S7L5

S7L5
Students will examine the evolution of living organisms through inherited characteristics that promote survival of organisms and the survival of successive generations of their offspring.
S7L5.a
Explain that physical characteristics of organisms have changed over successive generations (e.g. Darwin’s finches and peppered moths of Manchester).
S7L5.b
Describe ways in which species on earth have evolved due to natural selection.
S7L5.c
Trace evidence that the fossil record found in sedimentary rock provides evidence for the long history of changing life forms.

In behavioral ecology an adaptive behavior is a behavior which contributes directly or indirectly to an individual's survival or reproductive success and is thus subject to the forces of natural selection. Conversely, a non-adaptive behavior is a behavior or trait that is counterproductive to an individual's survival or reproductive success. Adaptations are commonly defined as evolved solutions to recurrent environmental problems of survival and reproduction. Individual differences commonly arise through both heritable and nonheritable adaptive behavior. Both have been proven to be influential in the evolution of species adaptive behaviors, although heritable adaptation remains a controversial subject. When particular genetic sequences change in a population and these changes are inherited across successive generations, this is the stuff of evolution. Evolution is the gradual genetic change of living organisms over time due to ecological pressures they experience. Natural selection is the only directed evolutionary mechanism resulting in conformity between an organism and its environment. This is how adaptations arise and are maintained. Natural selection is truly the fundamental unifying theory for all life. Fossils are preserved impressions in rock that tell us when, where, and how living organisms lived and behaved millions of years ago.