There s A Good And Bad About Free Evolution
What is Free Evolution?
Free evolution is the notion that natural processes can cause organisms to develop over time. This includes the evolution of new species and alteration of the appearance of existing species.
This has been demonstrated by numerous examples of stickleback fish species that can be found in salt or fresh water, and walking stick insect varieties that prefer specific host plants. These reversible traits can't, however, be the reason for fundamental changes in body plans.
Evolution by Natural Selection
Scientists have been fascinated by the development of all living creatures that live on our planet for ages. The most widely accepted explanation is that of Charles Darwin's natural selection, 에볼루션 카지노 사이트 an evolutionary process that occurs when individuals that are better adapted survive and reproduce more successfully 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 a cyclical process that is characterized by the interaction of three elements that are inheritance, variation and reproduction. Variation is caused by mutation and sexual reproduction both of which increase the genetic diversity of an animal species. Inheritance is the passing of a person's genetic characteristics to the offspring of that person which includes both dominant and recessive alleles. Reproduction is the process of producing viable, fertile offspring. This can be achieved via sexual or asexual methods.
All of these elements must be in harmony to allow natural selection to take place. For example, if an allele that is dominant at one gene allows an organism to live and reproduce more often than the recessive allele, the dominant allele will become more prevalent within the population. However, if the gene confers an unfavorable survival advantage or decreases fertility, it will disappear from the population. The process is self reinforcing which means that the organism with an adaptive trait will live and reproduce far more effectively than one with a maladaptive characteristic. The greater an organism's fitness, measured by its ability reproduce and endure, is the higher number of offspring it can produce. Individuals with favorable traits, like a long neck in giraffes, or bright white patterns on male peacocks are more likely to others to survive and reproduce and eventually lead to them becoming the majority.
Natural selection is an element in the population and not on individuals. This is a major distinction from the Lamarckian evolution theory which holds that animals acquire traits either through usage or inaction. For instance, if a giraffe's neck gets longer through stretching to reach prey, its offspring will inherit a more long neck. The difference in neck length between generations will continue until the neck of the giraffe becomes too long that it can no longer breed with other giraffes.
Evolution by Genetic Drift
In genetic drift, the alleles of a gene could attain different frequencies within a population through random events. In the end, one will attain fixation (become so common that it cannot be removed through natural selection) and other alleles fall to lower frequency. This could lead to a dominant allele in the extreme. The other alleles are essentially eliminated, and heterozygosity falls to zero. In a small group this could lead to the complete elimination of the recessive gene. This is known as the bottleneck effect. It is typical of an evolution process that occurs when the number of individuals migrate to form a group.
A phenotypic bottleneck could occur when the survivors of a catastrophe like an epidemic or mass hunting event, are concentrated into a small area. The surviving individuals will be largely homozygous for the dominant allele, meaning that they all share the same phenotype and consequently share the same fitness characteristics. This can be caused by earthquakes, war or even a plague. Whatever the reason the genetically distinct population that is left might be susceptible to genetic drift.
Walsh Lewens and Ariew employ a "purely outcome-oriented" definition of drift as any departure from the expected values of variations in fitness. They cite a famous example of twins that are genetically identical and have the exact same phenotype but one is struck by lightening and dies while the other lives and reproduces.
This kind of drift could play a significant part in the evolution of an organism. It's not the only method for evolution. Natural selection is the most common alternative, where mutations and migrations maintain the phenotypic diversity in a population.
Stephens argues there is a significant distinction between treating drift as an agent or cause and treating other causes such as selection mutation and migration as forces and causes. He argues that a causal mechanism account of drift allows us to distinguish it from these other forces, and that this distinction is crucial. He argues further that drift has a direction, i.e., it tends towards eliminating heterozygosity. It also has a size, 무료 에볼루션 에볼루션 코리아 (Simsworkshop.Net) which is determined by population size.
Evolution by Lamarckism
Students of biology in high school are often introduced to Jean-Baptiste Lemarck's (1744-1829) work. His theory of evolution is commonly called "Lamarckism" and it asserts that simple organisms evolve into more complex organisms through the inheritance of traits that are a result of the organism's natural actions, use and disuse. Lamarckism can be demonstrated by an giraffe's neck stretching to reach higher branches in the trees. This causes giraffes' longer necks to be passed onto their offspring who would then become taller.
Lamarck 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 conventional wisdom on organic transformation. According to Lamarck, living things evolved from inanimate matter by a series of gradual steps. Lamarck wasn't the first to propose this but he was regarded as the first to offer the subject a comprehensive and general treatment.
The most popular story is that Lamarckism grew into a rival to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, and that the two theories fought it out in the 19th century. Darwinism eventually won and led to the development of what biologists now call the Modern Synthesis. This theory denies acquired characteristics can be passed down through generations and instead argues organisms evolve by the influence of environment factors, including Natural Selection.
Although Lamarck believed in the concept of inheritance by acquired characters and his contemporaries spoke of this idea, it was never a central element in any of their theories about evolution. This is largely due to the fact that it was never tested scientifically.
It's been over 200 year since Lamarck's birth and in the field of genomics, there is an increasing body of evidence that supports the heritability of acquired traits. This is sometimes referred to as "neo-Lamarckism" or, more frequently epigenetic inheritance. This is a variant that is as reliable as the popular Neodarwinian model.
Evolution by Adaptation
One of the most common misconceptions about evolution is being driven by a struggle to survive. This view is inaccurate and ignores other forces driving evolution. The fight for survival is better described as a struggle to survive in a certain environment. This could include not just other organisms, but also the physical environment.
Understanding adaptation is important to understand evolution. It refers to a specific feature that allows an organism to survive and reproduce within its environment. It can be a physical feature, like feathers or fur. Or it can be a characteristic of behavior, like moving towards shade during the heat, or escaping the cold at night.
The capacity of an organism to extract energy from its surroundings and interact with other organisms as well as their physical environment is essential to its survival. The organism must have the right genes for producing offspring, and be able to find enough food and resources. In addition, the organism should be able to reproduce itself at a high rate within its niche.
These factors, together with mutations and gene flow, can lead to an alteration in the ratio of different alleles within the population's gene pool. This change in allele frequency could lead to the development of novel traits and eventually, new species over time.
Many of the characteristics we admire in plants and animals are adaptations. For instance the lungs or gills which extract oxygen from air, fur and feathers as insulation, long legs to run away from predators and camouflage to conceal. To understand adaptation it is crucial to differentiate between physiological and behavioral traits.
Physiological adaptations, such as the thick fur or gills are physical traits, while behavioral adaptations, like the tendency to search for companions or to retreat to shade in hot weather, aren't. It is important to remember that a insufficient planning does not cause an adaptation. In fact, a failure to consider the consequences of a choice can render it unadaptive even though it appears to be logical or even necessary.