Natural Selection

Natural selection refers to the process through which individuals with characteristics that are beneficial for reproduction in a particular environment leave more offspring in the following generation thus increasing the percentage their genes within population gene pool over time. Natural selection is the primary mechanism of evolutionary transformation, and is the most significant concept in biology. Natural selection, the uniting idea of life, was proposed initially by Charles Darwin, and is representative of his single utmost contribution to science. Natural selection takes place in any reproducing population that is encountering a variable or changing environment. The environment consists of not only physical factors like climate or terrain but also living factors like prey, predators, in addition to other members of a population.

Mechanism of natural selection

Mechanism of natural selection relies on many trends including:

- Overproduction of offspring- populations tend to develop more progeny than can survive to maturity in any given generation.

- Heredity- this is where offspring inherit their mannerism from their parents in the form of genes.

- Competition for resources- individuals ought to compete for food, mates, nesting sites, or other resources that influence their capability to reproduce well because of excess population.

- Heritable individual variations- population’s members have minor variations among them, either in height, beak shape, eyesight acuity, rate of egg production, or other mannerisms that might influence reproduction and survival. A trait can be passed on to offspring if it has a genetic basis.

Natural selection occurs inescapably when all these factors are provided. By definition, members of a populace that replicate the most will leave many offspring for the following generation. These offspring inherits traits of their parents and are hence probable to succeed in competition for resources.