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1 The American writer Ernest Hemingway lived on the island of Key West in Florida, USA in the
1930s. During this time he was given a male cat by a sea captain.

The cat had more toes than usual. This inherited condition is called polydactyly. The allele for
polydactyly is dominant.

Here is part of a pedigree diagram for Hemingway’s cats.

Explain why polydactyly is an example of discontinuous variation.

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2 Explain how natural selection differs from selective breeding.

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3 Merino sheep in South Africa have high quality wool with very thin hairs.

Breeders in New Zealand have used selective breeding programmes to improve the wool of their
sheep to match the quality of South African wool.

Describe the steps that breeders would take to breed sheep that have wool with very thin hairs.

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4 A cause of variation is the formation of new alleles.

Describe how new alleles can be formed.

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5 Chuckwallas are a type of lizard.

They have adapted to be able to lose part of their tail if they are caught by predators.

The photograph is of a chuckwalla.

Complete the sentences using words from the list to describe how chuckwallas have evolved the
ability to lose part of their tails by natural selection.

Each word may be used once, more than once or not at all.

all alleles behaviour none

offspring parents predators some

A mutation caused some of the population of chuckwallas to be able to lose part of their tail.

Chuckwallas that could lose their tail were able to escape ............................................... .

These chuckwallas survived long enough to breed and pass their ...............................................
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on to their ............................................... .

Eventually ............................................... of the chuckwallas had the ability to lose their tails. [4]

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6 Modern horse breeds look very different to each other, but still belong to the same species.

The diagram shows three different horse breeds.

State the term used to describe the difference between individuals of the same species.

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7 Shire horses have been produced by selective breeding. They are strong and can pull heavy loads.

Describe the process of selective breeding.

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8 The photograph shows a goat with white fur.

Fur colour is inherited in goats.

• The allele for white fur is represented by A.

• The allele for black fur is represented by a.

• Each goat is identified by the numbers 1 to 8 in the diagram.

The diagram shows the inheritance of fur colour in a herd of goats.

Describe the process a farmer could use to breed a herd of white goats.
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9 Mangrove trees are hydrophytes because they grow in water.

The diagram below shows a young mangrove tree.

An adaptive feature is a feature that increases the fitness of an organism.

Define the term fitness.

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