BIO152H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 24: Scalea, Point Mutation, Special Creation
Document Summary
Populations and species evolve, meaning that their characteristics change through time. More precisely, evolution is defined as changes in allele frequencies over time. Natural selection occurs when individuals with certain alleles produce the most offspring in a population. An adaptation is a genetically based trait that increases an individual"s ability to produce offspring in a particular environment. Evolution by natural selection is not progressive, and it does not change the characteristics of the individuals that are selected it changes only the characteristics of the population. Animals do not do things for the good of the species, and not all traits are adaptive. All adaptations are constrained by trade-offs as well as genetic and historical factors. Scientific theories are often made up of observations about a natural pattern and a proposed process that explains that pattern. In the theory of evolution by natural selection, charles darwin and alfred russel wallace in.
