Understand the relationship between natural selection and evolution.

• Describe the contributions of the following individuals to evolutionary thought: Lamarck, Buffon, Wallace, and Darwin.
• List five assumptions by Darwin that were important to his developing the theory of natural selection.

Recognize that evolutionary change is the result of natural selection.

• Describe how the concepts of evolution and natural selection are related.

Understand how natural selection works.

• Explain why genetic diversity is essential for natural selection to occur.
• Describe how individuals produced by sexual reproduction can have fitness different from that of their parents.
• Explain how mutation and migration affect the genetic diversity of a population.
• Explain why excess reproduction is important to the concept of natural selection.
• List and describe three circumstances that can prevent a specific allele from being expressed in the phenotype of an organism.
• Describe common misunderstandings about the nature of natural selection.
• Explain how survival, reproductive success, and mate selection can alter gene frequency from one generation to the next.

Understand that evolution is the process of changing gene frequencies.

• Describe the conditions that can lead to genetic drift.
• Explain how natural selection can change the nature of a species.
• Provide examples that indicate that evolution is occurring.

Recognize the conditions under which the Hardy-Weinberg concept applies.

• List the five conditions necessary to prevent gene frequency changes according to the Hardy-Weinberg concept.
• Explain why Hardy-Weinberg conditions rarely occur.