Avida and Natural Selection

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to Avida and natural selection.

Natural Selection

The process where organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.

Phenotypic Variation

Differences in physical traits among individuals in a population.

Heritability

The ability of a trait to be passed on from one generation to the next.

Differential Success

Variation in reproduction and survival among individuals in a population based on their traits.

Adaptive Radiation

The rapid evolution of diversely adapted species from a common ancestor upon introduction to new environmental challenges.

Artificial Selection

The human practice of breeding animals or plants for desired traits.

Lamarckism

The theory that organisms can pass on characteristics acquired during their lifetime to their offspring.

Mendelian Inheritance

The type of inheritance that follows the laws proposed by Gregor Mendel, involving dominant and recessive alleles.

Polygenic Inheritance

A form of inheritance in which multiple genes contribute to a single trait.

Avida

A platform for digital evolution research, allowing users to simulate the evolutionary process with virtual organisms.

Natural Selection

The process where organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.

Phenotypic Variation

Differences in physical traits among individuals in a population.

Heritability

The ability of a trait to be passed on from one generation to the next.

Differential Success

Variation in reproduction and survival among individuals in a population based on their traits.

Adaptive Radiation

The rapid evolution of diversely adapted species from a common ancestor upon introduction to new environmental challenges.

Artificial Selection

The human practice of breeding animals or plants for desired traits.

Lamarckism

The theory that organisms can pass on characteristics acquired during their lifetime to their offspring.

Mendelian Inheritance

The type of inheritance that follows the laws proposed by Gregor Mendel, involving dominant and recessive alleles.

Polygenic Inheritance

A form of inheritance in which multiple genes contribute to a single trait.

Avida

A platform for digital evolution research, allowing users to simulate the evolutionary process with virtual organisms.

Genetic Drift

Random fluctuations in allele frequencies in a population, especially in small populations.

Gene Flow

The transfer of genetic material from one population to another.

Mutation

A permanent alteration of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA or RNA.

Speciation

The evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species.

Allele Frequency

The proportion of a specific allele within a population's gene pool.