Natural selection is defined as differential survival and reproduction driven by differences in relative fitness.
Differential survival and reproduction is the core mechanism of natural selection: individuals with heritable traits that give them higher relative fitness are more likely to survive and leave more offspring than individuals with less advantageous traits. Over generations, this causes the frequencies of those heritable traits to change within a population, leading to evolutionary change. Natural selection requires (1) variation among individuals, (2) that some of this variation is heritable, and (3) differences in fitness that affect survival and lifetime reproductive success. Traits that improve survival and reproductive output become more common, while traits that reduce reproductive success become less common. If environmental conditions favor different traits over time, populations can undergo microevolution (changes within lineages) and, under broader or more extreme shifts, macroevolution and even speciation.
Natural selection is defined as differential survival and reproduction driven by differences in relative fitness.
Heritable phenotypic variation is necessary; traits that increase reproductive success spread through the population over generations.
Changes in the environment can shift which traits are favored, leading to evolutionary change and potentially speciation.
The process where individuals with higher relative fitness survive and reproduce more successfully than others, changing heritable trait frequencies over generations.
A measure of how successfully an individual reproduces compared with others in the same environment.
Differences among individuals that affect traits and can be passed from parents to offspring through genes.
Evolutionary change caused by differential survival and reproduction of individuals with heritable traits that affect fitness.
βCan you explain what "Natural selection is defined as differential survival and reproduction driven by differences in relative fitness." means in simple terms?β