Adaptations and Natural Selection Flashcards
Grade 5 · Science · Flashcards
Key vocabulary for adaptations, natural selection, and how organisms evolve survival traits.
Flashcards
- Adaptation
- An inherited trait that improves an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in its environment.
- Natural selection
- The process where organisms with beneficial traits survive and reproduce more, spreading those traits through the population.
- Variation
- Differences in traits among individuals of the same species that natural selection can act upon.
- Structural adaptation
- A physical feature that aids survival — like a bird's beak shape, a cactus's spines, or a whale's blubber.
- Behavioral adaptation
- An action that aids survival — like migration, hibernation, or nocturnal activity.
- Camouflage
- An adaptation where appearance matches the surroundings, helping an organism hide from predators or prey.
- Mimicry
- An adaptation where a harmless organism resembles a harmful or unpleasant one to deter predators.
- Warning coloration
- Bright colors (red, orange, yellow) that signal to predators that an organism is toxic or dangerous.
- Charles Darwin
- 19th-century scientist who developed the theory of natural selection after observing species on the Galapagos Islands.
- Population
- A group of individuals of the same species living in the same area.
- Inherited trait
- A characteristic passed from parents to offspring through genes.
- Favorable trait
- A variation that increases an organism's chance of surviving and reproducing in its environment.
- Mutation
- A random change in an organism's DNA that can introduce new variations into a population.
- Evolution
- The change in inherited characteristics of a population over many generations.
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