5. Free Evolution Projects For Any Budget

What is Free Evolution?

Free evolution is the idea that the natural processes that organisms go through can lead to their development over time. This includes the evolution of new species and the alteration of the appearance of existing species.

A variety of examples have been provided of this, including various varieties of fish called sticklebacks that can live in either salt or fresh water, and walking stick insect varieties that prefer specific host plants. These mostly reversible trait permutations, 에볼루션 블랙잭바카라 (new content from Voobrajulya) however, cannot explain fundamental changes in body plans.

Evolution through Natural Selection

The development of the myriad living organisms on Earth is an enigma that has intrigued scientists for decades. Charles Darwin's natural selection is the best-established explanation. This happens when individuals who are better-adapted survive and reproduce more than those who are less well-adapted. Over time, a population of well-adapted individuals expands and eventually forms a whole new species.

Natural selection is an ongoing process and involves the interaction of three factors including reproduction, variation and inheritance. Sexual reproduction and mutations increase genetic diversity in an animal species. Inheritance refers to the passing of a person's genetic characteristics to the offspring of that person which includes both recessive and dominant alleles. Reproduction is the generation of fertile, viable offspring, which includes both sexual and asexual methods.

Natural selection is only possible when all the factors are in equilibrium. For instance the case where the dominant allele of a gene can cause an organism to live and reproduce more often than the recessive allele, the dominant allele will be more prominent within the population. But if the allele confers a disadvantage in survival or reduces fertility, it will disappear from the population. This process is self-reinforcing meaning that a species that has a beneficial trait can reproduce and survive longer than one with an unadaptive characteristic. The more offspring an organism produces, the greater its fitness which is measured by its ability to reproduce itself and live. People with good characteristics, like longer necks in giraffes and bright white patterns of color in male peacocks are more likely to survive and produce offspring, so they will become the majority of the population in the future.

Natural selection is only a force for populations, not on individual organisms. This is a major distinction from the Lamarckian theory of evolution which claims that animals acquire traits through use or neglect. If a giraffe stretches its neck in order to catch prey and its neck gets longer, then the offspring will inherit this characteristic. The differences in neck size between generations will continue to grow until the giraffe is no longer able to reproduce with other giraffes.

Evolution by Genetic Drift

Genetic drift occurs when alleles of a gene are randomly distributed in a group. At some point, only one of them will be fixed (become widespread enough to not longer be eliminated by natural selection), and the rest of the alleles will drop in frequency. In extreme cases it can lead to one allele dominance. The other alleles are eliminated, and heterozygosity falls to zero. In a small population this could lead to the complete elimination the recessive gene. This is known as a bottleneck effect and it is typical of the kind of evolutionary process when a lot of people migrate to form a new group.

A phenotypic bottleneck could occur when the survivors of a catastrophe, such as an epidemic or a mass hunting event, are condensed in a limited area. The survivors will be largely homozygous for the dominant allele which means they will all share the same phenotype and therefore have the same fitness characteristics. This can be caused by war, earthquakes or even plagues. Whatever the reason, the genetically distinct population that remains is susceptible to genetic drift.

Walsh, Lewens and Ariew define drift as a deviation from the expected value due to differences in fitness. They cite the famous example of twins who are genetically identical and share the same phenotype. However one is struck by lightning and 에볼루션 룰렛 dies, whereas the other is able to reproduce.

This kind of drift can play a significant part in the evolution of an organism. However, it is not the only way to progress. The primary alternative is to use a process known as natural selection, where the phenotypic variation of the population is maintained through mutation and migration.

Stephens asserts that there is a vast difference between treating drift like an actual cause or force, and treating other causes like migration and selection mutation as causes and forces. Stephens claims that a causal process account of drift allows us to distinguish it from these other forces, and this distinction is crucial. He argues further that drift has both an orientation, i.e., it tends towards eliminating heterozygosity. It also has a size, which is determined based on population size.

Evolution through Lamarckism

When students in high school take biology classes, they are frequently introduced to the work of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829). His theory of evolution is often referred to as "Lamarckism" and it states that simple organisms grow into more complex organisms via the inheritance of characteristics that result from an organism's natural activities, use and disuse. Lamarckism is typically illustrated by an image of a giraffe extending its neck further to reach higher up in the trees. This could result in giraffes passing on their longer necks to their offspring, who would then get taller.

Lamarck was a French zoologist and, in his lecture to begin his course on invertebrate Zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris on 17 May 1802, he introduced an original idea that fundamentally challenged previous thinking about organic transformation. According to Lamarck, living creatures evolved from inanimate materials by a series of gradual steps. Lamarck was not the first to make this claim however he was widely regarded as the first to offer the subject a thorough and general overview.

The prevailing story is that Lamarckism grew into a rival to Charles Darwin's theory of evolutionary natural selection and that the two theories fought out in the 19th century. Darwinism ultimately prevailed and led to what biologists call the Modern Synthesis. The theory argues that acquired traits can be passed down through generations and instead, it claims that organisms evolve through the selective action of environment factors, including Natural Selection.

Lamarck and his contemporaries supported the idea that acquired characters could be passed on to future generations. However, this concept was never a major part of any of their theories on evolution. This is due to the fact that it was never scientifically tested.

It has been more than 200 year since Lamarck's birth and in the field of age genomics, there is a growing evidence base that supports the heritability acquired characteristics. This is often called "neo-Lamarckism" or more commonly epigenetic inheritance. This is a version that is as valid as the popular Neodarwinian model.

Evolution through the process of adaptation

One of the most common misconceptions about evolution is being driven by a struggle to survive. This view misrepresents natural selection and ignores the other forces that are driving evolution. The fight for survival is better described as a struggle to survive in a specific environment. This may include not only other organisms but also the physical environment.

To understand how evolution operates, it is helpful to think about what adaptation is. The term "adaptation" refers to any characteristic that allows a living organism to survive in its environment and reproduce. It can be a physiological feature, 에볼루션코리아 like feathers or fur or a behavior such as a tendency to move into shade in the heat or leaving at night to avoid the cold.

An organism's survival depends on its ability to draw energy from the environment and interact with other organisms and their physical environments. The organism needs to have the right genes to generate offspring, and it should be able to locate enough food and other resources. The organism should also be able reproduce at the rate that is suitable for its particular niche.

These factors, together with mutations and gene flow can cause changes in the proportion of different alleles in the gene pool of a population. The change in frequency of alleles could lead to the development of new traits and eventually new species in the course of time.

Many of the characteristics we find appealing in plants and animals are adaptations. For instance the lungs or gills which extract oxygen from the air feathers and fur as insulation, long legs to run away from predators, and camouflage to hide. To understand adaptation, it is important to distinguish between behavioral and physiological characteristics.

Physical characteristics like thick fur and gills are physical characteristics. Behavioral adaptations are not an exception, for instance, the tendency of animals to seek companionship or move into the shade in hot temperatures. Additionally, it is important to understand that a lack of forethought does not make something an adaptation. In fact, failure to consider the consequences of a behavior can make it unadaptive, despite the fact that it might appear logical or even necessary.