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Natural Selection

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17 views

Natural Selection

Uploaded by

romaisa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Natural selection

What is natural selection?


Natural selection is a idea that explains how animals,plants and even bacteria change over
time to survive better in the environment the idea was first suggested by Charles Darwin he
suggests animals and plants that are best suited to their environment survive and reproduce
passing on their helpful traits to the next gen.this can lead to big changes in species

Darwin’s theory
In 1831 he sailed around the world during this journey he collected plants animals and fossils
and wrote his observations. Darwin noticed the animals that he found are different from
place to place he realised life was always changing.

Theory of natural selection based on some important ideas:


1)too many offspring:many animals and plants produce far more offspring than can survive
an example is salmon can lay millions of eggs but only a few will actually survive to become
adult salmon.

2)variation in traits:not all individuals in a species are the same there are small differences in
their traits like Color, size, or strength

3)competition:since resources like food and space are limited there’s a struggle for survival
only the best-suited individuals survive because they can get the food or avoid predators.

From these observations Darwin made a conclusion-animal and plants with the best traits for
their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce,passing on those traits to their
kids he called that survival of the fittest.
Survival of the fittest
Darwin does not mean the strongest always survive he meant that those with the best
adaptations for their environment are most likely gonna make it for example a insect that
blends into it’s surroundings is harder for a predator to spot so it has a better change of
survival.
How natural selection works

1)variation:there are always differences among individuals in a species

2)selection pressure:some change in the environment makes certain traits more helpful

3)survival of the fittest:those with helpful traits survive and reproduce

4)adaptations:over time these traits become more common in the species

Real life example:antibiotic resistance


A modern example of natural selection is antibiotics resistance in bacteria when people take
antibiotics most of the bacteria die but some have mutations that make them resistance
these resistant bacteria shrivel and multiply making it harder to test infections thus shows
natural selection happening fast especially in bacteria which reproduce very quickly
antibiotics resistance has become a serious problem because it makes treating infections
difficult and requires new medicines

Pesticides resistance in insects


When farmers spray pesticides to kill bugs most insects die but some might have special
traits that help them survive for example the Colorado potato beetle can have mutations that
make them resistant to pesticide

These resistance beetles live longer and reproduce passing their traits to their offspring so
the next time pesticides are used more resistance beetles are left alive over time this leads to
a population of beetles that can withstand the pesticide making it less effective for the
farmer .

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