| A | B |
|---|
| evolution | change over time; the process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms |
| fossil | preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms |
| artificial selection | selective breeding of plants and animals to promote the occurence of desirable traits in offspring |
| adaptation | heritable characteristic that increases an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in an environment |
| fitness | how well an organism can survive and resproduce in its environment |
| natural selection | process by which organisms that are most suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called survival of the fittest |
| biogeography | study of past and present distributions of organisms |
| homologous structure | structures that are similar in different species of common ancestry |
| analogus structure | body parts that share a common function, but not structure |
| vestigial structure | structure that is inherited from ancestors but has lost much or all of its original function |
