What are evolutionary processes?

Evolutionary processes are how living things change and improve over time, just like how you learn new skills or grow taller.

Imagine you have a bag full of different kinds of shapes, circles, squares, triangles. Now, every day, you pick out the shapes that look most like a star, and you put them back in the bag. The other shapes you leave out. Over time, the shapes in your bag start to look more and more like stars. That’s kind of how evolutionary processes work, living things change little by little because some traits help them survive better.

Think of a group of butterflies. Some have wings that are really good at hiding from birds, and others don’t. The butterflies with the best camouflage are more likely to live long enough to have babies. Their babies get some of their special trait, good hiding skills, so over many generations, the whole group gets better at hiding.

It's like when you practice drawing every day. You start off making crooked lines, but after a while, your drawings look much better, just like how butterflies get better at hiding.