Terms & Definitions
- carnivore
- meat-eating animals
- deciduous
- bushes and trees that shed their leaves at the end of a growing season
- ecosystem
- a natural arrangement of living organisms interacting within their physical environment to create a stable system
- endangered
- in danger of extinction throughout (all or a significant portion of) its range if current trends affecting its population continue
- environment
- the external surroundings in which an organism lives
- equilibrium
- a state of balance between opposing forces or influences
- evolution
- changes in organisms through successive generations that allow new species to develop
- exploitation
- over use of a natural resource for one's own profit or advantage
- extinction
- the loss of an entire species so there are no living members
- gene pool
- the total number of genes or genetic information possessed by all the reproductive members of a species
- herbivore
- plant-eating animals
- lineage
- a direct descendent from an ancestor; ancestry
- niche
- the functional position of an organism in its environment
- species
- a group of organisms that closely resembles one another, that breeds under natural conditions, and produces fertile offspring
- threatened
- any species likely to become endangered in all or a significant portion of its range
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