A Guide To Free Evolution From Beginning To End

What is Free Evolution?

Free evolution is the concept that natural processes can cause organisms to develop over time. This includes the appearance and growth of new species.

Many examples have been given of this, including various varieties of stickleback fish that can be found in fresh or salt water and walking stick insect varieties that prefer particular host plants. These reversible traits are not able to explain fundamental changes to the basic body plan.

Evolution by Natural Selection

Scientists have been fascinated by the evolution of all the living organisms that inhabit our planet for centuries. Charles Darwin's natural selectivity is the best-established explanation. This is because those who are better adapted have more success in reproduction and survival than those who are less well-adapted. As time passes, a group of well-adapted individuals increases and eventually becomes a new species.

Natural selection is an ongoing process and involves the interaction of three factors: variation, reproduction and inheritance. Variation is caused by mutations and sexual reproduction both of which increase the genetic diversity within an animal species. Inheritance refers to the transmission of a person’s genetic traits, which include recessive and dominant genes to their offspring. Reproduction is the process of producing viable, fertile offspring. This can be achieved through sexual or asexual methods.

All of these variables must be in balance for natural selection to occur. For example the case where the dominant allele of a gene can cause an organism to live and reproduce more frequently than the recessive one, the dominant allele will be more common within the population. However, if the allele confers a disadvantage in survival or reduces fertility, it will disappear from the population. The process is self-reinforced, meaning that an organism with a beneficial characteristic can reproduce and survive longer than an individual with an inadaptive trait. The more offspring an organism can produce the better its fitness, which is measured by its capacity to reproduce itself and survive. People with good characteristics, such as a long neck in the giraffe, or bright white patterns on male peacocks are more likely to others to reproduce and survive which eventually leads to them becoming the majority.

Natural selection is only a factor in populations and not on individuals. This is a significant distinction from the Lamarckian evolution theory which holds that animals acquire traits either through the use or absence of use. For instance, if the animal's neck is lengthened by reaching out to catch prey its offspring will inherit a longer neck. The length difference between generations will persist until the giraffe's neck gets so long that it can no longer breed with other giraffes.

Evolution by Genetic Drift

In genetic drift, the alleles of a gene could be at different frequencies in a group by chance events. Eventually, only one will be fixed (become common enough to no longer be eliminated by natural selection) and the other alleles drop in frequency. This can lead to a dominant allele at the extreme. The other alleles are basically eliminated and heterozygosity has diminished to zero. In a small group it could result in the complete elimination the recessive gene. This is known as the bottleneck effect and is typical of an evolutionary process that occurs whenever an enormous number of individuals move to form a group.

A phenotypic  bottleneck can also occur when the survivors of a disaster like an outbreak or mass hunt incident are concentrated in an area of a limited size. The survivors will share a dominant allele and thus will have the same phenotype. This situation might be caused by war, an earthquake or even a disease. Whatever the reason the genetically distinct group that is left might be susceptible to genetic drift.

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

This kind of drift can be very important in the evolution of a species. This isn't the only method of evolution. Natural selection is the primary alternative, where mutations and migration keep the phenotypic diversity in the population.

Stephens argues that there is a significant difference between treating the phenomenon of drift as a force or a cause and considering other causes of evolution such as mutation, selection, and migration as forces or causes. He claims that a causal-process explanation of drift lets us separate it from other forces and this distinction is crucial. He also argues that drift has a direction, that is it tends to reduce heterozygosity. He also claims that it also has a magnitude, that is determined by the size of population.

Evolution by Lamarckism

When high school students take biology classes, they are frequently introduced to the work of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829). His theory of evolution, also referred to as "Lamarckism which means that simple organisms develop into more complex organisms adopting traits that result from the organism's use and misuse. Lamarckism is typically illustrated with the image of a giraffe stretching its neck longer to reach higher up in the trees. This would cause the longer necks of giraffes to be passed onto their offspring who would grow taller.

Lamarck was a French Zoologist. In his opening lecture for his course on invertebrate zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris on the 17th of May in 1802, he introduced a groundbreaking concept that radically challenged previous thinking about organic transformation. According to him living things had evolved from inanimate matter through a series of gradual steps. Lamarck was not the only one to suggest that this might be the case but the general consensus is that he was the one giving the subject his first comprehensive and thorough treatment.

The most popular story is that Lamarckism became an opponent to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and both theories battled it out in the 19th century. Darwinism eventually prevailed and led to the development of what biologists call the Modern Synthesis. This theory denies acquired characteristics can be passed down through generations and instead, it claims that organisms evolve through the selective influence of environmental factors, such as Natural Selection.

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

But it is now more than 200 years since Lamarck was born and in the age genomics, there is a large amount of evidence to support the heritability of acquired traits. This is sometimes called "neo-Lamarckism" or more frequently epigenetic inheritance. It is a version of evolution that is just as valid as the more popular neo-Darwinian model.

Evolution by the process of adaptation

One of the most common misconceptions about evolution is that it is being driven by a struggle for survival. In fact, this view misrepresents natural selection and ignores the other forces that drive evolution. The struggle for existence is more accurately described as a struggle to survive in a certain environment. This can include not only other organisms but also the physical surroundings themselves.

Understanding adaptation is important to understand evolution. The term "adaptation" refers to any characteristic that allows living organisms to live in its environment and reproduce. It could be a physical structure such as feathers or fur. It could also be a behavior trait such as moving towards shade during the heat, or moving out to avoid the cold at night.

An organism's survival depends on its ability to obtain energy from the environment and interact with other organisms and their physical environments. The organism must have the right genes to produce offspring and be able find enough food and resources. The organism should also be able to reproduce itself at an amount that is appropriate for its particular niche.

These factors, together with gene flow and mutations can cause a shift in the proportion of different alleles in the gene pool of a population. Over time, this change in allele frequencies could result in the emergence of new traits and ultimately new species.

Many of the characteristics we admire in animals and plants are adaptations, for example, lungs or gills to extract oxygen from the air, feathers or fur to provide insulation, long legs for running away from predators, and camouflage to hide. However, a complete understanding of adaptation requires paying attention to the distinction between the physiological and behavioral traits.

에볼루션 무료체험  like thick fur and gills are physical characteristics. Behavior adaptations aren't like the tendency of animals to seek out companionship or retreat into shade in hot temperatures. It is also important to note that lack of planning does not cause an adaptation. In fact, a failure to think about the consequences of a choice can render it ineffective even though it may appear to be logical or even necessary.