Definitions for natural selection
nat·u·ral se·lec·tion

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. survival, survival of the fittest, natural selection, selectionnoun

   a natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 2 votes

1. natural selectionnoun

   A process by which heritable traits conferring survival and reproductive advantage to individuals, or related individuals, tend to be passed on to succeeding generations and become more frequent in a population, whereas other less favourable traits tend to become eliminated.

2. natural selectionnoun

   A process in which individual organisms or phenotypes that possess favourable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce: the differential survival and reproduction of phenotypes.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Natural selection

   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 in his view is intentional, whereas natural selection is not. Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual organism, and their offspring can inherit such mutations. Throughout the lives of the individuals, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits. The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment. Because individuals with certain variants of the trait tend to survive and reproduce more than individuals with other less successful variants, the population evolves. Other factors affecting reproductive success include sexual selection (now often included in natural selection) and fecundity selection. Natural selection acts on the phenotype, the characteristics of the organism which actually interact with the environment, but the genetic (heritable) basis of any phenotype that gives that phenotype a reproductive advantage may become more common in a population. Over time this process can result in populations that specialise for particular ecological niches (microevolution) and may eventually result in speciation (the emergence of new species, macroevolution). In other words, natural selection is a key process in the evolution of a population. Natural selection is a cornerstone of modern biology. The concept, published by Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in a joint presentation of papers in 1858, was elaborated in Darwin's influential 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. He described natural selection as analogous to artificial selection, a process by which animals and plants with traits considered desirable by human breeders are systematically favoured for reproduction. The concept of natural selection originally developed in the absence of a valid theory of heredity; at the time of Darwin's writing, science had yet to develop modern theories of genetics. The union of traditional Darwinian evolution with subsequent discoveries in classical genetics formed the modern synthesis of the mid-20th century. The addition of molecular genetics has led to evolutionary developmental biology, which explains evolution at the molecular level. While genotypes can slowly change by random genetic drift, natural selection remains the primary explanation for adaptive evolution.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. natural selection

   Natural selection is a fundamental process in evolution, proposed by Charles Darwin, where organisms or individuals in a species that possess traits better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive, reproduce and pass on these advantageous traits to their offspring. Over time, this process leads to changes in the genetic makeup of populations, increasing their adaptability and potentially leading to the development of new species.

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Natural selection

   Natural selection is the gradual, non-random process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution. The term "natural selection" was popularized by Charles Darwin who intended it to be compared with artificial selection, which is now called selective breeding. Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations occur in the genome of an individual organism, and these mutations can be passed to offspring. Throughout the individuals’ lives, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits. Individuals with certain variants of the trait may survive and reproduce more than individuals with other variants. Therefore the population evolves. Factors that affect reproductive success are also important, an issue that Charles Darwin developed in his ideas on sexual selection, for example. Natural selection acts on the phenotype, or the observable characteristics of an organism, but the genetic basis of any phenotype that gives a reproductive advantage may become more common in a population. Over time, this process can result in populations that specialize for particular ecological niches and may eventually result in the emergence of new species. In other words, natural selection is an important process by which evolution takes place within a population of organisms. Natural selection can be contrasted with artificial selection, in which humans intentionally choose specific traits. In natural selection there is no intentional choice. In other words, artificial selection is teleological and natural selection is not teleological.

The Nuttall EncyclopediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Natural Selection

   name given by Darwin to the survival of certain plants and animals that are fitted, and the decease contemporaneously of certain others that are not fitted, to a new environment.

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. natural selection

   Song lyrics by natural selection -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by natural selection on the Lyrics.com website.

Matched Categories

1. • Natural Process

How to pronounce natural selection?

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How to say natural selection in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of natural selection in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of natural selection in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of natural selection in a Sentence

1. Barbara Ehrenreich:

   Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous.

2. Ryosuke Motani:

   Slightly after the end-Permian mass extinction, there were a lot of open opportunities as life recolonized the Earths surface, these bizarre forms grabbed the open niches and diversified, but were soon wiped out, probably by natural selection. The animal in question is one of them it must have been a slow swimmer and an inefficient feeder, but that was sufficient for the time being.

3. Wang Min:

   The tail fan is aerodynamically functional, whereas the elongated central paired plumes are used for display, which together reflect the interplay between natural selection and sexual selection.

4. Julia Monk:

   If Caitlin McDonough assume a trait like SSB is a new development and has high costs, its going to be really hard to understand how it could become more and more common from those low initial frequencies, it would have to have really large fitness benefits, or be otherwise impervious to natural selection, for that outcome to be probable.

5. Charles Robert Darwin:

   I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=natural selection
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Natural_Selection
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Selection
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=natural selection
6. ^ The Nuttall Encyclopedia
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12342/pg12342-images.html#NaturalSelection