Over evolutionary time, many cave-dwelling organisms have lost their eyes. tapeworms have lost their digestive systems. whales have lost their hind limbs. how can natural selection account for these losses? a. natural selection cannot account for losses, only for innovationsb. it can account for these losses by the principle of use and disusec. under particular circumstances that persisted for long periods, each of these structures presented greater costs than benefitsd. these organisms had the misfortune to experience harmful mutations, which caused the loss of these structures over a few generations

C. Under particular circumstances that persisted for long periods, each of these structures presented greater costs than benefits

Explanation:

Natural selection is evolutionary mechanism which favors traits (structures, behavior) of an organism that help him survive and reproduce. But, when there are some structures of an organism that are useless, selective pressure acts against them. Structures that don't contribute to an organism’s survival and reproduction, but are not directly harmful will take long time to be eliminated.

cancer   is   essentially   uncontrolled   mitosis   of specialized cells

an organism's phenotype is the  form of a trait  that it  displays. for  flowercolor, a pea  plant  can  display  a phenotype of purple or white flowers. an organism's  genotype  is the alleles of a gene it contains. based on his data, mendel concluded that a phenotype can be  determined  by more than one  genotype.