1. Chapter 2: Living Things in Ecosystems Section 2.3: Adapting to the Environment

2. In 1859, an English naturalist named Charles Darwin, proposed an answer to the question, how does the close match between organisms and their environment come about.

3. Darwin observed that members of a population differ from each other in form, physiology, and behavior. Some of these differences are hereditary.

4. Some individuals, because of certain traits, are more likely to survive and have offspring than other individuals.

5. Darwin used the term natural selection to describe the unequal survival and reproduction that results from the presence and absence of particular traits.

6. Darwin proposed that over many generations natural selection causes the characteristics of a population to change. This process is called evolution.

7. An inherited trait that increases an organisms chances for survival and reproduction in a certain environment is called adaptation.

8. An organism’s environment includes not only physical aspects, but also other organisms, which can be strong forces in natural selection.

9. When two or more species evolve in response to each other, it is called coevolution.

11. The irreversible disappearance of a population or a species is called extinction.