click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
7.5 NSA
Natural Selection and Adaptation Vocabulary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
fossil | the preserved remains or traces of an organism that lived in the past |
species | a group of similar organisms that can mate with each other and produce fertile offspring |
extinction | the process of every member of a species disappearing from Earth |
behavioral adaptations | a thing that organisms do to survive in a particular environment, such as the way they feed, breed, or move |
physical adaptations | a changing characteristic of an organism that enables it to survive in a particular environment; these changes usually happen gradually over generations |
adaptation | behavioral or physical characteristic that allows an organism to survive in its environment |
homologous structures | body parts that are structurally similar in related species; provide evidence that the structures were inherited from a common ancestor |
natural selection | the process by which individuals that are better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce than other members of the same species |
fitness | the ability of an organism to produce offspring that survive and reproduce |