BLG 508 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Tephritidae, Oxpecker, Nectar Guide
25 Jul 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Nectar guides- markings on petals that help pollinators locate rewards hidden in the flowers. If pollinators find well- marked flowers more attractive, the plants that display them should enjoy higher reproductive success. The explanation of organismal design is among the triumphs of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Individuals in previous generations varied in heritable aspects of their design, and the ones with the best designs passed on their genes in greater numbers. A trait, or integrated suite of traits, that increases the fitness of its possessor is called adaption and is said to be adaptive. Demonstrating that the traits of organisms are indeed adaptions has been one of the major activities of evolutionary biology since the time of darwin. To demonstrate that a trait is an adaption, we need first to determine what a trait is for and then show that individuals possessing the trait contribute more genes to future generations than individuals lacking it.
