AP Biology- Natural Selection

evolution

Change in a kind of organism over time; process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms.

natural selection

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

Charles Darwin

English natural scientist who formulated a theory of evolution by natural selection (1809-1882)

competition

the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources

Variations

Any difference between individuals of the same species.

adaptations

Changes in physical structure, function, or behavior that allow an organism or species to survive and reproduce in a given environment.

Phenotype

An organism's physical appearance, or visible traits.

Fitness

Ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment

reproductive success

the number of offspring an individual produces and rears to reproductive age; an individual's genetic contribution to the next generation

Heredity

Passing of traits from parents to offspring

Ecosystem

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Biotic

living things

Abiotic

Non-living things

Population

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

selective pressure

when the environment pushes an individual or population to adapt or evolve

peppered moth

originally, the majority of these moths were light-colored, due to natural selection and then when the trees turned black due to the Industrial Revolution in England, the black colored moths came into the majority because of natural selection

artifical selection

the selective breeding of organisms by humans for specific characteristics

convergent evolution

Process by which unrelated organisms independently evolve similarities when adapting to similar environments

divergent evolution

when two or more species sharing a common ancestor become more different over time

analogous structures

Body parts that share a common function, but not structure

homologous structures

Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry.

Coevolution

Process by which two species evolve in response to changes in each other