4.4 - Natural Selection

Question 1

What happens in natural selection?

Answer 1

Every population has variation due to random mutations
Some variations make some individuals more likely to survive
Selection pressures (e.g. predators, disease, competition, climate change)
create a struggle for survival
The better adapted individuals have a selective advantage & are more likely
to survive, reproduce & pass on their beneficial alleles
Over many generations the proportion of individuals with the advantageous
allele increases and the species has evolved to adapt to its surroundings