In a species of snail, dark-shelled individuals are better hidden from bird predators in the shady forest, while light-shelled individuals are better hidden in well-lit brushy edge areas. If there were no areas of intermediate brightness in this habitat, which type of selection would act on shell color in these snails?

The correct answer is: Disruptive Selection.

Explanation:

In evolution, the concept of Disruptive or Diverging selection can be defined as the phenomenon due to which, in a population of a particular species, among the different variants available for a particular trait, the most contrasting ones get selected by natural selection and exist in the population while the intermediate traits get eliminated.In the given question, a species of snail with the shell color trait is analysed.In the snail population, two variants of snail shell color, dark shell and light shell are predominant.Natural selection has selected the dark shell color to protect the snails from bird predators in shady forests.Natural selection has selected the light shell color to protect the snails in well-lit bushy regions.These two variants of snail shell color are contrasting to each other and have resulted from Disruptive Selection.

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