Evolution Flashcards
What are the 4 postulates of evolution by natural selection?
- Individuals within species are variable
- Some of the variations are passed on to offspring
- In most generations, more offspring are produced than can survive.
- Survival and reproduction are not random: individuals with the highest reproductive success are those with the most favourable variations
What does natural selection produce?
Descent with modification
Why are individuals within species variable?
Because of mutation creating new alleles and subsequent shuffling of alleles
Why are some of the variations passed on to the offsprings?
Genes are passed on to offspring intact and often independently of other genes
Why does evolution occur?
Change in allele frequencies
What leads to speciation?
Divergence of population
What is the difference between natural selection and evolution?
NS acts on the variation in population
Evolution happens due to allele frequency changing
What is the modern evolutionary synthesis?
Union of ideas from several biological specialties which provides a widely accepted account of evolution. It
What does selection act on?
phenotypes
What does selection influence?
Allele frequency
What does selection operate on?
-Allele in relation to their average distribution to their transmission
What does genetic variation promote?
Phenotypic variation
What does selection try to do?
Remove less fit variants or increase variants with greater fitness
