Anthony Michael Hall
Mr. Stevenson
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Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations.
Oct 19, 2023 · Natural selection is the process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change. Individuals in a population are naturally variable, meaning that they are all different in some ways. This variation means that some individuals have traits better suited to the environment than others.
May 23, 2024 · natural selection, process that results in the adaptation of an organism to its environment by means of selectively reproducing changes in its genotype, or genetic constitution. A brief treatment of natural selection follows. For full treatment, see evolution: The concept of natural selection.
The mechanism that Darwin proposed for evolution is natural selection. Because resources are limited in nature, organisms with heritable traits that favor survival and reproduction will tend to leave more offspring than their peers, causing the traits to increase in frequency over generations.
Natural selection is one of the basic mechanisms of evolution, along with mutation, migration, and genetic drift. Darwin’s grand idea of evolution by natural selection is relatively simple but often misunderstood. To see how it works, imagine a population of beetles: There is variation in traits.
In natural selection, genetic mutations that are beneficial to an individual's survival are passed on through reproduction. This results in a new generation of organisms that are more likely to survive to reproduce.
Natural selection can act on traits determined by alternative alleles of a single gene, or on polygenic traits (traits determined by many genes). Natural selection on traits determined by multiple genes may take the form of stabilizing selection, directional selection, or disruptive selection.
