Prompt 3.2

When thinking about evolution and natural selection, often those two terms come to mind in tandem. However, as we discussed a few weeks ago, natural selection does not necessarily lead to an evolutionary change. Natural selection is how an organism with one variation of a trait tends to leave more offspring in the next generation than organisms that are lacking that more specific trait. Natural selection occurs without evolution when there are differences between individuals that are not genetically based. 

For natural selection and evolution to occur, the trait must be heritable or must be genetically based. If that is not met, then there will not be evolution. Say person Y found person X really attractive because they had a really nice bright white smile with nice straight teeth. However, person X got their teeth whitened and had worn braces all throughout their young adult life. Person X had gotten their crooked yellow teeth fixed because they thought that they would be deemed more attractive if they had a certain look, and thus, would be more likely to get married and reproduce. This trait is not something that can be passed down, as it is not based on his genetics. So evolution would not take place as this trait was acquired and not inherent.

Selection can occur without natural selection. For example, in food, often the types we are eating today was driven by human selection in order to better make the food tastier for consumption. A lot of the produce we eat today are the way they are because certain traits were found more desirable to consumers and breeders, so those traits were magnified by selection

Comments

  1. Christopher AnFebruary 20, 2021 at 8:00 PM

    Hey Joanne. We did learn that natural selection can occur without evolution through R studio, nice job implementing that into your blog post. The description you gave with "nice bright white smile with nice straight teeth" and "crooked yellow teeth" made me laugh a bit, not sure why, but I thought it was funny.

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