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Evolution
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| evolution | change over time |
| fossil | preserved remains of an ancient organism |
| fitness | ability of an individual to survive and reproduce in a specific environment |
| adaptation | inherited characteristic that increases an organism's chance of survival |
| natural selection | the process by which organisms with variations most suited to their environment survive and leave more offspring than others |
| homologous structures | body structures that are similar in different species of common ancestry |
| vestigial structures | body structures with little or no function |
| biogeography | study of past and present distribution of organisms |
| artificial selection | the process by which humans breed other animals and plants for particular traits. |
| anaglogous structures | body structures that share a common function but not structure |