Evolution (Natural Selection)

Biology

Natural selection

Process in which organisms better suited to their environment are able to survive and reproduce more offspring

Fitness

ability to survive and create offspring

Adaptation

Inherited traits that enhance survival and reproduction in certain environments

Gene pool

All the genes, including all the different alleles for each gene, that are present in a population at any one time

Selective pressure

Something that makes it harder for an organism to survive in an environment.

Microevolution

Change within a species, especially over a short period of time

Macroevolution

Major evolutionary change that happens to whole groups of species over long periods of time

Variation

any difference between the individuals in a species or groups of organisms of any species