify inherited variation, environmental pressures, population changes, and the evidence that supports each conclusion.

10 Questions
0/10 Questions0 %
Correct 0
Incorrect 0
Unanswered 10
1. QuestionMultiple choice

Why can camouflage increase survival for some prey?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: A

The correct answer is It can make the prey harder for predators to detect..

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: Camouflage can reduce detection and therefore lower the chance of being captured in a particular environment.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is It can make the prey harder for predators to detect..

Camouflage can reduce detection and therefore lower the chance of being captured in a particular environment.

2. QuestionMultiple choice

What can happen to an antibiotic-resistant bacterial trait when antibiotics are used?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: B

The correct answer is Resistant bacteria may survive and reproduce more often than susceptible bacteria..

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: Antibiotics can select for bacteria that already have resistance, increasing the proportion of resistant bacteria.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is Resistant bacteria may survive and reproduce more often than susceptible bacteria..

Antibiotics can select for bacteria that already have resistance, increasing the proportion of resistant bacteria.

3. QuestionMultiple choice

Why might finches with different beak shapes have different survival rates?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: C

The correct answer is Different beaks may be better suited to different available foods..

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: When food types differ, an inherited beak shape may provide a feeding advantage and affect reproductive success.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is Different beaks may be better suited to different available foods..

When food types differ, an inherited beak shape may provide a feeding advantage and affect reproductive success.

4. QuestionMultiple choice

What is a selection pressure?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: D

The correct answer is An environmental factor that affects which traits improve survival or reproduction.

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: Predators, climate, disease, competition, and food availability can act as selection pressures.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is An environmental factor that affects which traits improve survival or reproduction.

Predators, climate, disease, competition, and food availability can act as selection pressures.

5. QuestionMultiple choice

How can a predator influence the traits of a prey population?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: A

The correct answer is Predators may reduce survival of easier-to-detect prey, changing trait frequencies over time..

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: Predation can create selection for traits that reduce detection or improve escape in that environment.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is Predators may reduce survival of easier-to-detect prey, changing trait frequencies over time..

Predation can create selection for traits that reduce detection or improve escape in that environment.

6. QuestionMultiple choice

What does greater reproductive success mean?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: B

The correct answer is An organism leaves more surviving offspring that can reproduce..

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: Natural selection is measured by contribution to future generations, not by size or age alone.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is An organism leaves more surviving offspring that can reproduce..

Natural selection is measured by contribution to future generations, not by size or age alone.

7. QuestionMultiple choice

Why can pesticide resistance become more common in an insect population?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: C

The correct answer is Resistant insects survive treatment and pass the trait to more offspring..

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: If resistance is inherited, treatment can increase the relative frequency of resistant insects across generations.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is Resistant insects survive treatment and pass the trait to more offspring..

If resistance is inherited, treatment can increase the relative frequency of resistant insects across generations.

8. QuestionMultiple choice

Which result would suggest that a bird color provides camouflage?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: D

The correct answer is Birds with that color are attacked less often and leave more offspring in the same habitat..

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: Lower predation and greater reproductive success connect the inherited color to an advantage in that habitat.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is Birds with that color are attacked less often and leave more offspring in the same habitat..

Lower predation and greater reproductive success connect the inherited color to an advantage in that habitat.

9. QuestionMultiple choice

Why can natural selection produce different results in two habitats?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: A

The correct answer is Each habitat can create different environmental pressures and available resources..

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: A trait that improves survival in one habitat may be neutral or harmful in another.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is Each habitat can create different environmental pressures and available resources..

A trait that improves survival in one habitat may be neutral or harmful in another.

10. QuestionMultiple choice

What is artificial selection?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: B

The correct answer is Human choice of organisms with desired traits for breeding.

  1. Identify the population and trait: Determine which inherited variation, environmental condition, or reproductive pattern is being described.
  2. Connect the evidence to selection: Artificial selection is directed by human breeding choices rather than only by environmental pressures.
  3. Check the population result: The correct choice is Human choice of organisms with desired traits for breeding.

Artificial selection is directed by human breeding choices rather than only by environmental pressures.

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