What can cause an offspring to have a physical trait that neither of its parents had

The trait could be recessive and the genes carried by both parents, but not expressed in either.

1. true.2. true.3. true.4. false.5. true.the concept of darwin's theory of evolution involves the idea that there are limited resources in a given living environment and that the organisms which live within have variations in their genetic make up due to random mating. the ones with beneficial genetic variations can express certain traits which give them an upper hand in surviving and reproducing in the said environment compared to ones who may have a more disadvantageous variation in traits. over time, the organisms with an upper hand will survive and reproduce more frequently and pass on their beneficial genes while the others die. the result is evolution, where we observe (usually, but not always) eventually, phenotypic distinct changes.