Quantitative analysis of living populations helps infer what?

• A. The color patterns of extinct species
• B. Mechanisms of selection
• C. Random genetic drift only
• D. None of the above

Answer: (B)

Quantitative analysis of living populations is about connecting measurable traits and fitness outcomes to understand how natural selection is shaping those traits. By tracking how trait frequencies, survival, and reproductive success vary across generations, we can estimate how strongly selection acts, and whether it favors certain directions or stabilizes diversity. This approach lets us infer the mechanisms of selection—how particular traits contribute to fitness and how those advantages drive evolutionary change over time.

The other ideas don’t fit as well because color patterns of extinct species aren’t directly inferred from data on living populations in a way that isolates selection processes, and while drift is part of population dynamics, quantitative analysis of living populations aims to uncover selective forces rather than attributing change to drift alone.