What is a biological population?
A biological population is a group of organisms of the same species that live in the same geographical area at the same time.
What is evolution?
Evolution is a biological theory that explains how changes in the heritable characteristics of populations over several generations occur because of the expression of genes within the population that are passed on to offspring from the parents during the reproductive process.
What are finches?
Finches consist of several hundred different species of small birds that mainly feed on seeds, although some species are carnivorous.
What is natural selection?
Natural selection, which is a mechanism of evolution, states that those organisms that are best adapted to a specific environment are more likely to succeed in that environment and survive to pass on their genes onto their offspring. The natural selection process causes species to change and diverge over time.
What is an environment?
A biological environment is defined as the external conditions that interact with organisms such as the resources and stimuli in the environment.
What is a variation?
A biological variation is differences between cells, individual organisms, or groups of organisms of species created by genetic differences or due to effects of environmental factors that impact the expression of the genes.
What is a characteristic?
A biological characteristic is a distinguishing trait, feature, or quality of an individual organism.
What is a trait?
A biological trait is a characteristic of an individual organism that is determined by the genes of that organism, environmental factors, or some combination of both. Traits can be qualitative, such as eye color or quantitative, such as body temperature.
What is a mutation?
A mutation is a change in the DNA sequence of an organism. Mutations can result from errors in DNA replication during cell division, exposure to mutagens or a viral infection. Germline mutations (that occur in eggs and sperm) can be passed on to offspring, while somatic mutations (that occur in body cells) are not passed on.
What is competition?
A biological competition is an interaction between organisms or species in which both require a resource that is in limited supply (such as food, water, or territory).
What is an adaptation?
A biological adaptation is the process in which organisms adjust to changes in their current environment or to new environments.
What is a structural adaptation?
Structural adaptations are physical traits that enhance the survival of an organism.
What is a behavioral adaptation?
Behavioral adaptations are actions an organism does to enhance its survival.
What is a selecting agent?
A selecting agent is a change in the environment of an organism that might lead to risks in the survivability of that organism in that specific environment.
What is a selective pressure?
Selective pressure refers to an environmental factor that can change the frequency of a particular trait in a population.
What is migration?
Migration is the movement of an organism or group of organisms from one area to a different area. Migration is typically motivated by the search for food, better conditions, or enhanced reproductive needs.
The Galapagos Islands provide an ideal environment for studying how the survival of some organisms is tied to the availability of certain resources. Get started now investigating how the shape of a bird’s beak impacts the bird’s ultimate survivability.
