| The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002. |
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| natural selection |
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| A process fundamental to evolution as described by Charles Darwin. By natural selection, any characteristic of an individual that allows it to survive to produce more offspring will eventually appear in every individual of the species, simply because those members will have more offspring. | 1 |
| ‡ The expression survival of the fittest was used to describe this process in the nineteenth century but is not favored by modern scientists. | 2 |
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| | | The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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