Natural Selection and Evolution

Flashcards covering key concepts of natural selection, evolution, adaptations, and artificial selection.

Natural Selection

The process by which organisms with heritable traits better adapted to their environment tend to survive and reproduce more successfully.

Eukaryotic

An organism whose cells contain a nucleus and other organelles enclosed within membranes.

Prokaryotic

An organism whose cells lack a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles.

Adaptation

Inherited traits or features that help organisms to survive in their habitat.

Stabilizing Selection

A type of selection that favors intermediate phenotypes and selects against extreme variations, reducing genetic variance.

Directional Selection

A type of selection that favors one extreme phenotype over others, causing the allele frequency to shift in one direction over time.

Disruptive Selection

A type of selection that favors both extreme phenotypes while intermediate forms are selected against.

Speciation

The evolutionary process by which new, genetically distinct species arise from an ancestral population.

Artificial Selection

The identification by humans of desirable traits in plants and animals, and the steps taken to enhance those traits in future generations.

Mimicry

The close resemblance of an animal or plant to another animal or plant, often for protection or predation.