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Acts to preserve and accumulate minor advantageous genetic mutations
What is Natural Selection?
Natural Selection
The term is often used to refer to both the evolutionary consequence of blind selection and to its mechanisms.[
"survival of the fittest?"
This unbounded population growth resembles a simple geometric series (2-4-8-16-32-64..) and quickly reaches enormous numbers.
As a consequence, there is a "struggle" (metaphorically) to survive and reproduce, in which only a few individuals succeed in leaving progeny.
Organisms show variation in characters that influence their success in this struggle for existence. Individuals within a population vary from one another in many traits
Offspring tend to resemble parents, including in characters that influence success in the struggle to survive and reproduce. Parents possessing certain traits that enable them to survive and reproduce will contribute disproportionately to the offspring that make up the next generation.
Natural Selection is the differential reproduction of genotypes.
During the early and middle 20th Century, genetics became incorporated into evolution, allowing us to define natural selection this way:
Natural Selection Requires...For natural selection to occur, two requirements are essential: 1. There must be heritable variation for some trait. Examples: beak size, color pattern, thickness of skin, fleetness. 2. There must be differential survival and reproduction associated with the possession of that trait. Unless both these requirements are met, adaptation by natural selection cannot occur.
