Evolution & Meiosis?

Question

How is meiosis beneficial to the evolution of a species by natural selection?

Answer 1

Natural selection relies on having many variations in a population. Meiosis provides variation in two different ways:
1. pairs of homologous chromosomes assort or separate independently, so there are plenty of different combinations of chromosomes in the gametes.
2. crossing over occurs during meiosis I when the homologous chromosomes synapse and exchange segments of the chromatids that are next to each other, so the genes on the chromatids get reshuffled.

Answer 2

Provides a lot of recombinant variation, that which natural selection works on.