Marginal distribution (biology)

Ok, so let's say you have a bunch of animals living in a forest. You want to know how many of each type of animal you have, like how many rabbits, deer, and bears there are. But it's really hard to count all the animals at once because they move around a lot and it's too hard to keep track of them all.

So, what you can do instead is look at smaller areas within the forest, like a square that's just big enough to fit one animal. Then you count how many rabbits, deer, and bears are in each square. This gives you a little picture of what types of animals you have in each part of the forest.

This little picture is called the marginal distribution. It tells you how many of each type of animal you have in each part of the forest, without having to count all the animals at once. So, it's like looking at a piece of the bigger picture, but a piece that is easier to understand.