Natural Selection
What is natural selection?
A fundamental mechanism of evolution where organisms better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and produce more offspring.
What are the three main types of Rock?
Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic
What are the three types of heat transfer?
Conduction (direct contact), convection (movement of fluids/air), and radiation (electromagnetic waves).
What is a divergent boundary?
A divergent boundary is a tectonic boundary where two plates move away from each other, causing the lithosphere to pull apart.
Who is the scientist known to find the theory of evolution?
Charles Darwin
Why do some organisms survive better than others?
due to natural selection
How do mutations affect evolution?
acting as the primary source of genetic variation, providing the raw material upon which natural selection acts.
What type of trait are more likely to be passed on in natural selection?
Traits most likely to be passed on in natural selection are adaptive or advantageous traits that increase an organism's survival and reproductive success in its environment.
How can one type of rock change into another?
melting into magma, being buried to become metamorphic, or eroding into sediment
What happens to particles when temperature increases?
When temperature increases, particles gain kinetic energy, causing them to move faster, vibrate more intensely, and spread apart, leading to thermal expansion.
How do Tectonic plates move what causes earthquakes?
Tectonic plates move due to heat-driven convection currents in the Earth's mantle, which drag the overlying lithosphere plates
What is a fossil and why is it important for evolution?
they provide physical evidence of how life changed over billions of years, documenting transitional forms and showing that past organisms were different from those today
How does the environment affect natural selection?
The environment acts as the primary filter in natural selection, determining which traits are advantageous for survival and reproduction. It dictates, through factors like climate, food availability, and predators, which genetic variations (adaptations) are favorable
Why do some materials conduct heat better than others?
Materials conduct heat differently based on their internal structure, specifically how freely electrons can move and how tightly atoms are packed.
What is the difference between adapt and evolution?
Adaptation refers to short-term, functional adjustments by individuals or populations to thrive in an environment, while evolution is the long-term, genetic change in a population's heritable traits over generations.
How can natural selection lead to change in a species overtime?
Variations in traits exist within a population, environmental pressures favor specific traits, those with beneficial traits survive and reproduce more successfully, and these advantageous, inheritable traits become more common in future generations, changing the population's characteristics.