ANT 2511 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Adaptive Radiation, Ofu-Olosega, Chromosome
Document Summary
Interested in physical differences among members of species. Galapagos finches: different habitats caused finches over time to have different beaks. Adaptation: primary mechanism for evolution and specifically to natural selection. Natural selection is operating at the level of the individual for darwin. For darwin, natural selection is process that organisms with features to adapt environm reproduce to increase frequency of those features in the population. What natural selection is to darwin: producing offspring, knowing that variation exists and among those variations are advantageous and are passed down. Darwin thought about behavioral evolution: selection of a behavior by some or all spec an advantage. Runaway selection: ex; peacocks with elaborate feathers in order to attract mates; sex a survival advantage, conveys reproductive advantages. Natural variation made finches more adventurous and it spread to other population to creating a new species. Adaptive radiation: diversification of an ancestral group of organisms into new forms t to specific environment niches.