Natural Selection

A permanent and heritable change in a gene; may be random or due to environmental factors

• Adaptation

• Trait

• Mutation

A change that makes an organism or species better suited to the environment

• Adaptation

• Trait

• Mutation

The theory of natural selection is sometimes referred to as...

• the theory of evolution

• the golden rule

• survival of the fittest

Small changes in a population over several generations, such as white moths becoming more prominent in areas of trees with white bark

• macroevolution

• microevolution

• gene flow

A group of organisms with similar characteristics that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring

• Species

• Mutant

• Ecosystem

Evolutionary change caused by the migration of a population, when their genes are introduced to a new population

• Migration

• Macroevolution

• gene flow

Differences in a population. Each individual is not identical.

• Genetic variation

• Genetic drift

• Natural selection

A scientist and naturalist who proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection

• Gregor Mendel

• Charles Darwin

• Abraham Lincoln

The surroundings an organism lives in; including living and nonliving elements

• Population

• Traits

• Environment

The complete dying out of a species

• Extinction

• Genetic drift

• Macroevolution