Natural Selection

• What is natural selection?

  The process where better-adapted organisms survive
• What does natural selection act on?

  Phenotypic variations within a population
• What must be present for evolution to occur?

  Genetic variability and differential reproduction
• What are the factors necessary for evolution to occur?

  1. Genetic Variability
  2. More offspring produced than can survive
  3. Some organisms have better-adapted phenotypes
  4. Differential reproduction rates
• What does Darwin's theory say about competition for resources?

  It results in differential survival
• What is biological fitness?

  The ability to survive and reproduce
• What is fecundity?

  The actual reproductive rate of an organism
• What is the modern definition of evolution?

  A change in allele frequency over time
• What is microevolution?

  A change in allele frequency within a population
• What does macroevolution lead to?

  Speciation
• Who first fully expounded the theory of natural selection?

  Charles Darwin