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Natural Selection

Definition

Natural selection is a process in nature where organisms possessing certain genotypic characteristics that make them better adjusted to their environment tend to survive, reproduce, increase in number or frequency, and therefore, are able to pass on these favorable genetic traits to their offspring.

Analogy

Think of natural selection like a talent show. The contestants (organisms) with the best performances (traits) get the most votes (survive and reproduce), ensuring they'll be back for the next round (next generation).

Related terms

Adaptation: This refers to the changes in physical structure, function or behavior of an organism that allow it to survive and reproduce in its environment.

Evolution: This is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations leading to diversity of organisms on earth.

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