Which of the following explains the concept that individuals with favorable characteristics will most likely survive and reproduce in a population?
The concept of natural selection includes these observations and conclusions: By chance, heritable variations exist within a species. Species produce more offspring than can survive. Offspring with favorable variations are more likely to survive and reproduce.
What is the term for a trait that allows an individual to survive and reproduce better than other individuals in that same species?
Adaptation. A trait that improves an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce in an environment. Fitness. The ability of an organism to survive and reproduce.
What does favorable trait mean?
Favorable traits are traits that promote an organism’s success in a particular environment. On the other hand, if an organism has favorable traits that allow it to survive and produce many offspring, then its traits will be more numerous within the population.
What is the name for the phenomenon by which organisms that are better adapted to the environment survive to pass traits to their offspring?
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.
What is an unfavorable trait?
Certain traits are unfavorable and should not be in the population, this includes: down syndrome, other non-multifactorial forms of mental retardation, other chromosomal abnormalities, and single-allele genetic defects. Chromosomal abnormalities occur due to nondisjunction.
Why do individuals in a population change over time?
Because individuals in a population vary, some in the population are better able to survive and reproduce given a particular set of environmental conditions. These individuals generally survive and produce more offspring, thus passing their advantageous traits on to the next generation. Over time, the population changes.
How is the survival of an individual related to its environment?
The survival and reproductive success of an individual is directly related to the ways its inherited traits function in the context of its local environment. Whether or not an individual survives and reproduces depends on whether it has genes that produce traits that are well adapted to its environment. 8.
How does the flow of individuals in and out of a population affect genetic diversity?
The flow of individuals in and out of a population introduces new alleles and increases genetic variation within that population. Mutations are changes to an organism’s DNA that create diversity within a population by introducing new alleles.
How does natural selection affect the fitness of a population?
Summary Natural selection can cause microevolution, or a change in allele frequencies over time, with fitness-increasing alleles becoming more common in the population over generations. Fitness is a measure of relative reproductive success.
The flow of individuals in and out of a population introduces new alleles and increases genetic variation within that population. Mutations are changes to an organism’s DNA that create diversity within a population by introducing new alleles.
How does the genetic structure of a population change?
The genetic structure of the survivors becomes the genetic structure of the entire population, which may be very different from the pre-disaster population. Effect of a bottleneck on a population: A chance event or catastrophe can reduce the genetic variability within a population.
How are phenotypes determined in a population by natural selection?
In some cases, different phenotypes in a population are determined by just one gene. For example, this was the case with our hypothetical rabbits. It’s also true in some real cases of natural selection for coat color (e.g., in mice).
Summary Natural selection can cause microevolution, or a change in allele frequencies over time, with fitness-increasing alleles becoming more common in the population over generations. Fitness is a measure of relative reproductive success.
