The shells of some marine snails are highly variable, with some snail shells being solid colors and others having stripes. Predation by birds is a major source of mortality for the snails. Scientists studying these snails found that while 47 percent of the snail population was striped, 56 percent of the snails eaten by birds were striped. What could scientists conclude about the snails?

The shell pattern is due to artificial variation.
The shell pattern is due to environmental variation.
Striped shell snails will eventually take over the population.
Solid shell snail genes will increase in the population.

Explanation: To interpret the data and draw a conclusion about the snails, we need to compare the proportion of striped snails in the overall population to the proportion of striped snails eaten by birds.

Given that 47 percent of the snail population was striped, and 56 percent of the snails eaten by birds were striped, we can conclude that the striped snails are being disproportionately targeted by birds compared to their representation in the overall population.

This suggests that there is a selective advantage for birds to prey on striped snails, which may be due to factors such as camouflage or increased visibility of striped snails.

Therefore, we can conclude that the shell pattern in these snails is likely due to natural selection and predation pressure, rather than artificial or environmental variation.