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Chapter 16
Biology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Evolution | -change over time; the process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms |
| Fossil | -preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms |
| Artificial Selection | -selective breeding of plants and animals to promote the occurrence of desirable traits in offspring |
| Adaptation | -heritable characteristic that increases an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in an environment |
| Fitness | -how well an organism can survive and reproduce in the environment |
| Natural Selection | -process by which organisms that are most suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called survival of the fittest |
| Biogeography | -the study of past and present distribution of organisms |
| Homologous Structures | -structures that are similar in different species of common ancestry |
| Analogous Structures | -body parts that share a common function, but not structure |
| Vestigial Structure | -structure that is inherited from ancestors but has lost much or all of its original function |