How Evolution Works

Question 1

Natural Selection

Answer 1

Beneficial characteristics that can be inherited are passed down to the next generation, and unfavorable characteristics that can be inherited become less common

Question 2

Selective Pressure

Answer 2

Any cause that reduces reproductive success (fitness) in a portion of the population

Question 3

Gene Pool

Answer 3

The total genetic makeup of a population

Question 4

Genetic Drift

Answer 4

The accumulation of changes in the frequency of allies (versions of genes) over time due to sampling errors-changes that occur as a result of random chance

Question 5

Macroevolution

Answer 5

Large scale patterns if evolution within biological organisms over long periods of time

Question 6

MicroEvolution

Answer 6

Small-scale changes over a relatively short period of time

Question 7

Extinction

Answer 7

Species cannot adapt quickly enough to environmental change and all members of the specie die

Question 8

Biological extinction

Answer 8

true extermination of a species

Question 9

Ecological extinction

Answer 9

so few individuals of a species that the species can no longer perform its ecological function

Question 10

Commercial or economic extinction

Answer 10

A few individuals exist but the effort needed to locate and harvest them is not worth the expense