Selection by humans for breeding useful traits from natural variation is known as

• A. Artificial selection
• B. Natural selection
• C. Adaptation
• D. Evolution

Answer: (A)

Selective breeding by humans, where we choose which individuals reproduce to amplify desirable traits, is called artificial selection. This is a human-driven version of evolution: we pick traits we want in the next generation, such as dogs with friendly temperaments or crops with higher yield. It stands in contrast to natural selection, where environmental pressures determine which traits are favored without human interference. An adaptation is any trait that increases fitness in a given environment, regardless of how it arose, and evolution is the broader process of allele frequencies changing over generations.