evolution

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What is evolution?

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Evolution is the process by which different kinds of living organisms develop and diversify from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

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What are the key assumptions for evolution to occur?

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1. Some traits must affect survival or reproduction. 2. Organisms must vary. 3. Some living things must fail to reproduce.

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What is natural selection?

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Natural selection is the process where organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.

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What are advantageous traits?

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Advantageous traits are characteristics that increase an organism's chances of survival and reproduction.

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What is convergent evolution?

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Convergent evolution occurs when unrelated species evolve similar traits due to similar environmental pressures.

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What is a bottleneck effect?

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The bottleneck effect is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events, leading to a loss of genetic diversity.

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What is genetic drift?

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Genetic drift is a mechanism of evolution that refers to random changes in the frequency of alleles in a population.

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What is a homologous structure?

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Homologous structures are anatomical features in different species that share a common ancestry, even if they have different functions.

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What is an analogous structure?

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Analogous structures are features in different species that serve similar functions but do not share a common ancestry.

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What is the significance of fossils in understanding evolution?

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Fossils provide evidence of past life forms and show how species have changed over time.