• Question: what is natural selection and examples ?

    Asked by anon-217277 to Savannah on 10 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Savannah Clawson

      Savannah Clawson answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      This is more of a biology question so I am not really qualified to talk about it – I’ll do my best to answer anyway 🙂

      Natural selection occurs when a characteristic appears in a species that makes it more likely to survive than if it did not have this characteristic. That is basically all there is to it. This normally happens through a mutation in the DNA of one animal that may or may not get passed on to its offspring – the process itself is very random but because the animals with this mutation are more likely to survive, this random mutation has a higher chance of being passed on than not.

      Giraffes are thought to be an example of natural selection – the giraffes with the longest necks could reach the higher leaves in the trees and therefore had more available food. Over time, all giraffes evolved to have long necks because the ones with shorter necks could not access as much food and would die before they could pass on their genes! Perhaps the most famous examples of natural selection and evolution are the Galapagos finches that Charles Darwin wrote about. The Galapagos are a series of islands off the coast of Ecuador in South America. The same type of bird looks a bit different on each island because they have all evolved to best suit the island that they live on.

Comments

  • Photo: Dave

    Dave commented on :

    Just to add savannah’s excellent answer. When thinking about natural selection you may have heard the term survival of the fittest – well that is wrong, it is best to think ‘survival of the best fit’ – the creature that is able to exploit their environment most successfully will survive and reproduce more effectively – over time the genetic make up of the population will change until we have a new species or even genus. The idea is that nature itself selects those that are best adapted to it.

  • Photo: anon-217182

    anon-217182 commented on :

    Natural selection is a process by which a species changes over time in response to changes in the environment, or competition between organisms, in order for the species to survive. The members of the species with the most desirable characteristics are able to produce the best-adapted offspring.Some example include the deer mouse, the peppered moth, and the peacock. Bacteria are a common research subject when studying evolution and adaptation because some colonies of bacteria can produce several generations in one day, letting researchers see a “fast forward” version of evolution and natural selection.