BIOLOGY 287 Chapter Notes -Life Fitness, Natural Selection, Stabilizing Selection
12 Oct 2014
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Document Summary
Evolution: a change over time, or a process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms. Theory: a well-supported testable explanation that verifies a broad range of observations/ an explanation of phenomena that have occurred in the natural world. Artificial selection: selection by humans for breeding of useful traits from the natural variation among different organisms. Struggle for existence: members of each species compete regularly to obtain food, living space, and other necessities of life. Fitness: ability of an individual to survive and reproduce in its specific environment. Adaptation: any inherited characteristic that increases an organism s chance of survival. Survival of the fittest: process by which individuals that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called natural selection. Descent with modification: principle that each living species had descended, with changes, from other species over time. Common descent: principle that all living things were derived from common ancestors.
