AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The theory of natural selection was explored by 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin. Natural selection explains how genetic traits of a species may change over time. This may lead to speciation, the formation of a distinct new species.

Detailed explanation-2: -"Variation is a feature of natural populations and every population produces more progeny than its environment can manage. The consequences of this overproduction is that those individuals with the best genetic fitness for the environment will produce offspring that can more successfully compete in that environment.

Detailed explanation-3: -The mechanism that Darwin proposed for evolution is natural selection. Because resources are limited in nature, organisms with heritable traits that favor survival and reproduction will tend to leave more offspring than their peers, causing the traits to increase in frequency over generations.

Detailed explanation-4: -Darwin’s theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism’s ability to adapt to its environment. He set these theories forth in his book The Origin of Species (1859).