Question

What do you understand by natural selection? Give examples.

Answer 1

Natural selection:

1. Natural selection is a crucial step in the evolution process.
2. It claims that nature chooses animals that can survive and reproduce in changing environments, while those that cannot are wiped out.
3. The genes that ensure the survival of an organism are handed down across generations.
4. These characteristics become increasingly useful to the animals through time, and they grow more numerous in a population.
5. Natural selection results in speciation, which is the process of generating new species.
6. Thus, contributing to the evolutionary process.

Examples:

The neck of the giraffe:

1. The necks of giraffes, for example, are assumed to have been shorter.
2. Their feeding habits led their necks to grow longer, and their genes were handed down through the generations.
3. It took millions of years for the giraffe to evolve.
4. Natural selection is the sole known method for adaptive evolution; it causes a population to grow more adaptable to its surroundings.