**Question:**Which choice best describes a reasonable mechanism for animal structures becoming better suited over evolutionary time to specific functions?**Options:**- Animals that eat the most food become the most abundant.- Animals that restrict their food intake will become less abundant.- Animals with mutations that give rise to effective structures will become more abundant.- Animals with parents that continually improve their offspring's structures will become more abundant.- Animals with inventions that curtail reproduction will become more abundant.

Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes that are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction.Animals that eat the most food become the most abundant. This statement is not necessarily true. If the animal is eating a lot of food but the food is devoid of nutrients or contains low nutritional value, the animal will not benefit. Animals that restrict their food intake will become less abundant. Restricting food intake means reducing the consumption of food. Food is a source of various nutrients and optimum amount of food consumption is necessary for a healthy and sustainable life. Animals with mutations that give rise to effective structures will become more abundant. Animals with mutations can give rise to structures which will give them an edge over other animals. Thus by the process of natural selection such animals will become abundant overtime. Animals with parents that continually improve their offspring’s structures will become more abundant. This statement is not true. Mutations take lots of years in order to develop new structures, which may or may not be beneficial. Parents cannot develop new structures (mutations) and immediately pass it on to the next generation. Animals with inventions that curtail reproduction will become more abundant. This statement is not true. Reproduction is the process which gives rise to new individuals. These individuals further reproduce to give rise to similar individuals, thus keeping the species alive. The correct answer is Animals with mutations that give rise to effective structures will become more abundant.