Chapter 22, Problem 11PIAT

How can natural selection on mouse color be measured?

Most mice living on the mainland of Florida are brown, but the mice that live on the sand dunes of the barrier islands have white fur (see Chapter 16). It is intuitive that the light color of beach-dwelling mice is an adaptation for blending into their environment–and thus evading predators. How can this hypothesis be tested?

Compare and contrast how evolution by inheritance of acquired characters and the theory of evolution by natural selection would explain the observation of white mice living on light soil and brown mice living on dark soil.