Lexic.us

Definition of Natural selection

1. Noun. A natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment.

Definition of Natural selection

1. Noun. (context: evolutionary biology) A process by which heritable traits conferring survival and reproductive advantage to individuals, or related individuals, tend to be passed on to succeeding generations and become more frequent in a population, whereas other less favourable traits tend to become eliminated. ¹

2. Noun. (context: quantitative genetics) A process in which individual organisms or phenotypes that possess favourable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce: the differential survival and reproduction of phenotypes. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Medical Definition of Natural selection

1. The hypothesis that genotype environment interactions occurring at the phenotypic level lead to differential reproductive success of individuals and hence to modification of the gene pool of a population. This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Natural Selection

Literary usage of Natural selection

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Harvard Classics by Charles William Eliot (1909)
"CHAPTER IV natural selection; OR THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST natural selection—its power compared with man's selection—its power on characters of trifling ..."

2. Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science (1904)
"If, however, it be so interpreted as to include the full content of Darwinism and the all-sufficiency of natural selection as the prime factor, ..."

3. Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature by H.W. Wilson Company (1916)
"... Mines and mineral resources; Water power natural selection Cannibalism as a factor in natural selection. Did Spencer anticipate Darwin? IW How- erth. ..."

4. The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication by Charles Darwin (1887)
"natural selection, or the, Survival of tlie Fittest, at affecting domestic productions.—WE know little on this head. But as animals kept by savages have to ..."

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