Fire ants in the southeastern United States were accidentally introduced over seventy years ago. Stings from fire ants can be deadly to the native fence lizard. Fence lizards that have lived in areas with fire ants for many generations have longer legs than fence lizards that have not, until more recently, lived in areas with fire ants.
Which statement BEST describes how the legs of the fence lizard changed over time?
Over time, fence lizards stretched their legs to increase leg length and passed this trait on to their offspring.
The lizards of each generation are born without longer legs. They then grow the longer legs to avoid stepping on the fire ants.
Over time, fence lizards with longer legs were more likely to survive and passed this trait on to offspring.
The lizards living in areas where fire ants were first introduced used the venom from fire ants to grow longer legs. The trait for longer legs was then passed on to offspring.