Natural selection
These adaptations enable a baleen whale to conserve oxygen while underwater. Baleen whales, like other mammals, have a slower heart rate while diving. When diving, blood is shunted away from tissues tolerant of low oxygen levels toward the heart, lungs, and brain, where oxygen is needed most.
traits
a distinguishing quality or characteristic, typically one belonging to a person.
variation
a different version of something
natural selection
nounBIOLOGY
- the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. The theory of its action was first fully expounded by Charles Darwin and is now believed to be the main process that brings about evolution.
charles Darwin
Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.