Evolution by Natural Selection

_______ is the process by which individuals with different inherited characteristics have unequal chances of survival and reproduction.

_______ provided the scientific foundation for the assumption that characteristics are hereditary.

One of the assumptions of Evolution by Natural Selection is that individuals with certain characteristics have a better chance of _______ and _______.

Over time, the pigeons will vary from breeders from where they began. Variation occurs in every population as evolutionary change must be caused by some sort of ______.

Individuals in a population have unequal chances of survival and reproduction due to factors such as ability to escape predators, ability to obtain food and nutrients, and ability to find a mate. These factors render some individuals to have less chance of survival and reproduction than the stronger ones in a population – survival of the ______.

If characteristics were inherited, those favorable to survive and reproduce will become more common as generations pass; those with unfavorable traits will become less and less common, and will eventually be eliminated from the population. This process is a result of ______.

Adaptive Radiation refers to the process whereby species evolve rapidly to exploit ______ ecospace and spread successfully.

The diversification of an ancestral group of organisms into a variety of related forms specialized to fit to different environments or ways of life is a concept related to ______.

Darwin maintained that organisms descended from ancient ancestors quite unlike themselves; that change occurred, and, that natural selection determined the course of ______.

In Darwin’s time, it was a belief that everything was placed by a Divine Being on Earth and perpetuated themselves without ______.