Natural Selection In Charles Darwin's Theory Of Evolution

When competing, and scientifically similar papers made observations about existing natural populations and compared those observations to specimens found within the fossil record Charles Darwin, and A. Russell Wallace, each described their version of natural selection, and how 5 key observations provided strong evidence of evolution. When Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was published in 1859, natural selection was an explanation of how the survival of the fittest applies. (Biology Department, 2016)

Natural selection is a complex combination of a species genetics and its external environment where phenotypes needed in the past to survive, may not be beneficial in the current environment. As minute alterations to genetics accumulate overtime,

This bottleneck leads to a founder event, where the smaller surviving population becomes the basis for future generation. This founding populations genetic variability is a consequence of chance events, which could be a natural disaster, sudden change in environmental conditions, or disease. Depending on the size of the founding population, fixation of specific genotypes, or alleles can occur. These founder events are viewed as having a negative effect on species, due to the Heterozygosity being greatly reduced.

Since species are constantly undergoing forms of natural selection in order to adapt to a changing environment, genetic drift can have the most profound, and rapid impact on a species. Although natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive, it has an overarching view to have positive impacts on populations. In comparison, genetic drift can have positive, negative or neutral impacts on a species, since the genetic diversity, and allele frequency is a result of chance random

Conservation biologists tasked with the recovery of a species from a small founding population will work to save a species from extinction, with a fundamental requirement to maintain genetic diversity. To increase population size, conservation biologist may not consider or understand the future impact of negative alleles. If a recessive allele does get flagged as being negative for the future population, the allele could be strategically reduced, in hopes that it would benefit the population as a whole. These artificial selections may not have wide impact, but until a population is in the wild it may not be fully understood. Artificial selection is generally avoided. (Hunter and Gibbs, 2009)

When a population of a species is reintroduced to the environment after a captive breeding program, it will encounter and undergo natural selection. Diseases that affect the animal may be out in the environment, and could result in further population reductions. Strategies need to be put in place in order to monitor the growth and health of these populations. (Hillman and Carpenter,