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Multiple Levels Of Natural Selection

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Natural selection was first introduced by Charles Darwin; his studies of finches on the Galapagos Islands showed there are six different requirements for natural selection to occur. These requirements are: a population must reproduce, have genetic inheritance, overabundance of offspring, competition for the same resources, and lastly different variants must have different fitness (Berstrom & Dugatkin, 2012). Adaptations which are produced by natural selection, are features of an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment better than if it did not have that feature (Cotner & Moore, 2011). There are multiple levels of taxonomic hierarchy that natural selection affects. These levels include: gene cells, individuals, kin selection, and …show more content…

An example of how natural selection affects the individual level of the taxonomic hierarchy is, if adaptive evolution occurs in an individual over time by natural selection then eventually that individual will influence the entire population (Gordon et al, 2014). For example, if a fish has a mutation that makes its fin bigger than normal that allows it to swim faster, then it’s probably going to survive longer and travel farther than the rest of its population (Morrissey& Ferguson, 2011). Making its chances for mating higher along with finding a better niche to survive. Eventually this mutation will become an adaptation of an entire population making it a normal …show more content…

These groups have roughly about fifty percent of the same genes which allows them to use altruism to have an increased fitness. Kin selection can be predicted well do to the concept Evolutionary Stable Strategies. This theory explains that even within kin selection the gene and individual is still the main concept. By that it’s meant if all the members of a group behavior is altruistic, the best reproductive strategy for one individual organism might be to act selfishly (Wilson &Wilson, 2007). Since that organism would then have an increased fitness, the population would adapt and become over time change their behavior to act individually, which in turn might be a reproductive advantage to act altruistic again (Morgans et al,

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