Adaptations are the result of the editing process of natural selection.
When exposed to specific environmental pressures, certain inheritable variations favor the reproductive success of some individuals over others. Darwin proposed that cumulative changes in a population over long time spans could produce a new species from an ancestral one. Similarities between two species may be a reflection of their descent from a common ancestor. Differences between species may be the result of natural selection modifying the ancestral equipment in different environmental contexts. Science as a process of inquiry often involves hypothetico-deductive thinking As the science of life, biology has the characteristics associated with science in general.