BIO SCI 97 Chapter Notes -Evolutionary Pressure, Goose Bumps, Sickle-Cell Disease
30 Jan 2014
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Document Summary
Misunderstandings about evolutionary theory and its processes, particularly natural selection. The fittest organisms in a population are those that are strongest, healthiest, fastest, and/or largest. Fitness = ability of one individual to produce viable offspring relative to others of the same species. Individual organisms can evolve during a single lifespan. Natural selection involves organisms trying to adapt. Change in the genetic makeup of populations over time based on genes available. Ns results from genetic variation generated by random mutation. Looking at natural selection: produces the best possible offspring. Selection affects based on genes + environment: why sickle cell anemia still persists. If bison are used to being at the top of the food chain with no predators and humans come, they cannot learn to run away because their genes are not coded that way. If change in their environment happens quicker than the change in their genes, then there will be an extinction.
