Question

what hypothesis did darwin investigate by studying the breeding of pigeons with distinctive traits? new species can appear gradually through small changes in an ancestral species. the amount of variation in a population is related to the type of environment it lives in. organisms have only the number of offspring that are supported by the environment. some traits appear in each generation, while others seem to disappear in some generations.

Explanation:

Darwin's pigeon breeding experiments focused on observing how intentional selection of distinct traits over generations could produce significant differences from ancestral stock, which supported his idea of gradual species change. The other options do not align with the core hypothesis he tested through pigeon breeding: environment-linked variation, offspring limits, and trait inheritance patterns were not the focus of this specific work.

Answer:

A. New species can appear gradually through small changes in an ancestral species.