Five Free Evolution Lessons From The Pros
What is Free Evolution?
Free evolution is the concept that natural processes can lead to the development of organisms over time. This includes the creation of new species and change in appearance of existing species.
A variety of examples have been provided of this, including different varieties of stickleback fish that can live in salt or fresh water, and walking stick insect varieties that are attracted to specific host plants. These typically reversible traits cannot explain fundamental changes to the body's basic plans.
Evolution by Natural Selection
The development of the myriad living organisms on Earth is an enigma that has intrigued scientists for centuries. Charles Darwin's natural selection theory is the most well-known explanation. This process occurs when individuals who are better-adapted survive and reproduce more than those who are less well-adapted. As time passes, the number of well-adapted individuals becomes larger and eventually creates an entirely new species.
Natural selection is a cyclical process that is characterized by the interaction of three factors that are inheritance, variation and reproduction. Variation is caused by mutation and sexual reproduction, both of which increase the genetic diversity within an animal species. Inheritance is the transfer of a person's genetic traits to their offspring which includes both recessive and dominant alleles. Reproduction is the process of generating viable, fertile offspring. This can be accomplished via sexual or asexual methods.
All of these elements must be in balance for natural selection to occur. If, for example the dominant gene allele causes an organism reproduce and live longer than the recessive allele, then the dominant allele becomes more common in a population. However, if the allele confers an unfavorable survival advantage or reduces fertility, it will disappear from the population. The process is self-reinforcing, which means that an organism that has an adaptive trait will live and reproduce much more than one with a maladaptive characteristic. The higher the level of fitness an organism has which is measured by its ability to reproduce and survive, is the greater number of offspring it produces. People with good traits, like having a longer neck in giraffes and bright white patterns of color in male peacocks are more likely to survive and produce offspring, so they will make up the majority of the population over time.
Natural selection only affects populations, not individuals. This is a significant distinction from the Lamarckian theory of evolution which claims that animals acquire characteristics by use or inactivity. For example, if a giraffe's neck gets longer through reaching out to catch prey its offspring will inherit a larger neck. The difference in neck size between generations will increase until the giraffe becomes unable to reproduce with other giraffes.

Evolution by Genetic Drift
In genetic drift, the alleles of a gene could reach different frequencies in a population due to random events. At some point, one will attain fixation (become so common that it is unable to be removed by natural selection), while other alleles fall to lower frequencies. This could lead to an allele that is dominant in the extreme. The other alleles are essentially eliminated, and heterozygosity decreases to zero. In a small group this could lead to the complete elimination of the recessive gene. This scenario is known as a bottleneck effect and it is typical of the kind of evolutionary process when a large amount of individuals move to form a new group.
A phenotypic 'bottleneck' can also occur when the survivors of a catastrophe like an outbreak or mass hunt incident are concentrated in the same area. 에볼루션 바카라 무료체험 will have an allele that is dominant and will have the same phenotype. This could be caused by war, earthquakes or even plagues. The genetically distinct population, if it is left vulnerable to genetic drift.
Walsh, Lewens and Ariew define drift as a deviation from expected values due to differences in fitness. They give the famous example of twins who are genetically identical and have exactly the same phenotype. However, one is struck by lightning and dies, but the other is able to reproduce.
This kind of drift can be very important in the evolution of an entire species. This isn't the only method for evolution. Natural selection is the most common alternative, in which mutations and migrations maintain the phenotypic diversity in a population.
Stephens asserts that there is a major distinction between treating drift as a force, or a cause and considering other causes of evolution such as mutation, selection and migration as causes or causes. He claims that a causal mechanism account of drift allows us to distinguish it from these other forces, and this distinction is vital. He further argues that drift has a direction, that is, it tends to eliminate heterozygosity. It also has a size, which is determined by the size of the population.
Evolution through Lamarckism
In high school, students study biology, they are often introduced to the work of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829). His theory of evolution is often called "Lamarckism" and it states that simple organisms develop into more complex organisms via the inherited characteristics that are a result of an organism's natural activities, use and disuse. Lamarckism can be demonstrated by an giraffe's neck stretching to reach higher levels of leaves in the trees. This could result in giraffes passing on their longer necks to offspring, which then get taller.
Lamarck, a French Zoologist from France, presented an idea that was revolutionary in his 17 May 1802 opening lecture at the Museum of Natural History of Paris. He challenged the traditional thinking about organic transformation. According to Lamarck, living creatures evolved from inanimate matter through a series of gradual steps. Lamarck wasn't the only one to make this claim, but he was widely regarded as the first to offer the subject a comprehensive and general treatment.
The dominant story is that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and Lamarckism were competing during the 19th century. Darwinism ultimately won, leading to what biologists call the Modern Synthesis. This theory denies acquired characteristics can be passed down through generations and instead argues that organisms evolve through the selective action of environment elements, like Natural Selection.
에볼루션 바카라 사이트 and his contemporaries supported the idea that acquired characters could be passed on to the next generation. However, this idea was never a major part of any of their theories on evolution. This is due in part to the fact that it was never validated scientifically.
However, it has been more than 200 years since Lamarck was born and in the age genomics, there is a large body of evidence supporting the heritability of acquired characteristics. It is sometimes referred to as "neo-Lamarckism" or, more commonly epigenetic inheritance. It is a version of evolution that is just as valid as the more well-known Neo-Darwinian theory.
Evolution through the process of adaptation
One of the most popular misconceptions about evolution is being driven by a fight for survival. This view is inaccurate and ignores other forces driving evolution. The fight for survival can be more effectively described as a struggle to survive within a specific environment, which could be a struggle that involves not only other organisms but also the physical environment itself.
To understand how evolution operates, it is helpful to understand what is adaptation. Adaptation is any feature that allows a living organism to live in its environment and reproduce. It could be a physiological structure like feathers or fur or a behavior such as a tendency to move into shade in the heat or leaving at night to avoid cold.
The survival of an organism is dependent on its ability to extract energy from the environment and interact with other living organisms and their physical surroundings. The organism needs to have the right genes to generate offspring, and must be able to locate sufficient food and other resources. Furthermore, the organism needs to be capable of reproducing at an optimal rate within its environmental niche.
These factors, together with mutation and gene flow, lead to an alteration in the percentage of alleles (different varieties of a particular gene) in the population's gene pool. This change in allele frequency can result in the emergence of new traits and eventually, new species in the course of time.
Many of the features that we admire in animals and plants are adaptations, like lungs or gills to extract oxygen from the air, fur or feathers to protect themselves and long legs for running away from predators and camouflage to hide. To comprehend adaptation it is essential to distinguish between behavioral and physiological characteristics.
Physical characteristics like the thick fur and gills are physical traits. The behavioral adaptations aren't like the tendency of animals to seek out companionship or move into the shade in hot temperatures. It is important to remember that a the absence of planning doesn't cause an adaptation. Inability to think about the implications of a choice even if it appears to be rational, may make it inflexible.