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What is Free Evolution?

Free evolution is the idea that the natural processes that organisms go through can cause them to develop over time. This includes the emergence and development of new species.

This is evident in numerous examples of stickleback fish species that can thrive in fresh or saltwater and walking stick insect types that have a preference for specific host plants. These are mostly reversible traits, however, cannot explain fundamental changes in body plans.

Evolution through Natural Selection

The evolution of the myriad living organisms on Earth is a mystery that has intrigued scientists for many centuries. The most well-known explanation is Darwin's natural selection process, a process that occurs when better-adapted individuals survive and reproduce more successfully than those who are less well adapted. Over time, a community of well adapted individuals grows and eventually creates a new species.

Natural selection is an ongoing process that is characterized by the interaction of three elements that are inheritance, variation and reproduction. Sexual reproduction and mutation increase genetic diversity in an animal species. Inheritance is the transfer of a person's genetic characteristics to their offspring, which includes both dominant and recessive alleles. Reproduction is the process of generating viable, fertile offspring. This can be accomplished through sexual or asexual methods.

All of these factors have to be in equilibrium to allow natural selection to take place. For instance, if a dominant allele at a gene allows an organism to live and reproduce more often than the recessive one, the dominant allele will become more prominent in the population. If the allele confers a negative advantage to survival or lowers the fertility of the population, it will disappear. The process is self reinforcing which means that the organism with an adaptive characteristic will live and reproduce more quickly than those with a maladaptive feature. The more offspring that an organism has, the greater its fitness which is measured by its ability to reproduce itself and live. People with good traits, like the long neck of Giraffes, or the bright white color patterns on male peacocks, are more likely than others to survive and reproduce and eventually lead to them becoming the majority.

Natural selection is only a force for populations, not on individuals. This is a major distinction from the Lamarckian theory of evolution which claims that animals acquire traits through use or disuse. If a giraffe expands its neck in order to catch prey, and the neck becomes longer, then the offspring will inherit this characteristic. The difference in neck length between generations will persist until the giraffe's neck becomes too long to no longer breed with other giraffes.

Evolution by Genetic Drift

Genetic drift occurs when the alleles of a gene are randomly distributed in a group. Eventually, only one will be fixed (become common enough that it can no more be eliminated through natural selection), and the rest of the alleles will decrease in frequency. In extreme cases this, it leads to a single allele dominance. Other alleles have been basically eliminated and heterozygosity has been reduced to a minimum. In a small population this could result in the total elimination of the recessive allele. This is known as the bottleneck effect and is typical of the evolution process that occurs when the number of individuals migrate to form a group.

A phenotypic bottleneck may occur when survivors of a disaster, such as an epidemic or mass hunting event, are concentrated within a narrow area. The survivors will carry an dominant allele, and will share the same phenotype. This situation could be caused by war, earthquakes, or even plagues. Whatever the reason the genetically distinct population that remains could be susceptible to genetic drift.

Walsh, Lewens, and Ariew employ Lewens, Walsh and Ariew employ a "purely outcome-oriented" definition of drift as any departure from expected values for different fitness levels. They provide a well-known instance of twins who are genetically identical and have identical phenotypes and yet one is struck by lightning and dies, while the other lives and reproduces.

This kind of drift can play a significant part in the evolution of an organism. However, it's not the only way to evolve. Natural selection is the main alternative, where mutations and migration maintain the phenotypic diversity in a population.

Stephens claims that there is a significant difference between treating the phenomenon of drift as a force or as a cause and treating other causes of evolution like mutation, selection and migration as forces or causes. He argues that a causal process explanation of drift permits us to differentiate it from these other forces, and that this distinction is vital. He also argues that drift has a direction, i.e., it tends towards eliminating heterozygosity.  에볼루션  has a size, which is determined based on 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, also called "Lamarckism, states that simple organisms develop into more complex organisms inheriting characteristics that are a product of the organism's use and misuse. Lamarckism can be illustrated by the giraffe's neck being extended to reach higher levels of leaves in the trees. This could cause the longer necks of giraffes to be passed onto their offspring who would then grow even taller.

Lamarck the French Zoologist, introduced an innovative idea in his opening lecture at the Museum of Natural History of Paris. He challenged the previous thinking on organic transformation. According to him living things had evolved from inanimate matter through a series of gradual steps. Lamarck was not the only one to suggest that this could be the case, but the general consensus is that he was the one being the one who gave the subject its first broad and comprehensive analysis.

The prevailing story is that Lamarckism became a rival to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, and that the two theories fought each other in the 19th century. Darwinism eventually prevailed, leading to what biologists refer to as the Modern Synthesis. This theory denies that traits acquired through evolution can be inherited, and instead, it argues that organisms develop through the selective action of environmental factors, including natural selection.

Although Lamarck endorsed the idea of inheritance by acquired characters and his contemporaries paid lip-service to this notion but it was not an integral part of any of their theories about evolution. This is due to the fact that it was never scientifically validated.

It's been more than 200 year since Lamarck's birth and in the field of genomics, there is an increasing evidence base that supports the heritability acquired characteristics. This is often referred to as "neo-Lamarckism" or more frequently epigenetic inheritance. It is a variant of evolution that is as valid as the more popular neo-Darwinian model.

Evolution through the process of adaptation

One of the most common misconceptions about evolution is that it is being driven by a struggle to survive. In fact, this view is inaccurate and overlooks the other forces that determine the rate of evolution. The fight for survival can be better described as a struggle to survive in a certain environment. This could be a challenge for not just other living things, but also the physical environment itself.

Understanding the concept of adaptation is crucial to comprehend evolution. Adaptation is any feature that allows a living thing to survive in its environment and reproduce. It could be a physical structure such as feathers or fur. Or it can be a characteristic of behavior that allows you to move to the shade during the heat, or escaping the cold at night.

The survival of an organism depends on its ability to obtain energy from the surrounding environment and interact with other organisms and their physical environments. The organism must have the right genes to create offspring, and it must be able to locate sufficient food and other resources. Furthermore, the organism needs to be capable of reproducing at a high rate within its environment.

These factors, together with mutations and gene flow can result in an alteration in the ratio of different alleles within the gene pool of a population. As time passes, this shift in allele frequency can result in the development of new traits, and eventually new species.

Many of the features that we admire about animals and plants are adaptations, for example, lungs or gills to extract oxygen from the air, fur or feathers to provide insulation and long legs for running away from predators and camouflage for hiding. To comprehend adaptation, it is important to distinguish between behavioral and physiological traits.

Physical characteristics like the thick fur and gills are physical traits. Behavioral adaptations are not, such as the tendency of animals to seek out companionship or move into the shade during hot temperatures. In addition it is important to note that a lack of forethought does not mean that something is an adaptation. Failure to consider the effects of a behavior, even if it appears to be logical, can make it unadaptive.