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Natural Selection

Natural selection is a function of evolution. It involves biological traits becoming more or less prominent depending on the needs and environment of a specific species.

666 Questions

What is the major difference between social Darwinism and Darwin's idea of survival of the fittest?

The major difference is that social Darwinism applies Darwin's principle of "survival of the fittest" to human society, often to justify competition, inequality, and laissez-faire capitalism, while Darwin's idea itself refers to the natural selection process in the biological realm, where traits beneficial for survival and reproduction are passed on to future generations. Social Darwinism extends this concept to human interactions and societal organization.

How does social darwinism relates to natural selection?

Social Darwinism is a belief system that uses the principles of natural selection to justify social inequality and competition between individuals and groups in society. It draws parallels between the survival of the fittest in the natural world and the "struggle" in human societies. While natural selection explains how traits evolve in a population over time based on their survival and reproductive success, social Darwinism extends these principles to human interactions and societal structures.

When was the theory of natural selection developed?

The theory of natural selection was developed in the middle to late 1800's by a brilliant man by the name of Charles Darwin. Im not sure of an exact date - but his book Origin of Species was published on November 24, 1859. Of course research and speculation were made much earlier in order to come to the conclusion of his theory of Natural selection and evolution being the root of where and how life came to be and progress so diverse. Hope this helps a little...

What are six examples of natural selection?

One classic but hypothetical example is Daisyworld. In this hypothetical model, we envision a planet inhabited by a single species of life, a single population of daisies. These come in two variants: black daisies and white. The colour is a trait that is passed on genetically to offspring. In the model, that star at which the planet revolves is variant, increasing or decreasing in intensity, changing the amount of light/heat the planet is exposed to. Black daisies will absorb more sunlight, increasing temperatures at the planet surface, while white daisies reflect more sunlight, cooling the planet. Theoretically, increasing temperatures should make things uncomfortable for the black daisies, who heat up faster because of their colour, relative to the white daisies, so that when solar luminosity increases, white daisies gain a reproductive advantage over the black daisies.

A similar example but from real life is the evolution of the peppered moth during and after the industrial revolution. Initially, lighter moths and darker moths were in equilibrium, but as the industrial revolution caused soot to stain the surfaces on which moths frequently settle, and predators could more easily distinguish the lighter moths against the darkening surfaces, darker moths gained a reproductive advantage, as they more often survived predation.

Four more findings are:

Herrel, 2008, Rapid large-scale evolutionary divergence in morphology and performance associated with exploitation of a different dietary resource.

This paper describes how in a few short decades a population of lizards transported to a different environment gained different morphological features by adapting to its new habitat.

Rolshausen, 2009, Contemporary evolution of reproductive isolation and phenotypic divergence in sympatry along a migratory divide.

This paper describes how the interaction between migratory flocks and human settlements is causing a speciation event to occur between flocks that migrate along routes including cities, and those migrating away from cities.

Lenski, 1989, Long-Term Experimental Evolution in Escherichia coli. I. Adaptation and Divergence During 2,000 Generations.

This paper describes morphological changes and associated increased in fitness during the experimental evolution of E. coli populations.

Byrne, 1999, Culex pipiens in London Underground tunnels: differentiation between surface and subterranean populations.

Describes the divergence between above-ground populations of mosquito and populations living in the London Underground, leading to the emergence of a new species.

Can RNA undergo natural selection and evolve?

If RNA is used as a genetic molecule, passing traits from parent to offspring, then it is subject to natural selection.

This only happens in a number of viruses and very few bacteria, though: most organisms use DNA as their genetic molecule.

When will natural selection favor altruism?

Altruism is basically when a member sacrifices itself for the well being of the population. If the population that was protected has favorable traits, they will be naturally selected for and over generations become dominant in the population. If they weren't protected, the population could die out.

Why Over time why does natural selection continue to work?

Natural selection creates a stronger species that is able to live longer and produce more. It continues to work because after a few generations, the traits will become common in the population.

Is the monopoly contrary to the precepts of Darwinism?

Well, first of all, Darwinism doesn't really have precepts: it's a description for how things are in nature, not a set of instructions for how we should do things.

In Darwinism, too little variation has the effect of endangering the reproductive fitness of populations. Too little variation means that a population might not be able to adapt when the circumstances change. There would seem to be some similarities between our global economy and ecology. Certainly, if one values a robust and sound economy, one would prevent monopolies from gaining so much influence that their demise cripples the economy.

On the other hand, those who make the mistake of promoting Social Darwinism, committing the naturalistic fallacy, might argue that as only the strongest survive, monopolies are a natural and thus desireable consequence of the free market.

What does possible selection words?

Hi I am a 4th grader and possible selection words are for you to look for more words with ar,er,or and other stuffs

What explains natural selection?

I'm sure Darwin has a much better technical explaination but after all is said and done it simply means: The weak and stupid die at a much faster rate than the strong and intelligent.

What role does the environment play natural selection?

toilet paper...... just kidding it helps the plants grow and people live

Why must there be Variation in the population in order for natural selection?

Without the subtle differences on organisms phenotypes what would natural selection select from?

All organisms in a population are variants and some survive and reproduce better than other against the background of the immediate environment and these are selected by that environmental pressure.

How does overpopulation affect natural selection?

Natural selection is the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations.

lions of years.

Which mutations are not subject to natural selection?

There are on the chromosomes stretches of DNA that do nothing. Their only purpose is provide matching stretches so the chromosomes match-up during fertilization. In here mutations occur but have no 'large' effect on the phenotype of the life-form. (If enough of them occur then the chromosome become of a different length and certain mating pairs can no longer match-up, but that takes a while to get a difference in length that really matters.)

Geneticists use these stretches and the changes in them to track evolutionary path-ways.

Is natural selection same as survival of the fittest?

According to evolutionary theory, natural selection is the principle that directs evolution.

What is natural selection and does it contradict creation?

Natural selection is the driving force behind evolution, and an observable fact about nature. It is how species adapt to their environment in congress with spontaneous genetic mutation and other evolutionary mechanisms.

Does it contradict with creation? Depends what you mean by creation.

Darwin believed in a creator, he talked about "the creator" in the first book about evolution On The Origin Of Species. But unlike the average christian who believes god created all life as-is in one week, he believed a god (not neccesarily the god of any one religion) created the simplest form of microscopic life, and all life evolved from there.

That life evolved gradually, that all life has a common line of descent or "family tree" etc, are all widely accepted as fact by scientists and has been conclusively demonstrated through the fossil record and genetics.

Interestingly the bible does not just give the standard "god made everything in six days" creation account, in the first two chapters of genesis it gives two accounts, one says god created the plants and the animals, the other says he let the earth do it.

This is not an explicit mention of darwinian evolution, more likely a reference to the ancient concept that the earth can produce life, whether that ability is god-given or not.

A Somewhat More Technical Answer Natural Selection, at its most basic, is simply differential reproductive success. If I possess a variant of a heritable trait that allows me to raise more offspring successfully than those with other variants of that trait, my variant will become more common in the population. This is not an assumption or theoretical proposition. It is a logical, observable, reproducible, demographic fact. As such, it cannot contradict creation because creation says nothing about natural selection. If anything, creation contradicts the concept of common descent,which is another part of the general theory of evolution. A more general answer Natural selection, in its original form, was merely the theory that organisms will gradually change over time because of factors in the organism's environment. For example, if two groups of a particular kind of organism find themselves in different environments - say that one group is placed in an area with one kind of predator and the other groups is placed in an environment with a different predator - the two groups will eventually change on a biological level to have different characteristics which help defend them against the particular predator they face. If they change sufficiently enough, the two groups will no longer be able to interbreed, and will become separate species.

What is a natural selection results?

Adaptions that lead to greater survivability and reproductive success in the immediate environment of the individual organisms under selection pressure.

How does heritability affect natural selection?

Without the heritability of individual traits what difference would it make if the individual was selected. An individual that has a germ line mutation, say, and this mutation could confer survivability and reproductive success on progeny thus passes this mutation to said offspring is selected. Then evolution, the change in allele frequency over time in a population of organisms, could take place. Heritability is all as individuals are selected but populations evolve.

How does natural selection work in the environment?

Some individual organisms are better equipped to live and reproduce in their environment than others. If what makes them better equipped is heritable, their offspring will be more numerous and will tend to inherit the same traits or qualities themselves. The opposite will happen to those poorly equipped. They will have fewer or no offspring, and their negative traits will tend to disappear from the population as time goes on. These two tendencies are called positive (natural) selection and negative (natural) selection respectively. Natural selection is always relative to the environment. What is advantageous in one environment may not be so in another, and what is disadvantageous (deleterious) in one environment may not be so in another.

What is the main similarity between the process if artificial selection and natural selection?

The similarity between artificial and natural selection is that they are both weeding out unfavorable traits for favorable traits to be well equipped for survival.

What is the key to natural selection?

successful reproduction

that makes sense because with out reproduction they're wouldn't be anyone else there besides the thing that tried to reproduce dies