Adaptation and Natural Selection 1 a Natural selection

Adaptation and Natural Selection 1 a. Natural selection is theory that organisms that are best adapted to their environments are the ones most likely to survive and reproduce.

Adaptation and Natural Selection 2. Adaptations 2 a. An adaptation is any inherited characteristic that increases an organism’s chance of surviving to reproduce in a particular environment.

Adaptation and Natural Selection 2. Adaptations 2 b. The physical traits that are better adaptions to these environments therefore survive and spread throughout the population.

Adaptation and Natural Selection 3. Species 3 a. A species is a group of organisms that can breed with each other and produce fertile offspring.

Adaptation and Natural Selection 4. Population 4 a. A population is a group of individuals of the same species who have no barriers, geographical or otherwise, to breeding with each other.

Checkpoint 1 • Describe one circumstance in which two groups of one species might be prevented from breeding with each other.

Adaptation and Natural Selection 4. Populations 4 b. Populations in specific environments have adaptations that help them cope with their surroundings.

Adaptation and Natural Selection 5. Fitness 5 a. An organisms capacity to survive and reproduce in an environment is called the fitness of that organism.

Checkpoint 2 • Suppose that an environment has hot summers and cold snowy winters. Describe one adaptation that would make a mammal well adapted to its environment.

Agenda: 2/19/13 • Assignment: –Observations Aboard The Beagle • Homework: – Structural, Behavioral, and Physiological Adaptations Reading Questions