natural selection

noun

a) 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.

b) 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.

See Also: ambidirectional selection, apostatic selection, artificial selection, asexual selection, background selection, balancing selection, compatibility selection, counterselection, deme selection, demic selection, directional selection, disruptive selection, diversifying selection, ecological selection, environmental selection, fecundity selection, frequency-dependent selection, gametic selection, gene selection, genetic selection, genic selection, group selection, hierarchical selection, higher-level selection, individual selection, inevitable selection, interdeme selection, interdemic selection, intergene selection, intergenic selection, intersexual selection, interspecies selection, intrademe selection, intrademic selection, intragene selection, intragenic selection, intrasexual selection, intraspecies selection, kin selection, lower-level selection, multilevel selection, MLS, negative selection, organismal selection, organismic selection, panselectionism, panselectionist, positive selection, purified selection, purifying selection, selectionism, selectionist, sexual selection, simultaneous selection, species selection, stabilizing selection, supraorgamismal selection, survival selection, theory of natural selection, unit of selection, viability selection