Glossary

ecological niche

The specific position or function that an organism fills in an ecosystem.

Used in 76 species profiles

adaptive radiation
Speciation of a taxonomic group into several forms, each specialised to fill a previously vacant ecological niche, as exemplified by Rift Lake cichlids, for example.
convergent evolution
Independant acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated, monophyletic, lineages as a result of inhabiting similar environments or ecological niches.
ecosystem
A biological community comprising interacting organisms plus their physical environment.
natural selection
Term introduced by Charles Darwin referring to the nonrandom mechanism of evolution by which certain biological traits become either more or less common in a population due to differential, environmentally-influenced reproduction. Better-adapted individuals tend to produce more offspring, thus the population evolves, and this process can result in populations that gradually become specialised to inhabit particular ecological niches and can eventually result in the emergence of new species.