Natural selection

Natural selection is a central concept of evolution.

Natural selection is the process where organisms with favorable traits are more likely to reproduce. In doing so, they pass on these traits to the next generation. Over time this process allows organisms to adapt to their environment. This is because the frequency of genes for favourable traits increases in the population.

Some animals have traits (features) which help them survive. If animals with some traits live longer, it means they can reproduce more. The offspring of the animal has the same traits as them (heredity).^[1]

The theory was proposed independently by the English biologists Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the middle of the 19th century (1858).^[2] It is sometimes called the survival of the fittest.^[3] Darwin chose the name as an analogy with artificial selection (selective breeding).

Members of a species are not all alike, often because of differences in heredity (genetics). This is true even with children of the same parents. Some of these differences might make one organism better at surviving and reproducing than others in a particular habitat. When this organism reproduces, its offspring may get the genes which gave it the advantage. Some adaptations are extremely long-lasting, useful in many habitats.

1. ↑ "Evolution and Natural Selection". University of Michigan. 10 October 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
2. ↑ Bowler P.J. 2003. Evolution: the history of an idea. University of California Press, p173: Wallace and publication of the theory. ISBN 0-520-23693-9
3. ↑ Darwin, Charles (annotated by James T. Costa). 2009. The annotated Origin: a facsimile of the first edition of On the Origin of Species. Harvard, Cambridge, Mass.