15 Of The Best Documentaries On Free Evolution
What is Free Evolution?
Free evolution is the concept that the natural processes of living organisms can lead to their development over time. This includes the creation of new species and alteration of the appearance of existing species.
This has been demonstrated by numerous examples such as the stickleback fish species that can thrive in fresh or saltwater and walking stick insect types that prefer specific host plants. These are mostly reversible traits, however, cannot explain fundamental changes in basic body plans.
Evolution through Natural Selection
The development of the myriad of living organisms on Earth is an enigma that has intrigued scientists for centuries. Charles Darwin's natural selectivity is the best-established explanation. This is because individuals who are better-adapted have more success in reproduction and survival than those who are less well-adapted. As time passes, the number of well-adapted individuals grows and eventually develops into an entirely new species.
Natural selection is an ongoing process and involves the interaction of three factors including reproduction, variation and inheritance. Sexual reproduction and mutation increase genetic diversity in an animal species. Inheritance refers to the passing of a person's genetic characteristics to their offspring that includes dominant and recessive alleles. Reproduction is the production of fertile, viable offspring, which includes both asexual and sexual methods.
All of these elements must be in balance to allow natural selection to take place. If, for example an allele of a dominant gene allows an organism to reproduce and survive more than the recessive gene then the dominant allele becomes more prevalent in a population. However, if the gene confers a disadvantage in survival or decreases fertility, it will disappear from the population. This process is self-reinforcing meaning that a species with a beneficial characteristic will survive and reproduce more than one with an unadaptive characteristic. The more fit an organism is which is measured by its ability to reproduce and survive, is the more offspring it can produce. People with desirable traits, like the long neck of giraffes, or bright white color 에볼루션 바카라 patterns on male peacocks, are more likely than others to survive and reproduce which eventually leads to them becoming the majority.
Natural selection is only a force for populations, not on individual organisms. This is a crucial distinction from the Lamarckian evolution theory, which states that animals acquire traits due to usage or inaction. For instance, if a Giraffe's neck grows longer due to stretching to reach prey its offspring will inherit a longer neck. The difference in neck size between generations will increase until the giraffe is unable to breed with other giraffes.
Evolution by Genetic Drift
In genetic drift, the alleles of a gene could be at different frequencies within a population by chance events. At some point, one will attain fixation (become so common that it cannot be eliminated by natural selection) and other alleles fall to lower frequency. In the extreme it can lead to dominance of a single allele. The other alleles are basically eliminated and heterozygosity has been reduced to zero. In a small population this could lead to the complete elimination of recessive gene. Such a scenario would be known as a bottleneck effect and it is typical of the kind of evolutionary process that occurs when a large number of people migrate to form a new population.
A phenotypic bottleneck could occur when the survivors of a disaster like an epidemic or a massive hunting event, are condensed within a narrow area. The survivors will carry a dominant allele and thus will share the same phenotype. This could be caused by war, earthquakes or even plagues. The genetically distinct population, if it remains, could be susceptible to genetic drift.
Walsh Lewens, Lewens, and Ariew use Lewens, Walsh and Ariew employ a "purely outcome-oriented" definition of drift as any departure from the expected values of variations in fitness. They cite a famous example of twins that are genetically identical, have identical phenotypes, 에볼루션 바카라 사이트 and yet one is struck by lightening and dies while the other lives and reproduces.
This kind of drift can be very important in the evolution of the species. However, it's not the only method to progress. The main alternative is a process called natural selection, where the phenotypic diversity of a population is maintained by mutation and migration.
Stephens asserts that there is a major distinction between treating drift as a force or as an underlying cause, and 무료 에볼루션 treating other causes of evolution, such as mutation, selection and migration as forces or causes. He claims that a causal mechanism account of drift permits us to differentiate it from the other forces, and that this distinction is vital. He further argues that drift has direction, i.e., it tends to reduce heterozygosity. It also has a size, which is determined by the size of the population.
Evolution by Lamarckism
Students of biology in high school are frequently exposed to Jean-Baptiste lamarck's (1744-1829) work. His theory of evolution is generally referred to as "Lamarckism" and it asserts that simple organisms evolve into more complex organisms via the inheritance of traits which result from an organism's natural activities, 에볼루션 룰렛 (click through the following post) use and disuse. Lamarckism can be demonstrated by the giraffe's neck being extended to reach higher branches in the trees. This could cause giraffes to pass on their longer necks to offspring, who would then get taller.
Lamarck, a French Zoologist from France, presented an innovative idea in his 17 May 1802 opening lecture at the Museum of Natural History of Paris. He challenged conventional wisdom on organic transformation. In his opinion living things had evolved from inanimate matter through the gradual progression of events. Lamarck was not the first to suggest this, but he was widely thought of as the first to give the subject a comprehensive and general explanation.
The dominant story is that Charles Darwin's theory on natural selection and Lamarckism fought in the 19th Century. Darwinism eventually triumphed, leading to the development of what biologists now call the Modern Synthesis. This theory denies that traits acquired through evolution can be acquired through inheritance and instead suggests that organisms evolve through the action of environmental factors, including natural selection.
Lamarck and his contemporaries believed in the notion that acquired characters could be passed down to future generations. However, this notion was never a central part of any of their theories on evolution. This is partly due to the fact that it was never validated scientifically.
However, it has been more than 200 years since Lamarck was born and, in the age of genomics there is a huge amount of evidence to support the heritability of acquired characteristics. This is also referred to as "neo Lamarckism", or more often epigenetic inheritance. It is a variant of evolution that is as valid as the more popular neo-Darwinian model.
Evolution through Adaptation
One of the most common misconceptions about evolution is being driven by a fight for survival. This notion is not true and overlooks other forces that drive evolution. The struggle for survival is more accurately described as a struggle to survive in a specific environment, which can be a struggle that involves not only other organisms but also the physical environment.
Understanding the concept of adaptation is crucial to comprehend evolution. Adaptation refers to any particular characteristic that allows an organism to live and reproduce in its environment. It could be a physical structure like feathers or fur. Or it can be a trait of behavior, like moving towards shade during the heat, or moving out to avoid the cold at night.
An organism's survival depends on its ability to extract energy from the environment and to interact with other organisms and their physical environments. The organism needs to have the right genes to create offspring, and it must be able to locate enough food and other resources. Moreover, the organism must be capable of reproducing at a high rate within its environmental niche.
These elements, along with mutations and gene flow, can lead to a shift in the proportion of different alleles within the gene pool of a population. The change in frequency of alleles can lead to the emergence of novel traits and eventually new species in the course of time.
Many of the features we find appealing in plants and animals are adaptations. For instance lung or gills that extract oxygen from the air, fur and feathers as insulation long legs to run away from predators, and 에볼루션코리아 camouflage to hide. However, a thorough understanding of adaptation requires paying attention to the distinction between physiological and behavioral characteristics.
Physiological adaptations, such as the thick fur or gills are physical traits, while behavioral adaptations, like the tendency to seek out companions or to move to the shade during hot weather, aren't. It is also important to remember that a lack of planning does not cause an adaptation. Failure to consider the effects of a behavior even if it appears to be logical, can make it unadaptive.