ARCH 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Adaptation, Natural Selection

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Archaeology
• Course: ARCH 131
• Professor: Sheri Fabian

Document Summary

For example, primates have a greatly reduced olfactory system compared to their ancient ancestors, even though a keen sense of smell is an obviously advantageous trait under almost any condition. In concordance with frequency dependent trait selection, selection of traits allows a trait to diminish, in order for another, more adaptive trait, to flourish. If a trait is not completely necessary for the organism to survive, the trait may fade over time in order to reduce the amount of energy needed for the organism to express the trait. The advantage of a trait is also dependent on which environment the organism lives in. The example of primates reduced sense of smell, may have been compensated by other senses being increased. In conclusion, it seems that organisms can lose advantageous traits in order to retain energy for more suitable advantageous traits and also traits advantageousness is determined by which environment the organism must adapt to.