To search for terms starting with a certain letter, click a letter in the bar below.

N

natural selection

The process by which living forms with traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, e.g., predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations.

neo-Darwinism

The merger of classical Darwinian evolution with population genetics.

niche

The specific ecological role that an organism inhabits.