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Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charles Darwin popularised the term "natural selection", contrasting it with artificial selection, which is ...
Stabilizing selection. 1: directional selection: a single extreme phenotype favoured. 2, stabilizing selection: intermediate favoured over extremes. 3: disruptive selection: extremes favoured over intermediate. Stabilizing selection (not to be confused with negative or purifying selection [1] [2]) is a type of natural selection in which the ...
Kin selection is a process whereby natural selection favours a trait due to its positive effects on the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even when at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction. [1] Kin selection can lead to the evolution of altruistic behaviour. It is related to inclusive fitness, which combines the ...
Directional selection can change the genotypic and phenotypic variation of a population and cause a trend toward one specific phenotype. [6] This selection is an important mechanism in the selection of complex and diversifying traits, and is also a primary force of speciation. [7]
Group selection is a proposed mechanism of evolution in which natural selection acts at the level of the group, instead of at the level of the individual or gene. Early authors such as V. C. Wynne-Edwards and Konrad Lorenz argued that the behavior of animals could affect their survival and reproduction as groups, speaking for instance of ...
r / K selection theory. A North Atlantic right whale with solitary calf. Whale reproduction follows a K -selection strategy, with few offspring, long gestation, long parental care, and a long period until sexual maturity. In ecology, r/K selection theory relates to the selection of combinations of traits in an organism that trade off between ...
Disruptive selection is a specific type of natural selection that actively selects against the intermediate in a population, favoring both extremes of the spectrum. Disruptive selection is inferred to oftentimes lead to sympatric speciation through a phyletic gradualism mode of evolution. Disruptive selection can be caused or influenced by ...
Evolutionary biology. In population genetics, a selection coefficient, usually denoted by the letter s, is a measure of differences in relative fitness. Selection coefficients are central to the quantitative description of evolution, since fitness differences determine the change in genotype frequencies attributable to selection .