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What is Free Evolution?

Free evolution is the idea that the natural processes of organisms can cause them to develop over time. This includes the evolution of new species as well as the transformation of the appearance of existing species.

Numerous examples have been offered of this, such as different kinds of stickleback fish that can be found in salt or fresh water, and walking stick insect varieties that are attracted to particular host plants. These typically reversible traits cannot explain fundamental changes to the body's basic plans.

Evolution through Natural Selection

Scientists have been fascinated by the development of all the living organisms that inhabit our planet for ages. The most widely accepted explanation is Darwin's natural selection process, a process that is triggered when more well-adapted individuals live longer and reproduce more successfully than those less well-adapted. As time passes, the number of well-adapted individuals grows and eventually creates an entirely new species.

Natural selection is a cyclical process that is characterized by the interaction of three factors that are inheritance, variation and reproduction. Variation is caused by mutations and sexual reproduction, both of which increase the genetic diversity within the species. Inheritance is the term used to describe the transmission of a person’s genetic characteristics, which includes recessive and dominant genes, to their offspring. Reproduction is the process of creating fertile, viable offspring. This can be achieved by both asexual or sexual methods.

All of these variables have to be in equilibrium to allow natural selection to take place. If, for instance the dominant gene allele makes an organism reproduce and last longer than the recessive allele, then the dominant allele is more common in a population. But if the allele confers an unfavorable survival advantage or reduces fertility, it will disappear from the population. The process is self-reinforcing, which means that an organism with an adaptive characteristic will live and reproduce far more effectively than those with a maladaptive trait. The more offspring an organism produces the better its fitness, which is measured by its capacity to reproduce itself and survive. People with good traits, like having a longer neck in giraffes or bright white patterns of color in male peacocks are more likely to be able to survive and create offspring, so they will become the majority of the population in the future.

Natural selection is an aspect of populations and not on individuals. This is an important distinction from the Lamarckian theory of evolution which states that animals acquire traits through use or disuse. If a giraffe extends its neck to catch prey, and the neck becomes longer, then the children will inherit this characteristic. The difference in neck size between generations will continue to grow until the giraffe is unable to breed with other giraffes.

Evolution by Genetic Drift

Genetic drift occurs when the alleles of one gene are distributed randomly in a group. Eventually, only one will be fixed (become widespread enough to not longer be eliminated through natural selection), and the other alleles decrease in frequency. This can result in dominance at the extreme. The other alleles are essentially eliminated, and heterozygosity is reduced to zero. In a small population, this could lead to the total elimination of recessive allele. Such a scenario would be called a bottleneck effect, and it is typical of the kind of evolutionary process that occurs when a large amount of individuals migrate to form a new group.

A phenotypic  bottleneck can also occur when the survivors of a catastrophe such as an outbreak or mass hunt event are confined to a small area. The survivors will have an dominant allele, and will share the same phenotype. This situation could be caused by war, earthquakes or even a plague. The genetically distinct population, if left susceptible to genetic drift.

Walsh Lewens, Walsh, and Ariew define drift as a departure from the expected value due to differences in fitness. They give the famous example of twins who are genetically identical and have exactly the same phenotype. However, one is struck by lightning and dies, while the other continues to reproduce.

This type of drift can play a crucial role in the evolution of an organism. However, it's not the only method to progress. The most common alternative is to use a process known as natural selection, where the phenotypic diversity of a population is maintained by mutation and migration.

Stephens claims that there is a significant difference between treating the phenomenon of drift as a force, or an underlying cause, and treating other causes of evolution such as selection, mutation, and migration as forces or causes. He argues that a causal-process account of drift allows us distinguish it from other forces, and this distinction is crucial. He also claims that drift has a direction: that is it tends to reduce heterozygosity. It also has a magnitude, which is determined by population size.

Evolution by Lamarckism

In high school, students study biology, they are often introduced to the work of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829). His theory of evolution is generally called "Lamarckism" and it asserts that simple organisms evolve into more complex organisms through the inheritance of characteristics which result from an organism's natural activities usage, use and disuse. Lamarckism is typically illustrated by an image of a giraffe that extends its neck longer to reach the higher branches in the trees. This process would cause giraffes to give their longer necks to their offspring, who would then grow even taller.

Lamarck was a French zoologist and, in his lecture to begin his course on invertebrate Zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris on 17 May 1802, he introduced an innovative concept that completely challenged previous thinking about organic transformation. In his opinion living things had evolved from inanimate matter via an escalating series of steps. Lamarck wasn't the first to make this claim but he was considered to be the first to provide the subject a thorough and general overview.

The predominant story is that Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and Lamarckism were competing during the 19th century. Darwinism eventually won and led to the development of what biologists today call the Modern Synthesis. This theory denies acquired characteristics can be passed down through generations and instead, it claims that organisms evolve through the selective influence of environmental factors, such as Natural Selection.

Although Lamarck supported the notion of inheritance through acquired characters, and his contemporaries also spoke of this idea, it was never a major feature in any of their theories about evolution. This is due to the fact that it was never scientifically tested.

However, it has been more than 200 years since Lamarck was born and in the age genomics, there is a large amount of evidence to support the heritability of acquired characteristics. This is often referred to as "neo-Lamarckism" or more frequently epigenetic inheritance. This is a version that is as reliable as the popular neodarwinian model.

Evolution by adaptation

One of the most common misconceptions about evolution is that it is driven by a type of struggle for survival.  에볼루션 무료체험  is a false assumption and overlooks other forces that drive evolution. The struggle for existence is more accurately described as a struggle to survive in a specific environment. This could include not only other organisms but also the physical environment.

Understanding the concept of adaptation is crucial to comprehend evolution. The term "adaptation" refers to any specific feature that allows an organism to live and reproduce within its environment. It could be a physiological structure, such as fur or feathers or a behavior like moving to the shade during hot weather or coming out at night to avoid cold.

The survival of an organism is dependent on its ability to extract energy from the surrounding environment and interact with other organisms and their physical environments. The organism needs to have the right genes to produce offspring, and it should be able to locate enough food and other resources. Furthermore, the organism needs to be able to reproduce itself at a high rate within its niche.

These elements, in conjunction with gene flow and mutation result in a change in the proportion of alleles (different types of a gene) in the population's gene pool. The change in frequency of alleles can lead to the emergence of novel traits and eventually new species in the course of time.

A lot of the traits we admire about animals and plants are adaptations, for example, lungs or gills to extract oxygen from the air, fur or feathers to protect themselves, long legs for running away from predators and camouflage to hide. However, a proper understanding of adaptation requires paying attention to the distinction between behavioral and physiological traits.

Physiological traits like large gills and thick fur are physical characteristics. Behavior adaptations aren't an exception, for instance, the tendency of animals to seek out companionship or move into the shade during hot temperatures. Furthermore it is important to note that a lack of forethought does not mean that something is an adaptation. In fact, failure to think about the consequences of a behavior can make it ineffective despite the fact that it may appear to be logical or even necessary.