Natural Phenomena
Natural Selection
Also Known As survival of the fittest Coined by Herbert Spencer in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Darwin himself adopted the phrase starting only with the fifth edition (1869). Commonly used as a paraphrase for natural selection, though the two are not strictly synonymous; attributed honestly to Spencer, not to Darwin.
Evolutionary Processes
The process by which heritable traits that improve an organism's odds of surviving and reproducing in a given environment become more common in a population over successive generations, first described by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in 1858. Natural selection requires only that individuals vary, that some of that variation is heritable, and that it affects reproductive success; it does not require conscious intent, and it acts on existing variation rather than producing new traits on demand. The monarch butterfly's bright orange and black warning coloration is a well-documented product of natural selection: caterpillars sequester toxic compounds from the milkweed they eat, carry the toxin into adulthood, and the conspicuous pattern advertises that toxicity to predators, a defense so effective that the unrelated, non-toxic viceroy butterfly has independently evolved a strikingly similar pattern of its own, a form of mimicry that only makes evolutionary sense as a product of selection.
Facts
PeriodicityContinuous and ongoing wherever heritable variation and differential survival or reproduction exist; it has no season or cycle, only generational turnover, which itself varies by species. 1 ScalePopulation level over multiple generations, though its cumulative effect over deep time is the diversification of all life. 1 First DescribedCharles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace jointly presented the theory in a paper read to the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858. Darwin's own book, On the Origin of Species, followed in 1859. 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Bioluminescence (Wikipedia)
Source Bioluminescence (Wikipedia)
Source Pollination (Wikipedia)
Source Symbiosis (Wikipedia)
Demonstrated By
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
In the Other Atlases
Same As
Also in Science Atlas: the same subject.
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Natural Selection (Wikipedia)
Lead section
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in the relative fitness endowed on them by their own particular complement of observable characteristics.
Historical development section, 1858 Linnean Society reading
On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection was read to the Linnean Society of London announcing co-discovery of the principle in July 1858.
Darwin's theory section, Herbert Spencer sentence
After reading Darwin, Herbert Spencer introduced the phrase survival of the fittest, which became a popular summary of the theory.
View the SourceNatural Selection (Understanding Evolution, UC Berkeley)
Opening paragraph, first sentence
Natural selection is one of the basic mechanisms of evolution, along with mutation, migration, and genetic drift.
Natural Selection section, summary sentence
If you have variation, differential reproduction, and heredity, you will have evolution by natural selection as an outcome.
View the SourceNatural Selection (National Geographic Education)
Opening paragraph, first sentenceQuote, Opening paragraph, first sentence
English naturalist Charles Darwin developed the idea of natural selection after a five-year voyage to study plants, animals, and fossils in South America and on islands in the Pacific.
Symbiosis (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Symbiosis, Role in evolution sectionQuote, Associated With: Symbiosis, Role in evolution section
Symbiosis is increasingly recognized as an important selective force behind evolution.
Pollination (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Pollination, Coevolution section, Rediviva neliana exampleQuote, Associated With: Pollination, Coevolution section, Rediviva neliana example
For example, long legs are selected for in Rediviva neliana, a bee that collects oil from Diaspora capsularis, which have long spur lengths that are selected for in order to deposit pollen on the oil-collecting bee, which in turn selects for even longer legs in R. neliana and again longer spur length in D. capsularis is selected for, thus, continually driving each other's evolution.
Bioluminescence (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Bioluminescence, Evolution section, pelagic selection pressures sentence
The dispersal of bioluminescence across different depths in the pelagic zone has been attributed to the selection pressures imposed by predation and the lack of places to hide in the open sea.
Associated With: Bioluminescence, Evolution section, independent evolution sentence
Bioluminescence has evolved independently at least 94 times, first emerging in octocorals some 540 million years ago.
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