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Microevolution: The Role Played By Natural Selection In Evolution

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The Role Played by Natural Selection in Evolution.
Evolution is the progression by which different kinds of living organism are thought to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth, which means it is the process of change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms from one generation to the next; the genes are passed on to the organism's offspring. [2]

Microevolution happens on a small scale (in a single population). Microevolution is a change in gene frequency within a population, it can be observed over short periods of time such as between one generation and the offspring, for example the frequency of a gene for pesticide resistance in a population of crop pests can increase. Such a change might come about …show more content…

All of the changes, diversifications, and extinctions that happened over the course of life's/Earth’s history are the patterns of macroevolution, you cannot observe them but can use other methods to find out about the past and compare it to the current individual. Regardless of their differences, evolution at both levels depends on the same thing, evolutionary change that is mutation. [4]

Mutations in genes can produce new or altered traits in an organism. In sexually reproducing species, new combinations of genes are produced by genetic recombination, like in humans, when the DNA is a mixture of the DNA from the parents. This can increase the variation in traits in an organism. Evolution occurs when these genes become more common or uncommon in a population. [2]

Evolution can also be defined as the change in allele frequency in a population called the gene pool. New alleles are usually generated by mutations in genes; these are changes in the base sequence of DNA that occur during DNA replication. Some individuals are better adapted to the environment, they have an allele that increases their chance of survival, making them more likely to survive, reproduce and pass on their genes to the next generation. So the frequency of the beneficial gene increases from generation to generation. This is the process of natural …show more content…

Charles Darwin came to understand that any population consists of individuals that are all slightly different from one another. Those individuals having a variation that gives them an advantage in staying alive long enough to successfully reproduce are the ones that pass on their traits more frequently to the next generation. Subsequently, their traits become more common and the population evolves. Darwin called this "descent with modification." [3]

Darwin's use of the phrase "survival of the fittest" is often misinterpreted. What makes an individual fit all depends on the environment at the time and the combination of traits that are most suited to flourishing in it. From an evolutionary viewpoint, the fittest individuals are simply the ones who have the combination of traits that allow them to survive and produce more offspring that in turn survive to reproduce.

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Without variation all the generations would stay the same and natural selection would not happen. The changes in phenotype in the next generation is because of the changes in frequency of alleles (or variation). c) This statement is also true. Adaptation is defined as a trait that increases the survival in a particular environment. For example, adaption can happen if a plant is in a cold habitat where there is less precipitation, it can adapt to those circumstances by growing shorter to avoid cold winds and growing longer roots to get more water.

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(R. Bijlsma, 2005). This process is known as genotypic adaptation or evolutionary adaptation. These phenomena are important from an evolutionary perspective. The possible occurrence of evolutionary adaptation and the rate at which it can proceed depends on the presence

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Evolution, in common terms, is descent through genetic inheritance, with change in physical and biological characteristics. Evolutionary theory attempts to explain why we see so many species in world that seem so diverse and yet, have enough similarities that imply a common origin. There are various mechanisms by which evolution occurs, including natural selection, artificial selection, gene drift, etc., but in the end, evolution is process by which every single species that exists today, was derived from the last universal ancestor. This perpetual system of change and advancement, shapes the both the biotic and abiotic aspects of the environment, and results in the creation and advancement of the complex communities that inhabit the biosphere.

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The factors that lead to macroevolution are when microevolution occurs repeatedly over a long period of time and lead to a new species. The other factor is from a major environmental change, such as a volcanic eruption, earthquake, or an asteroid hitting Earth. These result in changes on the environment so much that natural selection leads to large changes result in creation of new species. An example of macroevolution is the evolution of the sirenians. The sirenians are a group of mammals within the placental mammals.

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Organisms can evolve to enhance their ability to catch prey, or flee predators. Coevolution occurs in a predator-prey relationship when the prey evolves in response to pressures exerted by its predator. The predator then evolves in response to the changes in the prey (or vice versa). Inheritable adaptive traits evolve through natural selection, the process by which organisms that have developed favorable traits are capable of surviving and reproducing at greater rates, thus passing their adaptive traits to their offspring. Birds and caterpillars have a predator-prey

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It therefore seems logical to deduce that when species change, each new characteristic would have to develop independently of the other. For example, a cow-like creature changing into a whale, which is one of the proposed changes of evolutionary theory, is not a simple case of one mutation occurring and then all of a sudden a cow gives birth to a whale. A series of changes has to happen - the nostrils would need to fuse together and move back over the head to form a blowhole, the teeth would need to become more simple and peg-like, the snout would have to elongate, the neck shrink, the back become more flexible to aid swimming, the hands become flipper-like, the legs and pelvis reduce and disappear, and the bones become denser. Now, not only is it likely that each positive change is happening independently, but also that each change is gradual, i.e. the neck shrinks in stages, the nostrils move back gradually, etc. Therefore, there are multiple steps of microevolution happening before the macroevolution occurs.

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In Biology Natural Selection is the key process behind the theory of evolution but not the only one. Charles Darwin introduces us first with this important theory of life in earth He conclude that species are specially modified to their environment that’s why they are different. There are four conditions that explain why this happens: 1. Individuals within a population differ.

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Evolution is the process of change over time. It can be split in two questions, how did something living come from something that was not alive? And, how did things that were already living turn into other living things? Natural selection is when the “breeder: is the environment. This belief of natural selection came from Charles Darwin.

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Evolution and natural selection are very closely related. They both are also very important in understanding the human body. Evolution is the changes in the genetic makeup of a population over generations (73). Understanding evolution helps us solve biological problems that impact our lives and those around us. The theory of evolution states that all the lifeforms on earth share a common ancestor as a result of variation and selection over a very long time.

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1.Evolution is a changing process of all life forms, a trial that makes life adapting its living environment for survival. For my perspective, the difference between natural selection and genetic drift is the way of selecting genes. Natural selective is depending on outer environment. In the contrast, Genetic drift happens more randomly during evolution time. For the way of natural selection’s is a kind of adaption for living.

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According to Wikipedia, Evolution is change in the heritable traits of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organization, including the levels of species, individual organisms, and molecules. As the opposition side, we believe evolution is a fiction.

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The first definition I learned of evolution is change over time. The second definition is descent with modification, which simply means passing traits from parents to offspring through generations. The last definition I learned was the change in genetic composition of a population from generation to generation which means that the different genes of organisms are passed on through the generations of one another. These definitions lead to a better understanding because it showed that evolution was not replacing God as the creator, it is simply the change over time. I also learned about the scientist who contributed to evolution, Charles Darwin.

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Evolution, a process that occurs in the ever changing environment in which organisms adapt to their surroundings. Evolution is commonly looked at from two opposing viewpoints, gradualism and punctuated equilibrium. The current debate is which method better explains the way it all comes together. In a nutshell, the punctuated equilibrium theory states that evolutionary change is connected in speciation events, and that most species stay relatively the same once they have come into being. The lack of change over millions of years is referred to as stasis.

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Charles Darwin became famous for his theory of natural selection. This theory suggests that a change in heritability traits takes place in a population over time. This is due to random mutations that occur in the genome of an individual organism, and offspring can inherit these mutations. This was defined as the key to evolution, this is because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual. Until the 19th century, the prevailing view in western societies was that differences between individuals of species were uninteresting departures from their platonic ideals of created kinds.

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