A hypothetical endangered species of wildflower has been reduced to a single small population in a mountain meadow. A rare early spring blizzard kills all but 3 of the remaining plants, one of which has a rare mutation. This is an example of:

A. genetic drift (bottleneck).

B. disruptive selection.

C. natural selection.

D. stabilizing selection.

E. gene flow.

Question

Biology

Greenie

24 September, 09:47

A hypothetical endangered species of wildflower has been reduced to a single small population in a mountain meadow. A rare early spring blizzard kills all but 3 of the remaining plants, one of which has a rare mutation. This is an example of:

A. genetic drift (bottleneck).

B. disruptive selection.

C. natural selection.

D. stabilizing selection.

E. gene flow.

+3

Answers (1)

Know the Answer?

Garrett Nichols · Answer 1

A. genetic drift (bottleneck).

Explanation:

Genetic drift can cause big losses of genetic variation for small populations. In our case, we already had a small population so killing further reduced the genetic variation in the population.

Disruptive selection is not correct because the plants died randomly (particular phenotype were not favored). Natural selection and stabilizing selection are not correct for same reason.

Gene flow is incorrect because we did not have any individuals coming in into the population!