Charles Darwin & Natural Selection Vocabulary

Flashcards about Charles Darwin & Natural Selection

Evolution

Descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral ones.

Adaptations

Inherited characteristics of organisms that enhance their survival and reproduction in specific environments.

Natural Selection

A process in which individuals with certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.

Artificial Selection

The selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals to encourage the occurrence of desirable traits.

Evolutionary Fitness

The contribution an individual makes to the gene pool of the next generation relative to the contributions of other individuals.

Population (ecology)

A localized group of individuals that are capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.