Evolution Flashcards
Natural Selection
The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. The theory of its action was first fully expounded by Charles Darwin, and it is now regarded as be the main process that brings about evolution.
Species
A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding.
Selection pressure
An agent of differential mortality or fertility that tends to make a population change genetically.
Adaptations
The action or process of adapting or being adapted.
Adaptations
All the inhabitants of a particular place.
Survival of the fittest
The continued existence of organisms which are best adapted to their environment, with the extinction of others, as a concept in the Darwinian theory of evolution.
Biodiversity
The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable.
Competition
The activity or condition of striving to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others.
Inheritance
Something that has been inherited to the offspring by their mother and father.
Mutation
The action or process of mutating. Something that is out of the ordinary
Variation
A change or slight difference in condition, amount, or level, typically within certain limits.
Divergent Evolution
The accumulation of differences between groups which can lead to the formation of new species
Convergent Evolution
The independent evolution of similar features in species of different lineages.
Coevolution
The influence of closely associated species on each other in their evolution.
Evolution
The process by which different kinds of living organism are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth.
