“survival of the fittest,” best done through adaptations. Natural Selection “survival of the fittest,” best done through adaptations. Survival - the ability to live in harsh conditions Adaptation - to adjust to changing conditions And lastly, we’ll be going over natural selection, and why it’s such a major part of our life. natural selection - “survival of the fittest,” or that those who have the best traits for an area survive longer in that area. concept created by Charles Darwin in 1859 in his book On the Origin of Species a lot of it explains evolution (ex. Darwin’s finches) adaptation - to adjust to changing conditions depends on the surrounding environment. successful adapters have high survival rates. survival - the ability to continue living in harsh conditions. most likely due to adaptations

Darwin’s Finches Charles Darwin’s first documented discovery of natural selection was through his research on the finches at Galapagos Islands. Start on left: the island that was inhabited by Darwin’s finches. Right top: over time, the beaks of each finch changed sizes to adapt to the different environment. Right bottom: a side-by-side comparison of the size of each seed, and how the bird needed to adapt to survive.