Natural Selection

Variation + Adaptation – increase an individuals chance of surviving and reproducing; happens with heritable traits

Example:

• grasshoppers can be either yellow or green
• green is an adaptation → blend with environment + are less visible to predators
• green grasshoppers have a higher fitness than yellow → survive + reproduce more often
• green grasshoppers became more common than yellow over time

Factors:

• genetic variation to produce different heritable traits
  • mutations, random assortments of genes
• environmental forces
  • survival from predators
  • Example: bird beaks → same shapes are better for certain foods