Natural Selection

Part I
NATURAL SELECTION

Statement(s) and Objective(s):

D4.1.1— Natural selection as the mechanism driving evolutionary change.

● Define natural selection and fitness.

● Outline the process of natural selection and the resulting evolution of the population.
● Compare the reproductive success of better and less well-adapted individuals in a population.
● State that natural selection has operated continuously over billions of years, resulting in the biodiversity of life.
● Explain why Darwin’s evidence of evolution via natural selection resulted in a paradigm shift in the understanding of how life evolves.

D4.1.2— Roles of mutation and sexual reproduction in generating the variation on which natural selection acts.

● Define biological variation.

● Explain why natural selection can only function if there is variation in a species.
● Outline sources of genetic variation (mutation, meiosis and sexual reproduction).
● Compare variation that results from mutation to those that is generated from sexual reproduction.

D4.1.3-- Overproduction of offspring and competition for resources as factors that promote natural selection.

● State that species have the ability to produce more offspring than the environment can support.
● Use an example to illustrate the potential for overproduction of offspring in a population.
● Describe competition for resources as a consequence of overproduction of offspring.
NATURAL SELECTION

Statement(s) and Objective(s):

D4.1.4-- Abiotic factors as selection pressures.

● Define selective pressure.

● Compare density-independent and density-dependent selective pressures.
● State example abiotic selective pressures.
● Outline how a selective pressure acts on the variation in a population.

D4.1.5— Differences between individuals in adaptation, survival and reproduction as the basis for natural selection.

● Define adaptation and fitness.

● Explain the effect of the selective pressure on the more and less adapted individuals in a population.
● Explain adaptation as a consequence of intraspecific competition.

D4.1.6- Requirement that traits are heritable for evolutionary change to occur.

● Explain why only heritable characteristics can be acted upon by natural selection.
 • Evolution was first defined as a change in a species over time.
• This first general definition was too vague and general.
• It allowed for much debate.

Evolution Defined • A current and less arguable definition of evolution is:

• Evolution is the change in gene frequency in a population over
time.
• Natural selection is a major mechanism of evolution.
 Used fossils found in layers of sedimentary rock called strata
that formed as new layers of sediments began to form on top of
older layers to develop theories of geologic change

Cuvier realized older strata (lower levels) were more dissimilar

to current species and that species would disappear while new
ones appeared. He believed the boundaries between the strata
represented catastrophes that wiped populations out
Geologic
Theories Hutton proposed that geologic features were explained by
gradual, ongoing mechanisms

Lyell stated that mechanisms of change were constant over

time in a theory known as uniformitarianism
Lamarck’s Theory of
Evolution
• Many knew life must evolve as the environment changes
• Lamarck was the first to propose Theory of Effect of environment
and new needs: The environment influences all organisms. A slight
change in the environment brings about changes in organisms. This
gives rise to new needs, which in turn produces new structures and
changes the habits of organisms.
• Observed lines of descent in the fossil record with similarities in
structure
• Theory of Use & Disuse: parts that are used become larger and
stronger while parts that are not used deteriorate
• Theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics: organisms pass
modifications made throughout their life onto their offspring
• It was WRONG, but his theory advanced discourse and provided a
testable hypothesis for evolutionary change
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Influenced by all these
theories:
• Evolution must be a gradual,
continual, subtle process of The Making of A
change Theory: Darwin,
• Hutton, Lyell Wallace, & Natural
• Variation contributes to Selection
evolution through the
inheritance of characteristics
• Lamarck
Evolution Is The
Cumulative
Change In The
Heritable
Characteristics Of
A Population
 • A mechanism for change in populations
Natural that occurs when organisms with
favorable variations for a particular
Selection environment survive, reproduce, and
pass on these variations on to the next
generation.

• Natural selection acts on the

phenotype (physical appearance), not
the genotype (genetic makeup).
 Adaptations: inherited characteristics of organisms that
enhance their survival and reproduction in a specific
environment

Darwin’s
Theory of
Natural Natural Selection: process in
which individuals that have the traits (adaptations) the
organisms have make it
certain, more desirable inherited
Selection traits survive and reproduce at
higher rates than others that
more fit
Higher “adaptive value”

don’t have those traits

Used the term “descent with modification,” not

“evolution”
 In order for natural selection
to occur:
Natural Selection Steps • Variation in adaptations within a species.
• Overproduction of offspring.
• Survival of the best adapted individuals.
• Best adapted individuals reproduce more
Competition - Organisms
struggle for survival: more successfully.
Natural Variation exists in
organisms are produced
nature
than the environment can
support

Organisms change over

time in response to the
Survival of the fittest: Only
environment: organisms
the best adapted survives.
change but they have a
Adaptations are important
common descent – they
have common ancestors
Essence of Darwin’s Ideas

• Heritable variation exists in populations

• Overproduction of offspring
• More offspring than the environment can
support
• Competition
• For food, mates, nesting sites, escape predators
• Differential survival
• Successful traits = adaptations
• Differential reproduction
• Adaptations become more common in
population
Stipulations of Natural Selection

Individuals do not evolve, only whole populations do.

Evolution only works on traits in which variations exist.

Natural selection must be studied in context of the environmental conditions as the adaptive
value of traits shifts as conditions change.
•The same adaptation may have differential adaptive value based on the selective pressure it is exposed to
•Ex: peppered moth, pocket mouse, soapberry bugs, etc.

Natural selection is not a creative mechanism.

•Cannot cause adaptations or variations to occur, just selects for the best one that already exists in the environment
 Organisms
Limited produce more Environmental
Resources offspring than can Factors
survive.

Fitness
Competition

Genetic
Variation
Differential reproduction is
the idea that those organisms
Differential
best adapted to a given
Reproductive
environment will be most
Success
likely to survive
to reproductive age and have
offspring of their own

Natural Selection
Adaptations
Inherited characteristics that
allow individuals to “do
better” in their
environment. Adaptations
increase their chance of
survival and reproduction.
 • Genetic variation in a population increases the chance that some individuals will
survive.

Phenotypic •
•
Genetic variation leads to phenotypic variation.
Phenotypic variation is necessary for natural selection.

Variation • Genetic variation is stored in a population’s gene pool.

• Made up of all alleles in a population
• Allele combinations form when organisms have offspring
Where Does Variation
Come From?

• Mutations:
• Random errors in DNA.
• Errors in mitosis & meiosis.
• Environmental damage.
• Sexual reproduction:
• Mixing of alleles.
• Genetic recombination: new arrangements of
alleles in every offspring.
• New combinations = new phenotypes.
 New alleles may arise by mutations

New alleles that result in phenotypes with higher

adaptive values will increase in frequency as
natural selection occurs
New Alleles
and Fitness The “fitness” of a given trait is relative to the
selective pressures in its environment

• Adaptive value may change as the environment changes

Natural selection usually selects for the

phenotypes that best improve an organism’s ability
to reproduce (reproductive fitness)
Mutations

• Most mutations are neutral,

meaning they have no effect on the
organism's fitness.
• These neutral mutations
accumulate over time and can be
used to infer the evolutionary
relationships between different
species.
• However, some mutations can
influence the fitness of an
organism, and these are known as
beneficial or deleterious mutations.
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Individuals Differ In
Fitness (Relative
Fitness)

• Fitness measures an A black panther is the melanistic color variant of any

organism’s reproductive Panthera species. Black panthers in Asia and Africa are
success leopards (Panthera pardus) and black panthers in the
Americas are black jaguars (Panthera onca).
• It does not necessarily
mean “stronger” but
how well-adapted an
individual is to its
purpose or role
• Most fit individuals tend
to have the most
offspring
 Overproduction
Each species produces more offspring that can survive.
 Overproduction of Offspring
• Many species create many more offspring than there are resources like food, water,
and living space to support them.
• This creates a struggle to survive for the offspring. Those who are better able to
survive then pass on their genes to their offspring.
• Darwin studied the reproduction of elephants, one of the slowest breeding land
mammals, and found that if a single female survived and reproduced at the same
rate, after 750 years there could be 19,000,000 descendants of this single mother.

© Created by Alyssa 2023

Competition The competition that exists
(Intraspecific among offspring to survive
competition - limits survival of all offspring.
between members
of a species)
Competition for food, living
space, and mates leads to
adaptations of individuals.
Competition

• Competition usually is not a direct

confrontation between two
individuals.
• For example, Darwin's finches
have specially selected beaks
adapted to their diets.
• These adaptations have
allowed the birds to survive
during dry seasons or when the
food supply is limited by other
things.
• Their beaks help the birds
better compete with other
birds and animals for the
limited food supply.
Natural Selection:
The Environment
• The environment is the selective force; only those
organisms that are well adapted will survive in the
wild.
• Natural selection acts on the phenotype (physical
appearance), not the genotype (genetic makeup)
• The environment in which a population of
organisms' lives can have a significant impact on
the rate and direction of evolution.
Living vs. Nonliving Environments And Evolution Rates
A stable biotic (living) environment will have
a lower rate of evolution since the selective
pressures on the population are constant.
Similarly, a stable abiotic (non-living)
environment will have a lower rate of
evolution.
If there are fluctuating conditions within the biotic
environment such as changes in competitors,
predators or prey, this will increase the pressure of
natural selection on the population. This is an
example of density-dependent because as
population density increases, competition
becomes more intense.
Fluctuating abiotic conditions such as changes in
temperature, precipitation, or resource availability,
can increase the selective pressure on the
population and drive faster rates of evolution. This
is an example of density-independent because the
chance of an being affected is the same whether
the population density is high or low.