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15-3
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is a species? | a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding |
| What is artificial selection | the identification by humans of desirable traits in plants and animals, and the steps taken to enhance and perpetuate those traits in future generations |
| What is meant by "struggle for existence" | the automatic competition of members of a natural population for limited vital resources |
| How did Darwin use the term "fitness" | the relative probability that a hereditary characteristic will be reproduced |
| What is an adaptation to evolutionists? | the biological mechanism by which organisms adjust to new environments or to changes in their current environment. |
| What is meant by 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 |
| What is natural selection | the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring |
| How does descent with modification work | the passing on of traits from parent organisms to their offspring |
| What is common descent as used in this chapter | concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. |
| What is a homologous structure | similar physical features in organisms that share a common ancestor, but the features serve completely different functions |
| What is a vestigial organ | organs, tissues or cells in a body which are no more functional the way they were in their ancestral form of the trait |