Question

which scenario describes an example of the bottleneck effect?
a mistake during dna replication causes the offspring of a yellow flowering plant to have blue flowers. the blue
flower trait is passed on to successive generations.
cheetahs almost went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago during a mass die - off of large mammalian species.
a few cheetahs survived, leaving the population with little genetic diversity.
some individuals have spotted fur, which makes them more susceptible to predation. the
proportion of rabbits that have spots decreases in the population for several generations.
some of the rare, red - winged finches from a small island fly to a nearby island. they mate with the native,
brown - winged finches, which results in an increase in the red - wing allele frequency on the new island.

Explanation:

The bottleneck effect occurs when a population's size is drastically reduced, leading to a loss of genetic diversity. In the case of cheetahs almost going extinct (a mass die - off), only a few survived. This reduction in population size (bottleneck) left the cheetah population with little genetic diversity, which is a classic example of the bottleneck effect.

• The first option is a mutation (a change in DNA sequence) that leads to a new trait being passed on.
• The third option is about a trait (spotted fur) being selected against (due to predation), which is natural selection.
• The fourth option is gene flow (movement of genes from one population to another as the red - winged finches mate with the brown - winged finches on the new island).

Answer:

Cheetahs almost went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago during a mass die - off of large mammalian species. A few cheetahs survived, leaving the population with little genetic diversity.