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Ecological Theory refers to the diverse set of principles and models used in ecology to understand patterns in nature, population dynamics, and the balance of ecosystems. It has origins in various disciplines and is characterized by its varied theoretical approaches, with natural selection being a fundamental concept.
- Species Richness
The species richness of vertebrates recorded in a plant...
- Limnology
Limnology can be defined in several ways, but it is...
- Species Richness
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charles Darwin popularised the term "natural selection", contrasting it with artificial selection, which is ...
Sep 25, 2024 · sexual selection. group selection. Darwinian fitness. natural selection, process that results in the adaptation of an organism to its environment by means of selectively reproducing changes in its genotype, or genetic constitution. A brief treatment of natural selection follows. For full treatment, see evolution: The concept of natural selection.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Teleology and The “Function Compunction”
- Anthropomorphism and Intentionality
- Use and Disuse
- Soft Inheritance
- Nature as A Selecting Agent
- Source Versus Sorting of Variation
- Typological, Essentialist, and Transformationist Thinking
- Events and Absolutes Versus Processes and Probabilities
Much of the human experience involves overcoming obstacles, achieving goals, and fulfilling needs. Not surprisingly, human psychology includes a powerful bias toward thoughts about the “purpose” or “function” of objects and behaviors—what Kelemen and Rosset (2009) dub the “human function compunction.” This bias is particularly strong in children, w...
A related conceptual bias to teleology is anthropomorphism, in which human-like conscious intent is ascribed either to the objects of natural selection or to the process itself (see below). In this sense, anthropomorphic misconceptions can be characterized as either internal (attributing adaptive change to the intentional actions of organisms) or e...
Many students who manage to avoid teleological and anthropomorphic pitfalls nonetheless conceive of evolution as involving change due to use or disuse of organs. This view, which was developed explicitly by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck but was also invoked to an extent by Darwin (1859), emphasizes changes to individual organisms that occur as they use par...
Evolution involving changes in individual organisms, whether based on conscious choice or use and disuse, would require that characteristics acquired during the lifetime of an individual be passed on to offspringFootnote 12, a process often termed “soft inheritance.” The notion that acquired traits can be transmitted to offspring remained a common ...
Thirty years ago, widely respected broadcaster Sir David Attenborough (1979) aptly described the challenge of avoiding anthropomorphic shorthand in descriptions of adaptation: Unlike many authors, Attenborough (1979) admirably endeavored to not use such misleading terminology. However, this quote inadvertently highlights an additional challenge in ...
Intuitive models of evolution based on soft inheritance are one-step models of adaptation: Traits are modified in one generation and appear in their altered form in the next. This is in conflict with the actual two-step process of adaptation involving the independent processes of mutation and natural selection. Unfortunately, many students who esch...
Misunderstandings about how variation arises are problematic, but a common failure to recognize that it plays a role at all represents an even a deeper concern. Since Darwin (1859), evolutionary theory has been based strongly on “population” thinking that emphasizes differences among individuals. By contrast, many naïve interpretations of evolution...
A proper understanding of natural selection recognizes it as a process that occurs within populations over the course of many generations. It does so through cumulative, statistical effects on the proportion of traits differing in their consequences for reproductive success. This contrasts with two major errors that are commonly incorporated into n...
- T. Ryan Gregory
- rgregory@uoguelph.ca
- 2009
Natural selection is a mechanism of evolution. Organisms that are more adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and pass on the genes that aided their success. This process causes species to change and diverge over time. Natural selection is one of the ways to account for the millions of species that have lived on Earth.
Oct 19, 2023 · Natural selection is the process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change. Individuals in a population are naturally variable, meaning that they are all different in some ways. This variation means that some individuals have traits better suited to the environment than others. Individuals with adaptive traits — traits ...
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Abstract. The theory that organisms become adapted to their environment through the process of natural selection has become so ingrained in modern biological thought, and more generally in Western culture of the late 20th century, that it is surely one of the great scientific paradigms of the present era. Evolution and adaptation were both well ...
