PHIL 209B Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Population Genetics, Stellar Population, Winnowing
17 Oct 2014
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Phil209b lecture notes 10/15: population genetics and natural selection. Darwin needed to make claims about the rate at which favorable variations occure. Needed to make testable claims about the rate at which variations would be inherited. Needed statistical tools for analyzing the traits that occur in parent and offspring populations-their frequency and distribution. Comparison of trait distribution in parent and offspring generations. Which patterns of inheritance could give rise to adaptation by selection. How the frequency of a trait arising in a population affects the likelihood of it being preserved. With these tools you can actually make predictions about how the frequency of a trait may change over generations once you"ve made certain assumptions. Then ask: given all these assumptions, what would the theory of natural selection predict about the relative frequency of traits in subsequent populations. Lewens points out that this conception insnt entirley obvious that modern evolutionary biology"s concept of natural selection requires a struggle for existence .
