What is meant by “survival of the fittest” and how does it relate to evolution?

Question

What is meant by “survival of the fittest” and how does it relate to evolution? Are these two concepts the same or different? Justify your answer and be sure to define both concepts adequately.

Define and compare natural and artificial selection, including the source of selection pressure and the traits selected for. Provide a specific example of each.

What is speciation in general? Briefly describe the difference between allopatric speciation and sympatric speciation. Be sure to include under what sort of conditions each type might occur.

Huntington's disease is a dominant disorder that causes progressive deterioration of brain cells and eventually death. Even though this is a fatal disease and a dominant one, it has persisted in the human population. Explain the reason that Huntington's has not been eliminated. (You will have to look up information on the disease paying special attention to the age at which it is expressed. It is important to understand the significance of this.)

Explanation / Answer

1. "The survival of fittest" is the driving mechanism of evolution, which resulted in the inheritance of most advantagious gene pools from our ancestors and deletion of disadvantagious alleles. Natural selection is a natural process of selection of genotypes that would result in offspring with better reproductive capabilities. Natural selection is highly unpredictable and it act on pre-existing genetic variants. Natural selection always results in better survival of organism. The following example describes the importance of natural selelction in evolution.

Usually a pride of lions contains a few males and many females. For every generation, the females give several males and many female cubs. After their birth the male cubes are driven off to the pride, and then they are killed by the new male lions. It is an evolutionary advantage of the pride, because the lion cubes, which have the strong physical abilities, they can save themselves for killing.   Thus, the lion cubs, which have strong genes (alleles) are survived, and pass their genes to next generation. Hence, the population have only Good gene pool.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse W
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.