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Natural Selection

Definition

Natural selection is a process in nature in which organisms possessing certain genotypic characteristics that make them better adjusted to an environment tend to survive, reproduce, increase in number or frequency, and therefore, are able to transmit and perpetuate their essential genotypic qualities to succeeding generations.

Analogy

Imagine natural selection as a talent show judge. It doesn't care about all talents equally - it has its favorites based on what's most useful at that time and place. So those with favored "talents" (traits) get more chances to perform (survive and reproduce), passing those favored traits onto future generations.

Related terms

Adaptation: A characteristic that improves an individual’s ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.

Fitness: In evolutionary terms, fitness describes how good a particular genotype is at leaving offspring in the next generation relative to others.

Mutation: A change in DNA sequence within a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting to variation in the trait.